Foreign Service - Strike?

[bacontoaster]

Well that would be really unfortunate... We were so excited for our PPR and we booked a flight for him to move here 2 months from now. If a strike happens we'll probably all end up on the back burner once things ramp up again.

 

[costaudjoe]

oh no ur right it says does,
i read it wrong.

but im still not worried about it at all.
they will sort it out internally before it has any effect on processing visas.

I admire your optimism

That being said, I went to their union website and they are starting to ratchet up the pressure. The union is recommending work to rule. I think this invariably will have an impact on the length of time to process a file. The idea is to put pressure on others, like us, so we call and complain to the CIC. Unfortunately we are kind of pawns in all of this.

 

[LeisaP]

I admire your optimism

That being said, I went to their union website and they are starting to ratchet up the pressure. The union is recommending work to rule. I think this invariably will have an impact on the length of time to process a file. The idea is to put pressure on others, like us, so we call and complain to the CIC. Unfortunately we are kind of pawns in all of this.

we should be getting ppr in the next couple weeks. so if they do decide to do something absolutly ridiculous, im keeping my fingers crossed we get ppr before that happens!

i think minister kenney will try his very best to solve the problem before it causes an issue for immigration, since he just did all this work to get rid of backlog, i imagine he would be really mad if they went on strike and started to collect backlog again. so i have faith he will sort it out before it becomes a problem, or else he will throw himself under the bus.

 

[costaudjoe]

From what I saw on the union website all of this is going through Tony Clement as he holds the purse strings.

The government could always legislate them back to work as they have done in other strikes.

 

[LeisaP]

The government could always legislate them back to work as they have done in other strikes.

agreed. if it happens, i think they will force them back to work.

 

[maplegal86]

agreed. if it happens, i think they will force them back to work.

Yup. Also it seems the Foreign Service has agreed not to shut down essential services and struck an agreement with DFAIT, CIC and CBSA which have FSOs working there.

Quote from the first link posted: In the case of a strike, the PAFSO president said they have signed essential services agreements with DFAIT, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and the Canada Border Services Agency—the departments that have foreign service officers working in them.

Less than 15 per cent of their workers would be considered essential service employees.

We deal directly with CIC, not the Foreign Service. So I don't think we should be worried.

 

[costaudjoe]

Just to let you know that after perusing http://www.pafso-apase.com/news_releases.php?newsID=145
essential services would be those needed in case of natural disaster, a breakout of war-hostilities, etc. I am not totally convinced that PR file applications would qualify as an essential service...

Also, if you look at the list of those deemed essential from the CIC list, they are upper administration. This leads one to believe that all other CIC positions abroad are at risk for disruption due to a strike.

 

[Rob_TO]

i think minister kenney will try his very best to solve the problem before it causes an issue for immigration, since he just did all this work to get rid of backlog, i imagine he would be really mad if they went on strike and started to collect backlog again. so i have faith he will sort it out before it becomes a problem, or else he will throw himself under the bus.

I had to laugh a bit here, as i find your incredible optimism at how the government will come to the rescue and fix things pretty funny! Kenney has been immigration minister for 5 years, so the backlog and delays and office closures was all under his watch. If anything is getting better these days... its Kenney fixing the mistakes that Kenney himself made. If there is one thing the government is not, it's efficient. When it comes to union battles like this... even if legislated back to work you can guarantee the unions can and most definitely will slow things down on purpose until they get what they want. But hopefully it doesn't come to that and they reach an actual deal first.

 

[costaudjoe]

I sort of threw the "legislating them back to work" tongue in cheek.

In the two cases where they did legislate back to work (Air Canada and Canada Post), the argument was that their strikes would be too devastating to the Canadian economy. FSOs are not an integral part of the Canadian economy so that argument is unlikely to hold water.

One could take the point of view that the FSOs are demanding too much. However, their collective agreement ran out almost 2 years ago and they are asking to be paid the same as their Canadian counterparts.

If push comes to shove, we can react by writing letters to Stephen Harper, Tony Clement, and your MP or the MP where you intend to land. MPs are sensitive to immigration issues in their ridings.

 

[costaudjoe]

And so it begins...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-foreign-service-officers-start-work-to-rule-job-action/article10842024/

 

[Feb25]

Do you know if they lifted the strike mode ?

 

[brightredscream]

Ugh

 

[chickenkiev]

Definately not good ...... *Sigh*

 

[CanadianJeepGuy]

I think if it was a really big deal, they would have posted a news report about it on the CIC website.
and i havent seen one yet.
if it gets to the cic website, than i will take the info into consideration.
still waiting for it to come up on there if it does.

CIC would not post job actions within their organization. That would be admitting that management cannot resolve labour disputes and by extension are incompetent.
I can guarantee that part of the reason why processing times have increased is due to "work to rule" job actions.

 

[costaudjoe]

Being part of a union I can tell you the next step will be rotating strikes. This will only slow down the process times.

I have said it before but it bears repeating, we need to draft up a letter stating our the prejudices this is causing us and send it off to our respective MPs. Otherwise, it will only get worse.