Public service strike: Fortier insists negotiations continue despite 'kicking and screaming' over the weekend

Treasury Board President Mona Fortier insists negotiations between the federal government and the country's largest public service union are ongoing this weekend, despite what she refers to as 'ups and downs' and 'kicking and screaming' over the past couple days.

Treasury Board President Mona Fortier insists negotiations between the federal government and the country’s largest public service union are ongoing this weekend, despite what she refers to as “ups and downs” and “kicking and screaming” over the past couple days.

“We've been in mediation for three weeks, we've been at the table for three weeks,” Fortier told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday. “There have been ups and downs, there has been kicking and screaming, but the important thing right now is that we are focused, and we have a deal that is good for public servants, a fair one, and that is reasonable for Canadians, and that's what we're trying to focus on right now.”

More than 155,000 federal public servants across the country have been on strike since Wednesday — after more than two years of bargaining for a new collective agreement — with salary increases and remote work provisions as the main points of contention.

The federal government has put a nine per cent pay increase over three years on the table, while the union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), is pushing for a 13.5 per cent increase over three years.

Workers are not picketing over the weekend, but the union remains on strike.

PSAC president Chris Aylward told reporters Saturday he wants the prime minister involved in the talks, because the union had not heard back from the Treasury Board after presenting the committee with a “comprehensive package” two days prior.

“This is a complete demonstration of the incompetence of minister (Fortier) in this position to allow these negotiations to drag out this long," Aylward said. "I need to see the prime minister getting involved in these negotiations, and helping and assisting to move these negotiations along.”