Today, approximately 800,000 US federal public service workers will not get paid because of President Trump’s forced, and reckless government shutdown. PSAC President Chris Aylward extended our Union’s solidarity with all Americans during this difficult crisis.  

J. David Cox
President, American Federation of Government Employees
80 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Dear President Cox,

On behalf of the membership of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Canada’s largest federal government union, I extend solidarity to your members, and to all US federal employees, in the face of the US government shutdown.

Many of your members have been deemed essential workers and are working without pay; others have been forced to take unpaid leave. Tomorrow will mark the first government payday without pay. It is a devastating situation for US federal workers, but also for US citizens who depend on the services your members deliver. It is a situation that has been forced on your country by a reckless US President who is holding your members and the public service hostage in order to fund a border wall that will cause even further violation of rights, violence and division.

Our union has special sympathy for the plight of your members because our members who work for Canada’s federal public service have been been suffering the consequences of a botched payroll system for the past three years.  They have experienced a myriad of pay problems including missed paychecks or the wrong pay, and incorrect calculations of entitlements and benefits.  Our members know what it means to have no income; they know the hardship of economic and job insecurity. 

The stories we have read in the media about the suffering and anguish caused by the shutdown are familiarly heart-wrenching. Yet we are also inspired by the coming together of US federal employees; by your quick and strong action to push hard for a resolution to the nightmare. We congratulate you and the American Federation of Government Employees for your exemplary leadership in the fightback. We thank you for standing up for public services, workers’ rights, and democracy.

In solidarity,

Chris Aylward
National President
Public Service Alliance of Canada