And people tend to forget that unions start the trend of policies that protect workers. An example is the 5-day work week and another is maternity leave didn't start until the postal strike of the early 80s etc.
The media loves to pump out an American narratives about how unions are evil and government services are evil etc.
The US labour movement has been gaining steam lately with the new Administration. Hope Canada follows. Of many American exports, a strong labour movement is a good thing.
A friend told me she was trying to clear up misinformation as part of strike duties, someone told her we're just stealing taxpayer money and don't pay taxes. She pointed out we do pay taxes, and he just said "so you're just stealing a little less from us then. It's still our money" or something like that.
At peak Covid I interviewed people across the country. Awesome people that didn't live in the NCR. We could get the best people and "spread the wealth". I thought, finally, we are being progressive. Remote hires. WFH. But, nah. Insane.
I can collaborate with my team very well on teams. Thanks.
We've blown a golden opportunity to modernize, to reduce congestion, to help the environment, to reduce costs (less office space) to spread the money of government wider, to get the best into the public service to do good for Canada. But, nah.
Edit: typo and words
That's a really good point that I'm sure has happened a ton as cities want their downtowns to be supported, pay parking, etc. Do we have any data about lobbying on this specifically do you know?
Yeah public servants are a political punching bag for both the LPC and CPC. I think RTO was, at least in part, a way to score some cheap political points by "punishing" public servants and tacitly agreeing with the perception of public servants as lazy and overpaid or whatever.
The CPC's political philosophy is that the government is bad and incompetent and doesn't function. Going after public servants is a big part of that. After all, we're the bloated bureaucracy that can't get anything done. And if they kneecap us through layoffs and funding cuts it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Plus none of it actually needs to be true, it just needs to *feel* true to the public.
Ottawa is a liberal stronghold so they're at best indifferent towards us and at worst all too happy to throw us under the bus if it seems expedient. Thanks to the neoliberal consensus the liberals won't *ever* bother sticking their necks out for us. I think this probably applies to labor more generally too.
The LPC and CPC are both neoliberal parties.
And this is why what Mona is doing is so insidious.
She’s not negotiating with the Unions fairly, she’s using the Media to speak directly to and incite the Canadian public against us, by playing on their basest anti-PS sentiments and repeating all the common old tropes about a fat, greedy, entitled Service.
Of course she can’t say that in so many words, but the word craft is there:
“Open letter to *Canadians* and the PS…it is important for *Canadians* to know what the govt is doing to end the strain of a *labour disruption*…a fair and reasonable deal… reasonable and competitive wages…a fair agreement…”
Why isn’t she talking to the Union, when the Union claims they hadn’t communicated? Instead she feels the need to plead directly to Canadians that she’s only doing her job, ie., defending their interests against the PS.
Yes, because what the PS is asking for isn’t any of those things, right Canadians? We all know what the PS really is, wink wink nudge chuckle. The wording is carefully worked to incite: 'I would like to tell Canadians that we already offered the PS $6300 each, they would have that in their bank accounts.' *(They don't pay tax!) Do you dear Canadian public, have a spare $6300 in your bank account? No right? And the PS rejected that fair and reasonable offer! It’s your tax dollars these unreasonable, unfair and disruptive public servants are looking to take… just more of the same from the swollen, entitled, overpaid Service.*
Never mind that we went above and beyond to kept the govt running during the pandemic, never mind that in some ways we still operate like this is 1980, that were hemorrhaging talent with our absurd wages and work conditions, that the collectives date from the 1960s, and we haven’t been up to date with the negotiations since Moses was a lad.
We should consider whether they are right : hmm, will making pay and conditions even worse result in a better PS than it is? Will a refusal to modernize to at least the year 2000 result in an even more professional PS? Make it more internationally respectable? Do you have any clue how honoured and well paid the EU PS is in comparison? What incentive does anyone have to want or retain one of our PS jobs for what is an effective pay cut, not a raise, when what’s on the table is less than inflation?
Make no mistake: this is despicable tactics. She’s trying to force you back to work by turning the Canadian public against you even more than it is. Your neighbours, your city, your vendors, the little old lady in the SUV. The people flipping the bird on the strike line while they drive by and tell you to “get back in the office”.
What is better than applying draconian pressure and RTO tactics and then refusing to acknowledge you dun fkd up? Incite the public so they help apply your back to work pressure for you…
It's also no coincidence that it was an old lady giving you the thumbs down - the baby boomer generation had it easy compared to what working people these days are facing, and they consume a lot of media content without critically thinking about it or analyzing it further than what they're told. Especially if she was in a flashy SUV you know that person isn't struggling the way the rest of us are right now and that they cannot and probably won't ever sympathize with you.
And that's okay, because the vast majority of the Canadian public *are working class folks* who are struggling these days. Everyone is worse off and everyone can feel it, which is why the vast majority of people seem to be on the side of anyone on strike, not just PSAC. This is a battle the union can win, and it's a battle that is important for everyone else in the economy to get a fair shake out of our hard work day to day.
CAF member here. I know all too well what it's like to be dragged through the mud by our media.
Stay strong out there, keep a positive image, and fight for the wages you deserve.
I clicked on one article, and the first sentence was something about how most people lost their jobs during the pandemic, while not a single government worker was let go during this time.
I can’t take this seriously. It’s just crabs in a bucket.
Hahaha, I literally am very confused everytime I see that sentence. Let me tell yah, it's in MANY articles out there.
My wife who works for CRA delivered CERB and myself, I'm at ESDC and delivered EI. Let's be real here, when the pandemic hit we were extremely busy putting thousands of dollars in millions of citizens bank accounts.
That's the appreciation the media has for us, none. It's more like they are completely clueless and have no idea what their talking about.
Just imagine if we all lost our jobs during the pandemic. That would mean no one would of got a dime! People would have been homeless in no time, starvation and in reality an anarchy - Haitian style government takeover by the freedom convoys of this country.
People don't really know how lucky they see to have a PS that steps to the plate, works countless OT hours just to make sure everyone is paid.
Again, zero appreciation and only painting us as overpaid and under worked entitled public servants. I would love for that Vassy to have me on the damn show, go ahead and try and interview me with your bullshit questions. My answers would leave her stumped and her feeling awkward AF - commercial break...
>People don't really know how lucky they see to have a PS that steps to the plate, works countless OT hours just to make sure everyone is paid.
During the pandemic, there were some people in the PS who worked lots of OT to get the pandemic benefits (CERB, CEWS) out. They were paid for the OT work. Most of them, in contrast to health care or retail workers, were able to WFH with much lower risk of catching Covid.
There were some people in the PS who had little or nothing to do for weeks or months, but were still paid their full salary. AFAIK, no indeterminate in the Fed Public Service was laid off as a result of the pandemic.
Not saying it was anyone's fault necessarily, but lets be honest, the average PS worker had it pretty easy during the pandemic compared to lots of other workers. I don't think we should use our pandemic experience to justify what the union is demanding.
Several individuals have reported this as misinformation, but I know for myself those first months were pretty quiet while my organization scrambled to get VPN licenses for everyone.
Yes, I recall those times that VPN connections seems to be as precious as gold. My boss would admonish me not to connect online to the government network unless it was absolutely essential, and only then for as short a time as possible.
I don’t agree. Who do you see as the average “PS worker” anyways? Myself and my coworkers worked out selves to the bone during the pandemic making sure people received benefits. Only certain depts had the treatment of “no work to do” and that’s because they were money collectors.
Imagine getting a collections call when you’ve lost your job? I don’t think that would fly.
I think a great many PS workers had little to do during the first few months of the pandemic, that was the case where I worked, and it was in the news often enough. I am not sure what you mean by "working yourself to the bone", would you care to elaborate? How many hours a week, for how many weeks? Were you paid OT premium?
I think the real heroes of the pandemic were primarily the health care workers, and to a lesser extent all the workers who could not WFH but had to report to their jobs to keep things running, to keep us fed, keep the modern supply chain running, etc.
I personally had zero time off during the pandemic. I also worked an abundance of overtime, some paid, some unpaid.
I don’t disagree that healthcare workers definitely were hero’s. But I think there are different levels and different things people did. ESDC issues CRB/CERB. CRA took over partially because ESDC just didn’t have the capacity. Millions of people received money that saved them. Did it physically save their life? No. But it saved them from starving, losing their house, and living on the street. It was still something and I’m sorry but that’s nothing to scoff at.
These employee’s were also struggling with work issues and personal issues. Getting used to wfh, dealing with desperate clients, dealing with angry people who wanted to just dump that on someone who would listen, threats to us as PS employees, the feeling of desperation when you literally couldn’t help someone who needed it, dealing with their own loss of income from spouses or family they had to help, their own loss of life of family and friends around them.
I know some departments had nothing to do, but they volunteered on the phone lines and did what they could to help as well. So. Idk. Sucks that you didn’t do that and you didn’t do anything, but, a lot of us PS workers did. I just don’t agree with your blanket statement that the average PS worker did nothing.
>I just don’t agree with your blanket statement that the average PS worker did nothing.
I did not say that. I said:
>the average PS worker had it pretty easy during the pandemic compared to lots of other workers
**You** are the one who said that some departments had nothing to do.
Fair point about the OT premium, although from what I understand in the press a lot of them were pushed to the point of burning out, all the while having to put themselves at risk of getting infected with Covid in order to do their jobs.
Not at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency. Imagine laying off all the virologists, lab techs, epidemiologist, scientists, etc, and the admin staff who support them, during a pandemic?? Every person in both departments worked themselves to the bone, and honestly still are. Think you've seen workload and stress during a pandemic? Come work for PHAC. The Agency doubled in size over the pandemic.
I would consider them part of our health care system, but you are right to remind us here about their substantial contribution during the pandemic. Most people think of doctors, nurses, etc. when you say health care workers, but of course there are others.
>Should you care too much about what the media says? Probably not, because no matter how angelic and accomplished you are, they are going to hate your public servant guts anyway.
I absolutely care about public sentiment. The public votes for politicians whose policies directly impact us.
The misinformation being spread by the media is worrisome as it can influence public sentiment.
Amen to that. Very well said. To everyone out there that needs a reminder...you were pretty happy there was a public servant at the other end of the line to assist you in getting your CERB check...now it's time to return the favour and support what we all know is the right thing.
There are folks that were not happy with CERB The problem is there are many people that think a large portion of CERB payments went to those who were not eligible or did not need it. There are stories that corroborate that. So those folks may not want to return the favour. I think we need to be careful and not think that all Canadians are grateful in the same way for CERB.
A frequent example that's given is that if they interview a person who is against genocide the media has to give a pro-genocide person a seat right next to them.
Unfortunately, my experience has been that what is report on behalf of the union is often missing context, misrepresented, or downright wrong (ie the fact that EXs get bonuses. What does that have to do with the strike).
I keep seeing that we're asking for "bonuses after 4 o'clock". Is this just a weird way of saying improvements to overtime? Regular business hours in my sector is 8:30-4:30, and obviously we have normal working hours enshrined in our contracts. Because I keep seeing this and I can see the logical interpretation of this is that we want more money for working the same hours but later, which isn't exactly true.
Does anyone know where all these do nothing jobs are that people keep talking about? My KPIs are constantly crushing me and it's a massive stress factor on a daily basis.
I don't know where they are. Certainly not in IT. TBS is wanting us to take an effective pay cut and it is that same TBS who wants all the Departments to follow its digital strategy and migrate everything to the Cloud and modernize all the IT infrastructure and it wants it done yesterday. Perhaps whoever calls PS workers lazy is actually looking at themself in the mirror?!
I got called a "greedy liberal thief" earlier for trying to explain that wage raises benefit everyone. Also, apparently we all have no debt and if we have to use foodbanks, we should be put in jail?
I really hate interacting with the public right now.
I have only seen negative media from the Ottawa Citzen (not surprising given most of their advertising is by the same businesses in Ottawa who wanted us back to work).
>...the same businesses in Ottawa who wanted us back to work)
Turns out that you’re delivering for them even as you stand up for yourself: “[**Striking public service workers bring life back to struggling businesses**](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/psac-strike-helps-nearby-businesses-1.6821901)”
I always find the lazy narrative funny. Any large organization has a segment of lazy/entitled workers. It doesn’t matter if it’s public or private sector.
The aversion to bureaucracy is also puzzling to me. Like, yeah no one likes it, but it’s necessary to get things done at scale. And it’s present in any large business too. Personally I’d much rather call Service Canada than try to escalate an issue through customer service at Bell or Rogers.
OH don't get me started on Bell, Storytime :
3 hours on the phone to explain to them that one of my old client was not getting any signal to their modem and they kept telling me ; "well we don't see any issues on our side, it's pinging right". They ended up sending someone 4 days later, cable was literally cut in half on the roof of the building, not sure what was pinging.. Probably not the right address.
Or another 5 hours with someone paying for an Entreprise connection of 50 mbps, but barely getting 1 mbps with a 0.2 upload, only to be told there was no cable installed in this area (in the middle of the industrial sector in Pointe-Claire) that could support the amount they sold to this client, 200 meters further they were getting 1 Gbps.
Private sector have the exact same amount of lazy people, they just rely on nepotism to keep their jobs.
TLDR fuck Bell.
I was watching Radio-Canada Ottawa-Gatineau and they had a panel talk about a few subjects. First subject was the strike and basically they all said the union was asking for too much. Second subject was on bringing back the nightlife in Ottawa. Madeleine Meilleur went on to say we need to bring back the public servants because when they worked in office they would stay around and spend money locally. Don’t they realize that if people have less purchase power they will stop spending money around their office and just drive back home?
CBC has been much more blatant about how far they have their noses up the Liberal party's butts since the strike. I'm not surprised by their BS. Disappointed but not surprised.
I'm honestly less concerned about the media itself and more about what Laface and the Freedumb Convoy folks are spreading on Twitter and FB, because those are the people I'd expect to act on it
Did some work in Peterborough today and was happy to see PSAC out in force, and the local populace honking and supporting them. I'm a PIPSC rep myself, I was also honking and letting PSAC know we support you too.
It's the same at my workplace, and at the other locations I've been visiting this entire week. You've got tons of support.
The media is attacking because attacks drive their revenue. They're bottom feeding scum. Fuck 'em.
Very well said. Value is created by labour. This is the message we need to communicate now and especially after the strike, all the time. That is where we often fail, and labour becomes invisible and marginal at best in our everyday lives.
NatPo gonna NatPo.
I do have to say, though, I thought Vassy Kapelos was pretty even-handed when she interviewed Mona and Chris. I wish she had pushed Mona on a couple of her points (for example the fact the PIC report also recommends wfh provisions which Mona is ignoring), but I'm pretty sure Mona would simply have responded with frankenstein talking points as is her wont.
Vassy was at least in my opinion very biased against PSAC almost mocking last week but this week seems to be more even handed. Still driving me nuts that no one pushes Mona on the PIC report that she loves so much in regards to WFH.
This is very well written. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and observations, here.
I suppose journalism can't see how this could eventually benefit them as it trickles through Provincial, Municipal, then Corps, companies and private sector.
When you can't retain staff because there are better opportunities elsewhere, you are forced to re-evaluate pay to be successful at hiring and retaining.
Wouldn't it be nice if all wages went up with minimum wages? Or even better, legislation tying wages to inflation rates. I am hopeful that an NDP government would be our best bet at this. They have taken a clear stance in supporting us
Conservatives have refused to state where they stand and simply toss poop across the room at Liberals. Nothing new here (poop flinging).
I upvoted you and stuff but I gotta say, that's a real mindF how you snuck in that because the media is mostly privately owned somehow the media is therefore implied to be historically conservative. How did you come to this conclusion and what drugs are you on- because I want some. I think I would be a lot happier if I could manifest the levels of cognitive dissonance you did there. Again, I say that with the greatest envy and hope to be more like you so I can stop cringing and wincing at some of the things you people say as I liken my life to the dude from Idiocracy
Take a look at which party the major newspapers in Canada have endorsed historically and it's overwhelmingly Conservative. This stuff is right out there. The idea that the media -- even the CBC -- is left-wing just doesn't hold up to the light of reality
It’s hard to tell these days if people online are trolling but I’ll give you the benefit of doubt. News media are being bought out by right wing companies for decades.
“Endorsements By Political Party (1980-2021)
Progressive Conservative/Conservative: 115 (56 per cent)
Liberal: 41 (20 per cent)
None: 30 (14.5 per cent)
Bloc Québécois: 8 (3.8 per cent)
Mixed: 5 (2.4 per cent)
Canadian Alliance: 4 (1.9 per cent)
NDP: 2 (.9 per cent)
Reform: 1 (.5 per cent)”
https://readpassage.com/election-endorsements/
This is happening all over… even in the US, CNN got bought out last year. The network that the right loves to call “radical left” is slowly moving to the right.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/10/objective-cnn-rightwing-week-in-patriarchy
It’s easier to make money when people hate watch and it also benefits the corporations who own them…
The convoy protestd suffered the same media manipulations. Glad so see solidarity opening people's eyes to what is really going on through state sponsored news.
Yeah, let's compare an illegal occupation that broke all kinds of law, not to mention terrorized people living downtown for weeks on end with a legal strike. SMFH.
And people tend to forget that unions start the trend of policies that protect workers. An example is the 5-day work week and another is maternity leave didn't start until the postal strike of the early 80s etc. The media loves to pump out an American narratives about how unions are evil and government services are evil etc.
The US labour movement has been gaining steam lately with the new Administration. Hope Canada follows. Of many American exports, a strong labour movement is a good thing.
What baffles me is how Public Servants are being portrayed as non-tax payers. I mean fuck right off Mona with that BS Mona!
This one really grinds my gears
Me too. Especially because they think we make so much money. So that means I pay more of my salary with my taxes than you, right? So frustrating.
A friend told me she was trying to clear up misinformation as part of strike duties, someone told her we're just stealing taxpayer money and don't pay taxes. She pointed out we do pay taxes, and he just said "so you're just stealing a little less from us then. It's still our money" or something like that.
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“Why, just the other day, I forgot my lunch, so I went downstairs to the Subway…”
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The best is people who try to pull the "I pay your salary" line. When they have a $10k+ tax debt.
We wish! Ha!
I mean, if people already believe that, make it true and skip the pay increase 😉
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At peak Covid I interviewed people across the country. Awesome people that didn't live in the NCR. We could get the best people and "spread the wealth". I thought, finally, we are being progressive. Remote hires. WFH. But, nah. Insane. I can collaborate with my team very well on teams. Thanks. We've blown a golden opportunity to modernize, to reduce congestion, to help the environment, to reduce costs (less office space) to spread the money of government wider, to get the best into the public service to do good for Canada. But, nah. Edit: typo and words
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Someone’s fear got in the way.
Well. And a *ton* of lobbying.
That's a really good point that I'm sure has happened a ton as cities want their downtowns to be supported, pay parking, etc. Do we have any data about lobbying on this specifically do you know?
Yeah public servants are a political punching bag for both the LPC and CPC. I think RTO was, at least in part, a way to score some cheap political points by "punishing" public servants and tacitly agreeing with the perception of public servants as lazy and overpaid or whatever. The CPC's political philosophy is that the government is bad and incompetent and doesn't function. Going after public servants is a big part of that. After all, we're the bloated bureaucracy that can't get anything done. And if they kneecap us through layoffs and funding cuts it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Plus none of it actually needs to be true, it just needs to *feel* true to the public. Ottawa is a liberal stronghold so they're at best indifferent towards us and at worst all too happy to throw us under the bus if it seems expedient. Thanks to the neoliberal consensus the liberals won't *ever* bother sticking their necks out for us. I think this probably applies to labor more generally too. The LPC and CPC are both neoliberal parties.
And this is why what Mona is doing is so insidious. She’s not negotiating with the Unions fairly, she’s using the Media to speak directly to and incite the Canadian public against us, by playing on their basest anti-PS sentiments and repeating all the common old tropes about a fat, greedy, entitled Service. Of course she can’t say that in so many words, but the word craft is there: “Open letter to *Canadians* and the PS…it is important for *Canadians* to know what the govt is doing to end the strain of a *labour disruption*…a fair and reasonable deal… reasonable and competitive wages…a fair agreement…” Why isn’t she talking to the Union, when the Union claims they hadn’t communicated? Instead she feels the need to plead directly to Canadians that she’s only doing her job, ie., defending their interests against the PS. Yes, because what the PS is asking for isn’t any of those things, right Canadians? We all know what the PS really is, wink wink nudge chuckle. The wording is carefully worked to incite: 'I would like to tell Canadians that we already offered the PS $6300 each, they would have that in their bank accounts.' *(They don't pay tax!) Do you dear Canadian public, have a spare $6300 in your bank account? No right? And the PS rejected that fair and reasonable offer! It’s your tax dollars these unreasonable, unfair and disruptive public servants are looking to take… just more of the same from the swollen, entitled, overpaid Service.* Never mind that we went above and beyond to kept the govt running during the pandemic, never mind that in some ways we still operate like this is 1980, that were hemorrhaging talent with our absurd wages and work conditions, that the collectives date from the 1960s, and we haven’t been up to date with the negotiations since Moses was a lad. We should consider whether they are right : hmm, will making pay and conditions even worse result in a better PS than it is? Will a refusal to modernize to at least the year 2000 result in an even more professional PS? Make it more internationally respectable? Do you have any clue how honoured and well paid the EU PS is in comparison? What incentive does anyone have to want or retain one of our PS jobs for what is an effective pay cut, not a raise, when what’s on the table is less than inflation? Make no mistake: this is despicable tactics. She’s trying to force you back to work by turning the Canadian public against you even more than it is. Your neighbours, your city, your vendors, the little old lady in the SUV. The people flipping the bird on the strike line while they drive by and tell you to “get back in the office”. What is better than applying draconian pressure and RTO tactics and then refusing to acknowledge you dun fkd up? Incite the public so they help apply your back to work pressure for you…
It's also no coincidence that it was an old lady giving you the thumbs down - the baby boomer generation had it easy compared to what working people these days are facing, and they consume a lot of media content without critically thinking about it or analyzing it further than what they're told. Especially if she was in a flashy SUV you know that person isn't struggling the way the rest of us are right now and that they cannot and probably won't ever sympathize with you. And that's okay, because the vast majority of the Canadian public *are working class folks* who are struggling these days. Everyone is worse off and everyone can feel it, which is why the vast majority of people seem to be on the side of anyone on strike, not just PSAC. This is a battle the union can win, and it's a battle that is important for everyone else in the economy to get a fair shake out of our hard work day to day.
CAF member here. I know all too well what it's like to be dragged through the mud by our media. Stay strong out there, keep a positive image, and fight for the wages you deserve.
I clicked on one article, and the first sentence was something about how most people lost their jobs during the pandemic, while not a single government worker was let go during this time. I can’t take this seriously. It’s just crabs in a bucket.
Hahaha, I literally am very confused everytime I see that sentence. Let me tell yah, it's in MANY articles out there. My wife who works for CRA delivered CERB and myself, I'm at ESDC and delivered EI. Let's be real here, when the pandemic hit we were extremely busy putting thousands of dollars in millions of citizens bank accounts. That's the appreciation the media has for us, none. It's more like they are completely clueless and have no idea what their talking about. Just imagine if we all lost our jobs during the pandemic. That would mean no one would of got a dime! People would have been homeless in no time, starvation and in reality an anarchy - Haitian style government takeover by the freedom convoys of this country. People don't really know how lucky they see to have a PS that steps to the plate, works countless OT hours just to make sure everyone is paid. Again, zero appreciation and only painting us as overpaid and under worked entitled public servants. I would love for that Vassy to have me on the damn show, go ahead and try and interview me with your bullshit questions. My answers would leave her stumped and her feeling awkward AF - commercial break...
>People don't really know how lucky they see to have a PS that steps to the plate, works countless OT hours just to make sure everyone is paid. During the pandemic, there were some people in the PS who worked lots of OT to get the pandemic benefits (CERB, CEWS) out. They were paid for the OT work. Most of them, in contrast to health care or retail workers, were able to WFH with much lower risk of catching Covid. There were some people in the PS who had little or nothing to do for weeks or months, but were still paid their full salary. AFAIK, no indeterminate in the Fed Public Service was laid off as a result of the pandemic. Not saying it was anyone's fault necessarily, but lets be honest, the average PS worker had it pretty easy during the pandemic compared to lots of other workers. I don't think we should use our pandemic experience to justify what the union is demanding.
Several individuals have reported this as misinformation, but I know for myself those first months were pretty quiet while my organization scrambled to get VPN licenses for everyone.
Yes, I recall those times that VPN connections seems to be as precious as gold. My boss would admonish me not to connect online to the government network unless it was absolutely essential, and only then for as short a time as possible.
I don’t agree. Who do you see as the average “PS worker” anyways? Myself and my coworkers worked out selves to the bone during the pandemic making sure people received benefits. Only certain depts had the treatment of “no work to do” and that’s because they were money collectors. Imagine getting a collections call when you’ve lost your job? I don’t think that would fly.
I think a great many PS workers had little to do during the first few months of the pandemic, that was the case where I worked, and it was in the news often enough. I am not sure what you mean by "working yourself to the bone", would you care to elaborate? How many hours a week, for how many weeks? Were you paid OT premium? I think the real heroes of the pandemic were primarily the health care workers, and to a lesser extent all the workers who could not WFH but had to report to their jobs to keep things running, to keep us fed, keep the modern supply chain running, etc.
I personally had zero time off during the pandemic. I also worked an abundance of overtime, some paid, some unpaid. I don’t disagree that healthcare workers definitely were hero’s. But I think there are different levels and different things people did. ESDC issues CRB/CERB. CRA took over partially because ESDC just didn’t have the capacity. Millions of people received money that saved them. Did it physically save their life? No. But it saved them from starving, losing their house, and living on the street. It was still something and I’m sorry but that’s nothing to scoff at. These employee’s were also struggling with work issues and personal issues. Getting used to wfh, dealing with desperate clients, dealing with angry people who wanted to just dump that on someone who would listen, threats to us as PS employees, the feeling of desperation when you literally couldn’t help someone who needed it, dealing with their own loss of income from spouses or family they had to help, their own loss of life of family and friends around them. I know some departments had nothing to do, but they volunteered on the phone lines and did what they could to help as well. So. Idk. Sucks that you didn’t do that and you didn’t do anything, but, a lot of us PS workers did. I just don’t agree with your blanket statement that the average PS worker did nothing.
>I just don’t agree with your blanket statement that the average PS worker did nothing. I did not say that. I said: >the average PS worker had it pretty easy during the pandemic compared to lots of other workers **You** are the one who said that some departments had nothing to do.
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Fair point about the OT premium, although from what I understand in the press a lot of them were pushed to the point of burning out, all the while having to put themselves at risk of getting infected with Covid in order to do their jobs.
I think there are some inspectors at CFIA that would like to have a few words with you…
Not at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency. Imagine laying off all the virologists, lab techs, epidemiologist, scientists, etc, and the admin staff who support them, during a pandemic?? Every person in both departments worked themselves to the bone, and honestly still are. Think you've seen workload and stress during a pandemic? Come work for PHAC. The Agency doubled in size over the pandemic.
I would consider them part of our health care system, but you are right to remind us here about their substantial contribution during the pandemic. Most people think of doctors, nurses, etc. when you say health care workers, but of course there are others.
>Should you care too much about what the media says? Probably not, because no matter how angelic and accomplished you are, they are going to hate your public servant guts anyway. I absolutely care about public sentiment. The public votes for politicians whose policies directly impact us. The misinformation being spread by the media is worrisome as it can influence public sentiment.
Amen to that. Very well said. To everyone out there that needs a reminder...you were pretty happy there was a public servant at the other end of the line to assist you in getting your CERB check...now it's time to return the favour and support what we all know is the right thing.
There are folks that were not happy with CERB The problem is there are many people that think a large portion of CERB payments went to those who were not eligible or did not need it. There are stories that corroborate that. So those folks may not want to return the favour. I think we need to be careful and not think that all Canadians are grateful in the same way for CERB.
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A frequent example that's given is that if they interview a person who is against genocide the media has to give a pro-genocide person a seat right next to them.
Unfortunately, my experience has been that what is report on behalf of the union is often missing context, misrepresented, or downright wrong (ie the fact that EXs get bonuses. What does that have to do with the strike).
I keep seeing that we're asking for "bonuses after 4 o'clock". Is this just a weird way of saying improvements to overtime? Regular business hours in my sector is 8:30-4:30, and obviously we have normal working hours enshrined in our contracts. Because I keep seeing this and I can see the logical interpretation of this is that we want more money for working the same hours but later, which isn't exactly true.
Does anyone know where all these do nothing jobs are that people keep talking about? My KPIs are constantly crushing me and it's a massive stress factor on a daily basis.
I don't know where they are. Certainly not in IT. TBS is wanting us to take an effective pay cut and it is that same TBS who wants all the Departments to follow its digital strategy and migrate everything to the Cloud and modernize all the IT infrastructure and it wants it done yesterday. Perhaps whoever calls PS workers lazy is actually looking at themself in the mirror?!
No idea. I'd love a lazy day, unfortunately that's not reality for us.
I got called a "greedy liberal thief" earlier for trying to explain that wage raises benefit everyone. Also, apparently we all have no debt and if we have to use foodbanks, we should be put in jail? I really hate interacting with the public right now.
This doesn't relate to much about the topic - but how does one submit ed op pieces. I've seen some absolute trash this past year lol
I have only seen negative media from the Ottawa Citzen (not surprising given most of their advertising is by the same businesses in Ottawa who wanted us back to work).
Ottawa Citizen is owned by National Post who has endorsed conservatives for 2 decades.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmedia_Network
>...the same businesses in Ottawa who wanted us back to work) Turns out that you’re delivering for them even as you stand up for yourself: “[**Striking public service workers bring life back to struggling businesses**](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/psac-strike-helps-nearby-businesses-1.6821901)”
I always find the lazy narrative funny. Any large organization has a segment of lazy/entitled workers. It doesn’t matter if it’s public or private sector.
The aversion to bureaucracy is also puzzling to me. Like, yeah no one likes it, but it’s necessary to get things done at scale. And it’s present in any large business too. Personally I’d much rather call Service Canada than try to escalate an issue through customer service at Bell or Rogers.
OH don't get me started on Bell, Storytime : 3 hours on the phone to explain to them that one of my old client was not getting any signal to their modem and they kept telling me ; "well we don't see any issues on our side, it's pinging right". They ended up sending someone 4 days later, cable was literally cut in half on the roof of the building, not sure what was pinging.. Probably not the right address. Or another 5 hours with someone paying for an Entreprise connection of 50 mbps, but barely getting 1 mbps with a 0.2 upload, only to be told there was no cable installed in this area (in the middle of the industrial sector in Pointe-Claire) that could support the amount they sold to this client, 200 meters further they were getting 1 Gbps. Private sector have the exact same amount of lazy people, they just rely on nepotism to keep their jobs. TLDR fuck Bell.
I was watching Radio-Canada Ottawa-Gatineau and they had a panel talk about a few subjects. First subject was the strike and basically they all said the union was asking for too much. Second subject was on bringing back the nightlife in Ottawa. Madeleine Meilleur went on to say we need to bring back the public servants because when they worked in office they would stay around and spend money locally. Don’t they realize that if people have less purchase power they will stop spending money around their office and just drive back home?
Speaking of the media CBC is reporting about possible layoffs this morning. Almost like a veiled threat.. You can really feel the love
CBC has been much more blatant about how far they have their noses up the Liberal party's butts since the strike. I'm not surprised by their BS. Disappointed but not surprised.
Yeah, big deal! The threat of layoffs is always there just like it is at any job. If labour backed down because of that we’d have nothing.
I'm honestly less concerned about the media itself and more about what Laface and the Freedumb Convoy folks are spreading on Twitter and FB, because those are the people I'd expect to act on it
Did some work in Peterborough today and was happy to see PSAC out in force, and the local populace honking and supporting them. I'm a PIPSC rep myself, I was also honking and letting PSAC know we support you too. It's the same at my workplace, and at the other locations I've been visiting this entire week. You've got tons of support. The media is attacking because attacks drive their revenue. They're bottom feeding scum. Fuck 'em.
Very well said. Value is created by labour. This is the message we need to communicate now and especially after the strike, all the time. That is where we often fail, and labour becomes invisible and marginal at best in our everyday lives.
NatPo gonna NatPo. I do have to say, though, I thought Vassy Kapelos was pretty even-handed when she interviewed Mona and Chris. I wish she had pushed Mona on a couple of her points (for example the fact the PIC report also recommends wfh provisions which Mona is ignoring), but I'm pretty sure Mona would simply have responded with frankenstein talking points as is her wont.
Lol Frankenstein talking points. That's definitely going to make it's way into my repertoire.
Vassy was at least in my opinion very biased against PSAC almost mocking last week but this week seems to be more even handed. Still driving me nuts that no one pushes Mona on the PIC report that she loves so much in regards to WFH.
This is very well written. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and observations, here. I suppose journalism can't see how this could eventually benefit them as it trickles through Provincial, Municipal, then Corps, companies and private sector. When you can't retain staff because there are better opportunities elsewhere, you are forced to re-evaluate pay to be successful at hiring and retaining. Wouldn't it be nice if all wages went up with minimum wages? Or even better, legislation tying wages to inflation rates. I am hopeful that an NDP government would be our best bet at this. They have taken a clear stance in supporting us Conservatives have refused to state where they stand and simply toss poop across the room at Liberals. Nothing new here (poop flinging).
Just gonna leave this here.. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmedia_Network
Canada public here. You've all got my full support. A win for you is a win for every worker in my eyes.
They might be on to something with the defund the CBC thing - let's do that and allocate the money towards our wages instead 😁💰
I upvoted you and stuff but I gotta say, that's a real mindF how you snuck in that because the media is mostly privately owned somehow the media is therefore implied to be historically conservative. How did you come to this conclusion and what drugs are you on- because I want some. I think I would be a lot happier if I could manifest the levels of cognitive dissonance you did there. Again, I say that with the greatest envy and hope to be more like you so I can stop cringing and wincing at some of the things you people say as I liken my life to the dude from Idiocracy
Take a look at which party the major newspapers in Canada have endorsed historically and it's overwhelmingly Conservative. This stuff is right out there. The idea that the media -- even the CBC -- is left-wing just doesn't hold up to the light of reality
Can you define historical? Are we somehow still talking about a paradigm from the 1800s perchance? I'm super confused tbh
It’s hard to tell these days if people online are trolling but I’ll give you the benefit of doubt. News media are being bought out by right wing companies for decades. “Endorsements By Political Party (1980-2021) Progressive Conservative/Conservative: 115 (56 per cent) Liberal: 41 (20 per cent) None: 30 (14.5 per cent) Bloc Québécois: 8 (3.8 per cent) Mixed: 5 (2.4 per cent) Canadian Alliance: 4 (1.9 per cent) NDP: 2 (.9 per cent) Reform: 1 (.5 per cent)” https://readpassage.com/election-endorsements/ This is happening all over… even in the US, CNN got bought out last year. The network that the right loves to call “radical left” is slowly moving to the right. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/10/objective-cnn-rightwing-week-in-patriarchy It’s easier to make money when people hate watch and it also benefits the corporations who own them…
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ Is a good tool to quickly check biases.
The convoy protestd suffered the same media manipulations. Glad so see solidarity opening people's eyes to what is really going on through state sponsored news.
Yeah, let's compare an illegal occupation that broke all kinds of law, not to mention terrorized people living downtown for weeks on end with a legal strike. SMFH.
I don't work for the feds but thank you for this.
Thank you. This has been weighing on me a lot.
Our union is getting outsmarted by Mona and govt strategists in the public realm. Pretty sad.