The whole world knew what happened in Canada last year when truckers took to the street. Bitcoin was flowing like champagne as part of the solidarity from all around the world. It is now marked in history books as I saw a car sign yesterday with a slogan #trucktruedXau.
Not similar in size and principle but another major strike started this week which involved the federal government workers' union. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) that represents 150,000 federal employees went on a strike yesterday. Today is the second day of the strike. The strike impacted almost all services provided by the federal government.
This has to be the largest strike since 2004. Unions are supposed to work for the workers' benefit as part of the democratic rights and freedom principles. Members are hoping for a major deal to improve their financial status. Almost 15 of the government departments were impacted by the strike.
What's behind the strike?
INFLATION is the right answer. We all know how inflation has changed the way we spend our money. The federal workers are asking for a raise in their salary to match the worsening living conditions impacted by increased inflation.
This is also about coming up with a fair "remote work" structure. Workers do not want to go in-person all week like before. Things are changing and they want it to solidify in writing with the bargain.
What's the demand?
The Unions is asking for 4.5% salary increase annually for 2021, 2022 and 2023. The government offered a total of around 9% increase for those three years. Members are calling for a fair deal. The previous agreement expired in 2021 and they have been negotiating with the government ever since. Unions are calling on the government to increase the wage based on the price increase in the last three years. The Government is hesitant to increase the salary because that would entail demand from other sectors. The public sector recently received a wage increase, but this strike includes members of the other industrial sectors as well.
In a way, that is right to give the rise in prices in the last three years.
This strike is not at all similar to the Truckers' strike.
The general public does not seem to support the rally as the strike came right during the tax season. This is viewed by the general public, as reports are saying, to be opportunistic even with a greater wage than the workers in other sectors.
The public sector is always blamed for being spoilt ones who don't work as much as workers in other sectors. These are all public assumptions, but the federal workers are making 54000 on average. That is not a lot of money considering the rise in prices lately.
I am not sure where I stand on this strike, but I am seeing the impact of inflation calling out for many more strikes like this going forward.
The strikers may not have the support of the federal public, but this could be a historic moment for all workers in the country. The wage increase here could have a domino effect for workers in provinces and in the private sector where the impact of inflation is huge.
The Big Impact
The strike will impact the government services and will create massive backlogs in immigration and visa applications, tax applications and many other services the public is supposed to receive. The workers are enthusiastic about the wage increase. Let's see how long this strike will be. I think the government will not take chances to have the striking workers out on the street for long. It is not good optics for the Trudeau government. The opposition must be licking the lips as this is another blow to the liberal government which is looked at as "not good" with economic decisions. That was evident when the government distributed free money during the pandemic and is still doing it in the name of sales tax returns.
This is an interesting space for me to remain updated. Since I am in crypto space, I am looking to see if this is the implosion in the current system, we all keep talking about. It may or may not be the implosion but demonstrates the problem we are having with our current system. There is no direct impact of this event on the crypto sector- yet.