The editor:
I am writing this letter with mixed emotions about the strike that started on April 19 affecting approximately 155,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
These are people I am proud to call my colleagues. These are people with families, with mortgages, with rent, with utility bills, with car payments, with grocery bills and with taxes to pay, just like everyone else in this country.
They are people that work hard to assist fellow Canadians access programs and benefits that the government provides and offers. They ensure you receive your child tax benefit, they process your tax refunds, they ensure you receive your EI payments when you lose your job through no fault of your own or receive EI when you are sick, they guide and assist you to apply for your Canada pension and old-age security when that time comes in your life.
These workers are there for the stressful, sometimes life-changing moments. They are also there for the happy moments like when you need a passport to take that first trip to see the world or travel to reunite with family. They process many applications and documents that assist in welcoming newcomers to this beautiful country.
All these employees stepped up and worked many hours and days to ensure Canadians could receive payments during the pandemic when they were not able to work. These workers adapted and changed their home in order to keep working to be there for Canadians during a very stressful and fearful time. A time of so much uncertainty.
It was a time when Canadians needed these workers to be there to put their minds at ease, knowing they could still be financially supported to put food on the table, keep the lights on in their home and whatever other expenses they were facing.
So now it saddens me that when these workers need their employers to be there for them, by providing fair wages to assist them with the rising costs of living due to inflation, they are being told that they are being unreasonable.
I am one of these workers. I worked in the front office of Service Canada for many years and during the pandemic. I was passionate about helping my clients when they entered the office. I am still passionate about helping Canadians. I was very grateful that I had the opportunity to work from home during the pandemic to continue helping Canadians.
I had the privilege of being one of the first people to work on a call centre that was established and designated for the Indigenous and vulnerable sectors of Canada. It came to fruition during the pandemic to ensure everyone had access to the federal benefits.
We returned to the office to continue helping Canadians and newcomers when everything started opening up again. Things weren’t the same; change was everywhere. We continued to adapt to new procedures, new policy and new legislation. The pandemic brought new opportunities for many workers, myself included.
It brought a role that allowed me to work remotely with many wonderful caring and compassionate people from across Canada. Many people were hired during and after the pandemic to meet the ever-changing demands.
Working remotely allowed and continues to allow many talented, skilled and experienced people work in jobs that may not have been possible before the pandemic. The returning to the office initiative is not feasible for some of these workers as they are over 400 kilometres away from a main office. This runs the risk of losing some highly trained and passionate workers.
If people cannot report to an office but can still efficiently and effectively work from home, then why would you want to risk losing that highly-trained and skilled employee just to hire someone closer to an office with no training? This would incur more cost having to train someone new instead of keeping someone who has valuable training and is considered an asset.
Another issue most people don’t realize with the return to the office situation is that some offices do not have enough space to house all the people who were hired during the pandemic to assist with the influx of work.
Working from home for some is an integral part in continuing to provide service to our fellow Canadians and newcomers of this country.
As I stated earlier, I am filled with mixed emotion today. I am extremely proud to be Canadian. I am also saddened and disappointed that a fair agreement cannot be met to support the workers that went the extra mile and continue to go that extra mile for all the people of Canada.
Connie Gibson
Bienfait
