Public-service strike: Union stepping up picketing efforts starting Monday

OTTAWA — Canada’s biggest federal public service union is preparing to ramp up its ongoing strike by moving picket lines to strategic locations such as ports on Monday.

Public Service Alliance of Canada National President Chris Aylward says civil servants don’t want to disrupt Canadians’ lives, but need to further affect the economy to push Ottawa for a solution.

He says that means going beyond office buildings where public servants work to include locations he says will have more impact on the government.

Aylward’s comments, provided in a Sunday interview with The Canadian Press,  come on the fifth day of one of Canada’s largest strikes. More than 100,000 union members walked off the job Wednesday after contract talks broke down following months of negotiations.

Aylward says Ottawa presented a  package on Saturday which the union responded to later that day.

He says the government has not presented anything new as of Sunday afternoon, and the federal Treasury Board could not immediately be reached for confirmation.

Both sides blame each other for a breakdown in communications, with each accusing each other of cherry-picking facts they present to the public to make the other seem unreasonable.