Divided We Fall

In 1907, the Civil Service Association of Ottawa (CSAO) enlisted all employees in the capital. The Civil Service Federation (CSF) enveloped the CSAO and several independent departmental and regional associations two years later. For a brief period, government employees were quite unified.

In 1920, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada organized the professional, scientific and technical workers. Competition for members intensified even further three years later, when the Amalgamated Civil Servants of Canada embraced a group of postal employees in Western Canada.

The trend for national departmental organizations intensified in the late forties and early fifties. They naturally wanted to recruit Ottawa public employees but were prevented by the CSAO, which had claimed jurisdiction in the capital since 1907. It was inevitable that a dispute would develop, and it came to a head in 1953 at the Federation convention in Quebec City.

That convention gave the national departmental associations jurisdiction over public employees in Ottawa. The decision was not acceptable to the CSAO, and it seceded from the Federation early in 1954. The CSAO withdrawal meant an immediate loss of 5500 members to the Federation. But the setback was only temporary.

Over the next five years, Federation membership doubled, indicating that the interdepartmental organization in Ottawa had restricted the growth of staff association membership by holding back the aggressive development of the nationals. Ironically the CSAO doubled its membership as well. Recruitment may have been going well, but the government union movement was more divided than ever. Most Defence employees resided in the National Defence Employees Association, but a significant number were CSAO. It was obvious that the situation was just not tenable!