Public sector union facing at least three lawsuits from executives it suspended

OTTAWA — Canada’s largest public service union is facing at least three separate lawsuits filed by sidelined executives at its component unions, court documents show.

Two of the three lawsuits involve component union bosses who were suspended after initially supporting a campaign to vote against the tentative labour agreement that was reached between the federal government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) in May 2023.

According to documents filed in Ontario Superior Court, the national executive of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU), one of PSAC’s 15 component unions, voted to campaign against the proposed deal that PSAC had negotiated with the employer.

Two of the CEIU executive members — President Eddy Bourque, and Executive Vice-President Sargy Chima — were accused of initially supporting a motion within their component union to campaign against the proposed labour deal, but then decided that they shouldn’t have taken part in the vote because of their involvement in PSAC.

PSAC accused the pair of breaching the broader union’s constitution, court documents show, and later conducted investigations of their actions. The punishment included suspensions of their PSAC memberships for one and two years respectively, which meant that they couldn’t fulfill their lucrative union executive jobs.

In separate legal actions, Bourque and Chima are each accusing PSAC of negligence and defamation and asking for compensation of more than $1 million apiece and for full reinstatement of their PSAC memberships and their jobs with the component union.

According to a statement of claim filed in June, Chima is accusing PSAC of “malicious, oppressive and high-handed behaviour.”

In the Bourque claim filed a month later, he accuses PSAC’s leadership of “abuse of power” for, among other things, announcing his suspension to members across the country and telling them that they could be disciplined or dismissed if they communicated with him.

The documents also state that his one-year suspension expired in June, but PSAC and CEIU have refused to reinstate him to his office “for no valid, or justified reason” even though his three-year term isn’t supposed to end until September 2026. The court may grant him an interim injunction early in the new year to get reinstated within the union.

Chantal Beaupré, the lawyer representing both Bourque and Chima, wouldn’t comment, instead referring National Post to court documents. PSAC hasn’t responded to numerous requests for comment.

The CEIU, a PSAC component, represents the majority of employees at a number of federal departments, including Service Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada and the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Ottawa-based PSAC represents nearly 240,000 workers across Canada and in other countries who work for the federal government, universities, casinos, community services agencies, Aboriginal communities, airports, and the security sector among others.

In the third case involving a PSAC union component executive suing PSAC, Alisha Kang, who was president of the Union of National Employees (UNE) until being effectively stripped of her role less than two months ago, said in court documents that she was set to expose “significant financial irregularities” and other union problems when she was suspended.

As reported Wednesday in National Post, Kang’s court statements say she would have blown the whistle on “irregularities (that) affected all of PSAC’s activities.”

Those irregularities, according to her claims, included a scheme involving the Alliance Employees’ Union (AEU), which represented UNE staff, and the former national executive of UNE. The documents allege that the AEU filed “spurious or artificially substantiated” classification grievances on behalf of union staff, which were then settled informally by granting “general damages for human rights.”

The AEU responded Thursday by saying that it “vigorously” denies any involvement in financial irregularities at either UNE or AEU. The AEU’s financial statements are audited every year by an external certified professional, the union said.

The union’s statement added that it’s “saddened” by Kang’s actions and “the propagation of false information.”

UNE represents 27,000 members who work for 76 different employers. Their members include foreign service employees, passport officers and other workers across the country and in embassies around the world.

National Post

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.