Lifetime ban blocks local president from re-election bid in PSAC’s latest internal battle

OTTAWA — The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has issued a lifetime ban against one of its own local presidents just days before he planned to run to keep his job, marking the latest battle between the country’s largest public sector union and one of its own.

In an Aug. 11 letter obtained by National Post, PSAC National President Sharon DeSousa wrote to Theo Lagakos, president of a local that represents more than 1,200 workers at a popular Toronto casino, to say that he had been retroactively banned for life from PSAC due to “a concerning pattern of repeated and targetted behaviour against the complainant.”

The letter doesn’t identify a complainant nor specify the precise accusations against Lagakos, long-time president of Local 533, but quotes from a section of the union’s constitution that includes such infractions as circulating “false reports” among members and disturbing meetings.

The ban means that, as a non-member of the union, Lagakos is no longer eligible to run in union elections this Friday to keep his job. That could open the door for someone more in line with PSAC’s executive team to get the local’s top job.

Lagakos said the ban came a year after his local was put into trusteeship by the parent union, effectively shutting down the local’s power and ability to serve its members. He said he doesn’t know what he’s been accused of, but that both disciplinary measures against he and his local follow their decision to consider presenting members with the option of aligning with the Union of National Employees (UNE), a component group within PSAC, instead of directly under PSAC.

If members had voted to be under UNE, it would have meant that PSAC would have had to share union dues with the component union, an annual loss to PSAC of an estimated $200,000. It also could have tilted the balance of political power within PSAC away from its current executive team.

The trusteeship issue is now before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Lagakos and his local, which represents employees at The Great Canadian Toronto Resort, formerly known as Casino Woodbine, provided testimony last week. PSAC officials will offer testimony in September.

Lagakos said his dispute with PSAC is about principle as much as anything else. “This is a battle for transparency,” he said. “This is a battle for real democracy.”

In many cases, there’s also a financial incentive for union executives — both within the parent organization and the components — to keep their jobs. The high-ranking union jobs often pay up to two or three times more than the government or private sector positions that the executives used to have.

The battle between PSAC and Local 533 marks the latest dispute between PSAC, which represents nearly 240,000 workers across Canada and in other countries, and one of its own component units or locals.

Harun Jasarevic, a PSAC spokesperson, said the union doesn’t generally comment on internal matters. PSAC has also declined to comment about other cases between the union and its components.

Those other cases, as many as a handful, also involve accusations that PSAC has been trying to sideline or punish those who lead locals or one of its 15 component unions if they challenge PSAC leadership.

In one case, Alisha Kang, who was UNE president until being effectively stripped of her role last fall, said in court documents that that she was set to expose “significant financial irregularities” and other union problems before being suspended.

Those irregularities, according to Kang’s claims, included a scheme involving union staff making “spurious or artificially substantiated” classification grievances, which were then settled informally by granting “general damages for human rights.”

In two other cases involving sidelined component executives, the tension can be traced back to the union’s negotiations with the federal government in 2023. At that time, some component executives initially decided to support a campaign to vote against a tentative deal because they wanted stronger provisions for members to work from home.

PSAC responded to the ”no” campaign by suspending the component union bosses. The ensuing punishment in that case also included suspensions of their PSAC memberships, which meant that they could no longer do their union jobs.

Larry Savage, a labour studies specialist at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. , said tension within a large union is not unusual, especially one that represents diverse interests such as PSAC.

Larger unions have the advantage of more power, Prof. Savage said, but also have the greater challenge of trying to democratically manage a range of interests.

“Solidarity doesn’t mean that every member has identical priorities.”

PSAC members work for the federal government, universities, casinos, community services agencies, Aboriginal communities, airports, and the security sector among others. According to PSAC’s 2024 audited financial statements, the union had a total budget that year of 172.8-million, the vast majority of which ($164.4-million) was derived from membership dues.

National Post