PSAC negotiations to continue

The federal labour board has found low turnout and irregularities of “significant concern” with the strike vote that led more than 100,000 public workers to walk off the job this week. The board found in a decision released Thursday that the Public Service Alliance of Canada failed to properly let members know it had shortened the voting period by eight days, moving the deadline from April 19 to April 11. Only about 35 per cent of members of the bargaining unit, or 38,207 people, actually cast a ballot — and 80 per cent of them were in favour of a strike mandate.  The labour board decided against overturning the vote, finding it was unlikely there would have been a different result even if the union had been more forthcoming with its members. As the third day of the strike came to a close, Mona Fortier, the president of the Treasury Board, said in a tweet this afternoon that negotiations between the union and the federal government would continue into the weekend.