The union and a spokeswoman for Treasury Department President Mona Fortier confirmed there had been a new offer, a first sign of progress since the union’s talks stalled on Wednesday.

spokesman for M^Me Fortier, Monica Granados called it a “global offering” but gave no further details.

In a written statement, the union confirmed it had received the offer when talks resumed on Friday.

“We hope to continue negotiations this weekend to reach a fair agreement,” the statement said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday the government was making “serious offers” to end the strike by the largest public sector union.

More than 100,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada walked out on April 19, and talks have been ongoing ever since.

The collective agreements affect a total of 155,000 federal employees, but the government has considered about 46,000 of them to be essential workers who do not participate in labor measures.

The PSAC collective agreements expire in 2021.

Earlier this week, PSAC national president Chris Aylward said he wanted Trudeau to be directly involved in negotiations, which he says have reached an impasse because the government has given a 9% pay rise over three years since he last offered it had no more movement.

Trudeau, who was in New York this week on a trade-related visit, said he was involved in the negotiations.

“I was involved in the negotiation strategies from the start, in the commitment that we have at the negotiating table,” he said in response to a journalist’s question at a press conference.

He was convinced that the strike could be ended by a negotiated agreement. The government could end the strike with a return-to-work law, but Liberal ministers refused to answer even a question about the use of such a tool.

“I have faith in the negotiation process. We will continue to monitor it, Mr. Trudeau said. We know that our negotiators make serious offers. »

In a Twitter post Friday morning, Treasury Department President Mona Fortier said the two sides were speaking at the negotiating table.

“The government is keen to negotiate a fair, competitive and reasonable deal,” she said.

The last wage offer released by the government was to be backdated to 2021, with a 1.5% increase this year, followed by a 4.5% increase in 2022 and a further 3% in 2024.

M^Me Fortier has said repeatedly that this is the salary offer recommended by the Public Interest Commission, a committee set up last year by the federal government on industrial relations and public sector employment to help the two parties reach an agreement .

The union originally called for 13.5% for the same period and although it says it has adjusted that requirement, it has not specified what the new proposal is.

Early Friday, pickets in downtown Ottawa were a little thinner than earlier in the week as union members flooded the Parliamentary District to increase the direct impact of the strike.

A handful of workers stayed outside the doors of many federal office buildings, limiting entry to one person every five minutes.

But a larger rally was held on one of the bridges that cross the Ottawa River to Gatineau, Que., where PSAC members also marked National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job.

“We’re taking the bridge,” chanted a large group of strikers as they crossed it.

Strikers gathered outside the Service Canada building on Place de la Cité in Sherbrooke early Friday morning to board buses bound for the Stanstead border crossing in Estrie to demonstrate on the tenth day of their withdrawal.

This small Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) post, open 24 hours a day, allows you to cross the few yards that separate Stanstead from the Vermont community of Derby Line.

This demonstration was to be less impressive than the day before, when many striking union members demonstrated near the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing in Montérégie, which is normally one of the busiest in Canada. Several Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police officers were also at the scene; They formed a human barrier that restricted the protesters’ movements.

Salaries and Telecommuting

Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada began their tenth day of strikes on Friday. The industrial action affects some 155,000 workers, about a third of the entire federal civil service, including 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) workers, who negotiate their collective bargaining agreements separately.

Negotiations to date have failed to find common ground on issues such as salary increases and teleworking.

M^Me Fortier said in an open letter earlier this week that she offered to conduct a joint review of teleworking policy with unions.

Jennifer Carr, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said it’s a good start, but it’s not enough.

“We need a binding commitment in a collective agreement because we have seen too many cases where the employer has abandoned its commitments or ignored the process after signing a memorandum of understanding with us,” she explained.

M^Me Carr claimed the government’s consultation on the back-to-office policy was “appalling” and fell short of even the advice of the government’s own advisers.

As the strike continues, Canadians are facing a variety of disruptions to federal services, including the inability to process immigration and passport applications.