As PSAC strike drags on, experts say Canadians should prep for more labour unrest

As a strike by Canada's largest public sector union drags on, experts say Canadians should expect more and more labour unrest this year as workers use the sudden leverage to claw back the inflationary hit they took in the pandemic.

Last week, more than 150,000 civil servants represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) walked off the job, slowing government services ranging from immigration, citizenship, passport, licensing and tax services to a glacial pace.

After meeting in the middle on hundreds of lesser issues, the two sides remain far apart on the major issue that tends to bog down most labour disputes: compensation.

It's a major sticking point. The federal government has offered a nine per cent raise spread out over three years, a move that negotiators say would add $6,250 to the pocket of the average worker.

The union, meanwhile, says the majority of its members make less than $70,000 a year, and is requesting a 13.5 per cent raise over the same time period. PSAC workers have been working without a contract since 2021, and the union says the cost of living in that time frame has risen by more than the pay bumps they're asking for.

Crofton Steers is among those who thinks the union's demands are fair. A communications manager with the federal government, the Ottawa resident says his family is in the same inflationary boat as everyone else, and the amount of money he has available to pay his bills every month has declined since the pandemic, even as the size of the bills has increased.

"We're not looking for a big increase in salary, we're just looking to keep pace," he told CBC News in an interview. "My grocery bill goes up [but] I have the 2019 amount of money to pay for it, and ... you start feeling that it's death by 1,000 cuts."

After plummeting in the early days of the pandemic due to reduced demand for goods and services, inflation came roaring back starting in 2021, peaking at more than eight per cent last summer.

Policy makers at the Bank of Canada quickly hiked interest rates to slay the inflationary dragon, and with the rate having fallen by almost half from its peak, that strategy appears to be working.

As recently as last week, however, central bank governor Tiff Macklem was warning that the battle isn't over, and urging restraint on demands for wage gains that threaten to bake-in inflation to come.

But that request isn't resonating with workers like Steers and many more, who say its unfair to ask working people to sit there and watch inflation eat away their spending power.

"If our salaries do not go up to meet the price increase, then it's essentially a pay cut," he said.

And he isn't the only worker who thinks that way.

Across the country and in various industries, more and more labour disputes are looming with compensation disputes at their heart. From Vancouver Symphony Orchestra stagehands to nurses in Ontario, and from WestJet pilots to flight attendants at that airline and others, it's a sentiment echoed by workers across the country right now.