Tens of thousands of federal public servants are in a position to strike after months of fruitless negotiations with their Ottawa bosses. Key pieces of dispute include non-wage benefits and whether some type of remote work protection should be part of collective agreements. When it comes to the demand for pay hikes, labour leaders can point to statistics showing Canadian average hourly wages up more than 5 per cent, year-over-year.
But if federal public servants walk off the job in the days or weeks ahead, prepare for a blast of public opinion against the strike, especially outside the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
