Possible Strike Action by IRCC employees starting mid-April

[Gucheelady]

this is a general thread on strike action, but unfortunately it as been taken over by people complaining about cancelled oath ceremonies and these people don't care about anybody but themselves. They certainly don't care about people who have applications stuck for 2 years+ and how the strike will effect the bscklog.

I’m not sure I’m understanding this comment correctly… Because I wrote about my cancelled ceremony here, but I’ve also been waiting for my application to be processed for 19 months now.

 

[irinaaas11]

I definitely feel bad that your application was stuck in progress for over 2 years. That being said, your post did not indicate anywhere that everyone should be treated equally. You mentioned that people who are waiting for oath are hijacking this thread and that they don't care about applicants who have their applications pending for 2+ years. Yes, we all feel bad for such applicants! But your post indicated that we all should stop worrying about our own applications no matter which stage it is at and only worry about those in backlog. How is that even possible or realistic? Before calling others idiots, read what you posted.

He posted in another thread that he applied in May 2022, AOR in June 2022. If my math is correct, that's (almost) 1 year.

 

[yyzstudent]

They got a good break when they stayed home for 2 years and got full wages, and benefits, and did not lose their jobs while the private sector did not get the same. They are also asking to work from home permanently while also wanting their wages increased with other ridiculous demands that if passed would force the government to increase already high taxes to pay for them. Has anyone seen the debt the country is in right now?

You do know they were reallocated to deal with Cerb, right?

 

[yyzstudent]

Not only is it a pay hike they want, and quite a good one. They want to be able to work from home.

Think about it for a minute. Do we really want them to work on sensitive files, containing personal information, which could be severely damaging for an individual, if it ends up in the wrong hands, and do this from home? Sure, highly secured VPNs etc but who says other people could be there and access these files. Be it CRA or IRCC working on my stuff.

I’m certainly not OK with it.

It seems to be their big ticket item that they can’t get through, but is a deal breaker in negotiations.

 

[FlavouredSyrup]

Not only is it a pay hike they want, and quite a good one. They want to be able to work from home.

Think about it for a minute. Do we really want them to work on sensitive files, containing personal information, which could be severely damaging for an individual, if it ends up in the wrong hands, and do this from home? Sure, highly secured VPNs etc but who says other people could be there and access these files. Be it CRA or IRCC.

I’m certainly not OK with it.

It seems to be their big ticket item that they can’t get through, but is a deal breaker in negotiations.

Totally agreed!

 

[bafonso]

Interesting read for those wanting to be fully informed beyond one liners https://pressprogress.ca/federal-public-sector-workers-wages-no-better-now-than-in-2007-new-report-shows/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=↗️+Federal+worker+wages+no+better+than+2007&utm_campaign=April+22,+2023

 

[bafonso]

They got a good break when they stayed home for 2 years and got full wages, and benefits, and did not lose their jobs while the private sector did not get the same. They are also asking to work from home permanently while also wanting their wages increased with other ridiculous demands that if passed would force the government to increase already high taxes to pay for them. Has anyone seen the debt the country is in right now?

Working from home has seen productivity increases for many in the public sector, how is that bad use of tax dollars?

 

[yyzstudent]

Working from home has seen productivity increases for many in the public sector, how is that bad use of tax dollars?

What about protection of privacy on highly sensitive files processed by CRA, IRCC, et al?

 

[bafonso]

What about protection of privacy on highly sensitive files processed by CRA, IRCC, et al?

My friend, we live in a world where people can work securely in sensitive data from anywhere in Canada. You cannot work on secret files. Not everyone can work from home, it depends on your job. The union is not asking for making everyone work from home, what they are asking is to allow management to decide on how to run their own teams more efficiently without a blank mandate of work from office 2-3 days a week.

 

[johnjkjk]

On my end I can technically renew my passport but will require that I be in my home country to finish military papers and then apply for a new passport which would take more than 1 month and would cause me troubles with my company so not sure if worth giving it a shot and try to see if they will accept

If you can renew your passport, you can’t apply for urgent processing.

 

[yyzstudent]

My friend, we live in a world where people can work securely in sensitive data from anywhere in Canada. You cannot work on secret files. Not everyone can work from home, it depends on your job. The union is not asking for making everyone work from home, what they are asking is to allow management to decide on how to run their own teams more efficiently without a blank mandate of work from office 2-3 days a week.

I do know that you can protect the digital aspect of it but you can’t protect it from physical tying eyes. (I’m not completely lost on internet security).

In the press conferences I’ve seen they’ve talked about staff working from home 2-3 days a week, or more.

 

[johnjkjk]

"Oath ceremonies will be rescheduled pretty quickly. As soon as a week or two." - is there an official statement from IRCC confirming this? If not, it's just YOUR speculation which is equal to zero at this point in time. NO ONE knows WHEN they'll be rescheduled, it can be 2 weeks, 2 months, 10 months, or 2 years. Have you considered that maybe some of those that were scheduled for the ceremony this last and upcoming week are part of that backlog as well? They're not just applicants from 2022.

Yes, the oath is administered by a judge that is (probably) not on strike but the officers that oversee the ceremonies are on strike, so there's nothing we can do at this point. We have zero power over this whole process and fighting and blaming each other for something that is outside our control on this forum is absolutely useless. Calling each other names just because we vent and express our frustration here doesn't lead to anything. It also doesn't make us entitled. We are all angry at IRCC and the government, that's the thing we have in common. It's not my fault or yours that IRCC decided to prioritize 2022 applications over 2020 or 2021 ones. It's not fair and we all agree to this but it's IRCC's decision and ultimately we are at their mercy, unfortunately.

Nobody’s calling anyone names. But the oath situation is being blown out of proportion. People need to calm down and wait for the strike to end. Oaths will be rescheduled relatively quickly. This is because invitations aren't sent out more than a month in advance. So currently nobody has an oath for June. People need to relax. And those who need urgent oath can certainly apply for it when the time comes.

 

[oboyzee]

I'm sure people who got thier oath canceled due to the ongoing strike will definitely get a backline oath ceremony reschedule when the strike is off.

 

[shiremag]

The Globe and Mail: PSAC Ramping up strike action on Monday
(paywall): https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-public-service-strike-union-stepping-up-picketing-efforts-starting/
(archive): https://archive.is/UmUsu

 

[Cece450]

I'm sure people who got thier oath canceled due to the ongoing strike will definitely get a backline oath ceremony reschedule when the strike is off.

You can't be sure of that because you don't know that for a fact. Even if someone on the "inside" may have given you that information, that still doesn't make it fact. We have never had a strike like this before where immigration was affected in this way, because even with the pandemic, ceremonies were simply moved virtually. We wont know how things will proceed once the strike is over, and even the officers won't know how ceremonies or other processing files will be prioritized until they receive direction and do an inventory.