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Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) national president Chris Aylward will not be running for re-election later this month as the union enters a busy season, campaigning for the government to reverse its newly-updated telework mandate and facing a potential strike of over 9,000 border services workers, according to a member his union executive.
The votes for the union’s new leaders will take place at the 2024 PSAC National Triennial Convention, running from May 26 to 31 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
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Sharon DeSousa, PSAC’s national executive vice president, is running for the position of president. Alex Silas, regional executive vice president for the National Capital Region, is running for DeSousa’s current role.
Both candidates remain uncontested at this time, DeSousa and Silas confirmed, though any member in good standing can be nominated and seconded right up until the time of the election.
“It’s still early on,” said DeSousa. “Any member can run from the floor. It’s an exciting time to be alive.”
DeSousa said she’s “quite excited” to be running for the position of national president, noting that the election will take place on Thursday, May 30. There are just under 600 delegates to the national convention who will be participating in the votes.
“I started as a young worker getting involved in the union in my 20s and I never thought I would be in this position to move to different elected positions and present myself for the position of president, but here I am,” she said.
If selected for the role, DeSousa said she plans to focus on ensuring members work in a healthy and safe work environment and that they have work-life balance.
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Aylward took on the union head role in 2018. Prior to being national president, he was PSAC’s national executive vice-president. He first became involved with the union working as a shop steward with the Union of Taxation Employees Local 90000 at the St. John’s Taxation Centre.
This newspaper reached out to Aylward, who declined to comment.
“Chris is stepping down,” Silas said. “He has been the national president for six years. That’s gonna leave a big hole.”
Two of Silas’ priorities in the new role would be to be accessible to members, finding new ways to engage and communicate with members, and fight for inclusive discrimination-free workplaces.
“Let’s keep in mind PSAC also represents a lot of blue-collar workers, but then we also represent this huge portion of membership that’s in the federal public service that had to transition to telework,” he said. “Pushing for a new standard on remote work, it’s not just something our members want, it’s a better way of working, it’s a better way of providing services to Canadians.”
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