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Possible Strike Action by IRCC employees starting mid-April

The Unions are in a striking position as of April 14, 2023. They have 60 days from that date to call a strike (between now and June). And the unions are still at the bargaining table and using the strike position as a bargaining chip. And they have said that they will give 72h notice before they start a strike...

Here is what they are asking:
The union's last public proposal was 4.5 per cent for 2021, 2022, and 2023. The Treasury Board last shared an offer to increase wages by 2.06 per cent on average over four years.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/otta...e-public-service-psac-date-services-1.6809004
https://globalnews.ca/news/9617631/psac-public-service-strike-vote/
(paywall) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-psac-strike-federal-workers/
(archive) https://archive.is/40U05

Opinion Article:
(paywall) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can...l-not-play-well-in-many-parts-of-the-country/
(archive) https://archive.is/WwkoV
 
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firstax said:
The people who did not work for 2 years while being paid full salaries now want to go on strike. Lmao, I should switch from the private sector to a government job.
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Are you suggesting that your citizenship was processed under a year by someone other than the public employees?
 
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zabrodov said:
Are you suggesting that your citizenship was processed under a year by someone other than the public employees?
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Just because they are just picking up the pace that doesn't mean it wasn't slow at some point. There's a reason the processing time is around 23 months. There are lots of people who had to wait around 2 to 3 years for Citizenship while IRCC staff stayed home and got paid. My issue is that they already got a nice bonus of pay without working, yet they are asking for even more stuff. How many private-sector workers have that luxury?
 
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firstax said:
Just because they are just picking up the pace that doesn't mean it wasn't slow at some point. There's a reason the processing time is around 23 months. There are lots of people who had to wait around 2 to 3 years for Citizenship while IRCC staff stayed home and got paid. My issue is that they already got a nice bonus of pay without working, yet they are asking for even more stuff. How many private-sector workers have that luxury?
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Where did you get the information that the government workers didn't work for 2 years?
When the pandemic hit, the direction was to limit the spread of the virus, which translated into remote work. Every government department and agency had to quickly figure out how to make it happen while respecting your right to privacy. IRCC is no exception. It's surprising how quick the transition was for an organization that is not agile by default and that handles protected information, which, in turn, requires a very careful and thought-through approach.
Also IRCC is dependent on other stakeholders: SSC, PSPC, CBSA, CRA, ESDC, RCMP etc. And each of those organizations also had to go through the same transition, while maintaining their mandated operations: CBSA workers still protected the border, CRA handled taxes and handed COVID payments, ESDC provided the means for EI, OAS and other payments etc. All of those operations have been carried out while the departments and agencies were exploring the unknown. IRCC also depends on foreign partners, who were also hit by pandemic and were unable to provide timely response to the requests.

I assume that when people applying for visas/prs/citizenship etc., encountered delays in the processing, they file many ATIP requests (notorious GCMS notes). Do you know that ATIP request is a top priority once you as worker receive one? You have to literally stop doing what you're doing and respond to the request: search for every record pertaining to the request. That also results in the delays because on case officer handles multiple cases. I don't think that private companies are obligated to do that.

I can only imagine the pressure IRCC employees have faced over the pandemic.

I am not comparing which industry had it worse, but I can't agree that the government employees were doing nothing for 2 years while receiving pay.
Just because you don't see the work, doesn't mean that it's not being done. There are many priorities that a government organization handles. And there are many external factors too that impact the speed of the provisioning of the service.
 
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Here I would also advocate we should send email to our processing office to ask if the scheduled oath ceremonies would be canceled if the strike really happens from Wednesday!

Thanks!
 
Hey,
Quick question, if the strike is happening, will that affecting the oath ceremonies? Cant find anything regarding that
 
koiwa528 said:
Here I would also advocate we should send email to our processing office to ask if the scheduled oath ceremonies would be canceled if the strike really happens from Wednesday!

Thanks!
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I read in an article, that the the head of the union said that the strike would only be in some departments (and only in some locations) at the start.

He also said something to the effect that it would start (at first) in departments that don't seriously affect the public.

I don't get the feeling that it would affect IRCC, at least in the beginning. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it won't affect our ceremonies (at least for the foreseeable future).
 
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