Walkout at Pearson Building
Posted Jun 6, 2013 04:45:23 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs headquarters emptied out earlier than usual, Thursday, as about 400 workers walked off the job in protest of stalled contract talks.
Four hundred employees staged a mass exodus today from the Pearson Building on Sussex Drive, around 2 p.m.
The exodus is part of a larger movement by foreign service officers; more rotating walkouts are planned over the coming days, involving personnel at 13 missions abroad.
“Including some of our largest ones abroad; London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo – they’re all off the job (today),” said Tim Edwards, president, Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers.
“We’ve also walked out our immigration sections in Delhi and in Beijing, which are the two largest visa processing sections that we maintain abroad,” Edwards told 1310News.
The Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers, which represents about 14 hundred people, says its members are paid $10,000 to $14,000 less than their counterparts who do similar work in other federal departments.
Edwards says the job action will severely impact the pace and the volume of visa approvals and permanent residential application approvals.
