OTTAWA – Canada’s largest federal public sector union is preparing to step up its strike by moving pickets to strategic locations such as ports on Monday as both sides continue to accuse each other of miscommunication.

In an interview with The Canadian Press on Sunday, Public Service Alliance of Canada national president Chris Aylward said public servants would need to have more influence over the economy to get Ottawa to come up with a solution.

“We’re trying to set up pickets across the country, in strategic places where the government will be affected, and we’re going to escalate those actions (…), whether it’s in ports across the country or something,” he warned.

“It has very far-reaching implications for Canadians and also for the Canadian economy because of imports and exports being delayed and disrupted,” he added, assuring that union members are “trying to get through this as quickly as possible.”

So far, pickets have been largely confined to government buildings, constituency offices and Parliament Hill.

It has now been five days since one of the largest strikes in Canada took place. More than 100,000 union members lost their jobs on Wednesday after wage talks collapsed after months of negotiations.

Aylward said Ottawa presented a number of proposals on Saturday, to which the union responded later in the day.

He said the government had not responded as of Sunday afternoon. Still, the office of Treasury Department President Mona Fortier says it submitted a second bid at 8:30 p.m. Saturday and is awaiting a response.

“The government recognizes and respects the right of PSAC members to strike,” the minister’s spokeswoman, Monica Granados, wrote in an email.

Mr Aylward later confirmed the government had sent a reply on Saturday night but argued the second proposal did not concern wage negotiations – one of the main issues in the dispute.

Justin Trudeau’s involvement claimed

The union’s three main priorities are wages, teleworking and job security.

“We have reached agreement on some other issues, such as mandatory training against racism and discrimination in the workplace. But no agreement has yet been reached on the three main issues,” he said.

The union is pushing for a 4.5% annual increase for three years, stretching back to 2021. Instead, the Treasury offered the union a 9% increase over three years, on the recommendation of the Public Interest Commission.

According to Mr. Aylward, “The federal government suppresses the wages of its own employees, all it does is suppress the wages of all workers across the country.”

He argued that the escalation of the negotiations showed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needed to be involved in the talks.

“He’s the only one who can really solve some of these key issues at this point,” he said.