Press Release — Chalk River Professional Employees Group Ratify Three-Year Contract After a Year-Long Bargaining; Strike Averted

CHALK RIVER, March 25, 2022 – The Chalk River Professional Employees Group (CRPEG), represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) reached a deal and voted in favour of a new collective agreement with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL).

The three-year collective agreement resolves a year-long impasse over pay, job outsourcing, and working conditions. The new contract provides a wage increase of 3.5% in each year and new remote working terms and conditions.

CRPEG President Jonathan Fitzpatrick said that “This agreement would not have been possible with the strong support of our members. We have been without a collective agreement since January 2021 and last month, members had given us the strongest mandate for job action – including a strike – in the history of the Chalk River Professional Employees Group.”

CRPEG represents more than 660 engineers and scientists at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ Chalk River campus, ensuring the safe operation of nuclear reactors, and supporting safe radioactive waste management and environmental remediation projects across Canada. CRPEG members contribute to the health of Canadians through research on nuclear medicine. 

Jennifer Carr, the President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) congratulated both parties and extended her thanks to each and every member of the CRPEG group on this new agreement. 

With over 60,000 members, PIPSC is the largest union in Canada representing scientists and professionals employed at the federal and some provincial and territorial levels of government.

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For more information: Johanne Fillion, 613-883-4900 (mobile), jfillion@pipsc.ca