OTTAWA, Canada – A third of Canada’s public servants set up pickets at hundreds of sites across the country Wednesday demanding cost-of-living raises and telework flexibility in one of the largest strikes in the nation’s history.
After months of negotiating with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) said it had failed to reach a deal by the deadline it had set for late Tuesday.
More than 155,000 public servants went on what their union termed a “historic strike,” hitting picket lines at more than 250 locations across the country, blowing whistles and waving placards that read “Support the public service” and “Stop outsourcing.”
Canada last saw a strike of this size in 1991.
“It’s no secret that life is expensive and it’s important that wages reflect the value of our work,” said Pierre, a 32-year-old government worker in Montreal who declined to give his last name.
