Alliance de la Fonction publique du Canada

When he agreed to teach a course on social movements at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) in fall 2020, Luc Chicoine had a feeling he would be doing it from home.

“When I teach, I try to be close to my students, to create a conversation. My biggest fear was ending up just talking to myself.”

The lecturer and PSAC member had to adapt to make sure both he and his students enjoyed the experience. He decided to film his lessons in a classroom at the university. “It gave me a routine and technological support. It took a lot of pressure off.”

Daniela Aubichon never thought of herself as a precarious worker until the pandemic completely upended her life. She worked at Casino Regina for 21 years before suddenly getting laid off when lockdowns shut down businesses across Canada in March of 2020.

“It was a stable job,” she said. “Now I’m playing roulette with bills.” 

Aubichon is trying to make ends meet on Employment Insurance, but it hasn’t been easy. She now must cover the costs of her own prescription medication, as her health benefits have expired. 

During a typical organizing campaign, you might find Alex Bailey walking through a university campus to meet with workers or to sit down for a chat over coffee with potential members about the benefits of joining a union. That was before March 2020, when Covid-19 suddenly put an end to public gatherings.

PSAC organizers, like Alex in the Atlantic region, had to quickly adapt once the pandemic hit. Their work didn’t simply disappear. In fact, organizers got more calls from workers who were facing worse conditions during the pandemic and wanted the help of a union.  

The class action lawsuit against the Canadian federal government alleging systemic discrimination in its hiring and promotional practices continues to gain momentum as more current and former employees add their names to the historic legal action. 

The lawsuit reaches back 50 years, accusing the federal government of Black employee exclusion: the systemic practice of limiting skilled Black workers from career advancement opportunities and being disproportionally underrepresented in management and high-ranking positions in the federal public service. 

To build truly diverse and inclusive workplaces, we need to rethink how we hire and promote workers to create a staffing process that’s inherently free of biases and systemic barriers.