The workforce of Canada started to cripple after 155,000 federal workers went on strike after their union failed to reach to a consensus with the Justin Trudeau government over minimum ages and work-from-home guarantees. For the unversed, Canada is witnessing one of the biggest strikes in three decades with one-third of the federal workforce on a strike. Slowly and steadily the Canadian federal workers' strike has started to creep into various sectors including tax fillings to passport renewals. The massive Canadian federal workers' protest has also prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take swift action as he has called his authorities to come out with swift resolutions in order to end the strike which is also started to cripple the economy. Now, the question arises what is Canada's federal workers' protest and what actually are they demanding?
What is Canada's federal workers' protest?
As reported by the BBC, the Canadian federal workers' protest began last Wednesday when the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the union representing Canadian federal workers "exhausted every other avenue to reach a fair contract" with government negotiators. As per PSAC, an "overwhelming majority" of its membership voted in favour of a strike mandate and hence the massive protest went ahead. Now, the question arises what are the demands of the federal workers, and why there is a deadlock between the union and the government negotiators To know the answer continued reading-
As per reports, federal workers are demanding a series of pay hikes to keep up with the increasing rate of inflation which Canada and the world are witnessing. There are two main federal workers' groups- 120,000 workers under Canada's Treasury Board and approximately 35,000 working for the tax agency, as reported by British media. It is pertinent to mention here that the government offered a 9% wage increase over three years, but the union asked for a higher increase over the same period.
WORK-FROM-HOME ISSUE
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Apart from wage increase, one major demand is the guarantee of work from home. Despite the fact that the Treasury Board has asked public servants to return to the office at least two days a week, the union has put forward a demand that the government guarantees for working remotely or simply work from home. Notably, BBC quoted Canadian government which in its official statement stated that it had done everything in its reach to strike a deal and stop disrupting of services on which a common Canadian reply upon including offering proposals on work-from-home, improved family leave with pay and measures to support diversity and inclusion in the public sector. However, the parties failed to reach an agreement.
Interestingly, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has started to feel the heat as well as he stated that he totally supports the right to protest, however, "Canadians will lose patience if it drags on". It is pertinent to mention here that Trudeau last faced Truckers' Protest which he dealt with aggressively. He had to declare an emergency in or der to curb the dissent.