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After the Canadian Public Service Alliance began just the third strike in its history this week, I discovered that many of its members refused to tell me why they were walking the picket line. Not because he disagrees with labor actions, but more because he believes other Canadians treat government employees poorly.
To paraphrase, the strikers are concerned about the lack of public support for the union’s 155,000 members, and the public perception that they have large salaries, pensions and benefits.
Like most stereotypes, this one doesn’t sit well with the majority of government workers. But regardless of whether Canada supports the walkout, the country is stuck with it.
[Read: Canada’s Federal Workers Strike Over R.T.O. and Pay]
As I write this on Friday, union members have been out for three days, and the country has yet to collapse. In part because about 44,000 union members were declared essential workers and must remain on the job. But it also has to do with the structure of Canada. Most of the government services that Canadians trust most – health care, education, highways – are the responsibility of provincial governments.
While the current strike may make it difficult for those who need new passports to travel in the future, it has created a sliver of the country’s population. And while most states will be affected by the slowdown in mail-in tax return processing, it’s more of a minor irritation than a crisis.
I have learned from covering many private and public sector strikes that what both sides say publicly about labor disputes and what happens in negotiations or mediation are often very different. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet members were at odds over the status of negotiations during the first day of the strike.
But it was clear from the union members I spoke to that there were two big problems in everything else: wage increases to keep up with inflation, and the program to return to government offices.
Starting March 31, federal public officials are required to appear at work two or three days per week. Like workers in similar situations in the private sector, many struggle to find suitable childcare arrangements, while others have no desire to return to commuting. And some of the strikers told me that they didn’t even know they were in the office anymore. This is especially true for those who say that the person they work with is in another city. So for him, going back to the office means just holding online meetings from a different desk.
The federal government, of course, isn’t the only employer struggling to get people back to work. Emma Goldberg, my friend who covers the future of work, recently wrote about a group of special consultants that some employers are using to lure employees back to their desks.
Emma’s article, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine, should be read in its entirety. But there is one thing that I do like about the advice offered by this “RTO Whisperer”. As Emma writes, “You shouldn’t force people to change their schedule – but sometimes you can change their minds.”
[Read: The R.T.O. Whisperers Have a Plan]
As members walked out, Chris Aylward, president of the federal union, described the strike as a fight for all Canadians hit by the new inflation, which in turn led to higher interest rates.
Mr. Trudeau and his cabinet, however, have argued that current price increases, especially for food, are now waning. That’s the assessment shared by, among others, the authors of the Bank of Canada’s monthly monetary policy report. Statistics Canada reported that last month, inflation was at 4.3 percent. But a Bank of Canada report expects that rate to drop to 3 percent by midyear and reach 2 percent by the end of 2023 — the bank’s target rate.
The government said this week it was offering a cumulative 9 percent wage increase to be spread over three years. For most members, the union wants a 13.5 percent raise at the same time. And the branch of the union that includes workers at the Canada Revenue Agency is seeking a 22.5 per cent increase over three years.
“What governments and unions are doing is anticipating and guessing where inflation is,” David Green, a professor of labor economics at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, told me in an email. The government’s offer, about 3 percent per year, he said, “is close to where many forecast inflation in the next few years, but may be lower than inflation in the first year of the contract.”
Trans Canada
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“Heart on My Sleeve,” a song apparently created using AI imitations of the voices of Drake and the Weeknd, two of the most famous Canadian musicians on the planet, was quickly stamped out by the record company. But Joe Coscarelli reports that it has raised many legal and creative questions.
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On Monday afternoon, a special container, approximately five to six square feet, was taken off the plane at Toronto’s international airport. Inside was more than 20 million Canadian dollars in gold and other valuables. It has not been seen since.
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Canada and Ontario have persuaded Volkswagen to build the first battery factory in North America. But success comes at a very high price.
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Kurt Streeter, who writes the Sports column of The Times, came to watch the Vancouver Canadians, Canada’s last minor league team affiliated with Major League Baseball, play at home. “It felt like heaven,” he wrote.
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The Toronto Blue Jays ended the Tampa Bay Rays’ winning streak, the longest to open a season in three decades.
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For the culture issue of T Magazine, Margaret Atwood and Mona Awad meet for the first time and discuss writing.
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Keith Johnstone, whose Loose Moose Theater Company became an institution in Calgary, has died at 90. Neil Genzlinger writes that Mr. Johnstone spent his career “preaching the gospel of improvisation, developing games, training and showing life as opposed to tightly scripted theater.” He added that Mr. Johnstone’s “1979” book, ‘Impro: Improvisation and Theatre,’ is one of the most widely used texts in the world of improvisational theatre.
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen studied in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported on Canada for The New York Times for the past 16 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten.
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