PSAC suspends membership of former public service union president for five years

Canada’s largest federal public service union has suspended the membership of a leader it ousted last fall, according to an internal email.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) suspended the membership of Alisha Kang, the former president of the Union of National Employees (UNE), for five years, according to the email obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

Dominic Lavoie, a vice-president with PSAC’s national executive, said in the Aug. 7 email to UNE staff that the suspension was being taken by PSAC’s national board of directors “following a complaint and investigation.”

UNE represents about 27,000 workers and is one of 15 components of PSAC, which is a larger umbrella union.

Last October, PSAC’s board took the drastic move of putting the UNE under a trusteeship, a mechanism that allowed the larger union to take control of the smaller one. Complaints about Kang’s leadership were among the reasons cited by PSAC for the move, according to a letter sent to Kang by PSAC president Sharon DeSousa.

The letter also listed membership complaints over “a lack of support, response and representation by UNE,” as well as “significant staff turnover.”

Kang was removed from her position as president and Lavoie is now serving as trustee administrator.

In the months leading up to the UNE being put in trusteeship, the union struggled to represent members who had filed complaints with the federal labour board against the government. The Ottawa Citizen reported that national labour relations officers started departing the UNE in early 2025, and that by April, there were only two active such officers working at the union, which had previously employed eight.

Labour relations officers help workers with grievances they file against their employers.