Last Wednesday, a third of Canadian public servants went on strike to demand pay rises and more telework opportunities, in what is considered one of the most significant social movements in decades. La Alianza de la Función Pública de Canadá (AFPC) announced that, after negotiations with the government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, no lograron llegar a acuerdo y procedieron a la huelga con 150 points de concentration de trabajadores en todo el Country.

The PSAC is calling for a 13.5% wage increase over three years to offset inflation, which reached 8.1% last year in Canada. However, the government is only offering a 9% raise, which has sparked discontent among workers. In addition, employees are also demanding greater flexibility in teleworking. Most of them have been working from home full-time since the pandemic began, and they don’t want to be forced to work two or three days a week in the office.

The strike mainly affects the passport delivery, immigration and tax services, as well as some of the grain inspectors at the ports. PSAC President Chris Aylward says they have exhausted all mechanisms to reach a fair contract and will continue to strike until the government resolves its main issues at the bargaining table. This is the largest strike movement in Canada since 1991.

Prime Minister Trudeau supports the right to strike, but has also expressed concerns about the length of the bargaining process. In this sense, he urged the unions to return to the negotiating table and indicated that Canadians risk losing patience if the process drags on too long.

The PSAC sees its struggle as that of all workers in Canada, since the federal government is the largest employer in the country. The workers insist that life is becoming more expensive and that the public service is part of the collective wealth and must not be degraded. In addition, they claim to have adapted their life to telework and do not want to waste two hours a day in transport.

In conclusion, Canadian civil servants have gone on strike to demand wage increases and more telework. The strike mainly affects the passport, immigration and tax services, and is considered one of the most important social mobilizations in decades in the country. The government and the unions continue negotiations while the workers maintain their protest.