Table Talk

Not all conversations about workplace and union issues will go smoothly. Some people have negative attitudes about unions, the public sector, or about the rights and benefits enjoyed by public sector workers. The following talking points can help you to answer questions you may receive from friends, family or acquaintances and can help navigate conversations about common topics such as labour actions and things federal public sector employees want to see in their collective agreement, such as telework.

Public sector wages are determined through collective bargaining. Workers work together through their bargaining agent to ensure fair wages.
Having good wages benefits the employer as they make it easier to recruit and retain skilled workers.
Public sector wages are often within the same range as those offered in similar occupations in the public and private sector.

Of course! Unions educate workers to ensure that workers know and understand their rights in the workplace.
The union will also get involved to protect workers when they are being treated unfairly, either individually or when discrimination or unequal treatment is affecting a group of workers.
Unions advocate for their members both within and outside of the collective bargaining process, lobbying for better working conditions and laws that will benefit workers and protect their rights.
Unions have helped to correct discriminatory practices in the workplace, standing up for pay equity and fighting to end discrimination and improve working conditions for everyone, unionized or not.

We can’t rush a good deal; it takes time to negotiate.
Both the employer and the union may use slow negotiations as a bargaining tactic to improve their position. The union needs to remain patient to negotiate a good deal when this is the case.
By federal law, the union can’t file a notice to bargain until four months before the previous contract expires, so even if everyone wants a speedy resolution, delays often happen.
When a new collective agreement is signed, employees will get retroactive pay to compensate for pay increases in the new agreement, but employees will lose out on other benefits which are not provided retroactively.

Nobody is saying EVERY function should be remote, but a great many functions can literally be done from anywhere.
There are many cases where, if it materially makes no difference where the computer is located, work location has a major impact on quality of life of the worker. It allows them to visit grandma at the nursing home at lunch or makes it easier to pick up the kids from daycare.
Frankly, in a modern economy, we should be embracing technology where it makes sense, and retaining traditional ways of doing things where that makes sense.
This is about flexibility where and when it makes sense.

Canada is tremendously lucky to have a professional non-partisan public sector that puts people and services first. Not every country has that.
In a modern country with a modern and fully-functioning government and social safety net, we need professionals to administer the government support Canadians rely on.

All Canadians’ wages should keep pace with inflation. We’ve all seen pressures lately with a rapidly rising cost of living.
Unions have traditionally been one of the strongest guarantors of workers’ rights – be it safe working standards or fair compensation for work.
Private sector and non-unionized workers also benefit from our work, because our collective bargaining helps to set the agenda for what all workers deserve – from working conditions to compensation.

There of course are certain functions of government that are essential services and where work stoppages cannot occur. This is true for critical safety functions and for work that is necessary for the functioning of Parliament.
But the vast majority of public sector roles are the same as work positions in other sectors – a broad range of non-emergency skills and services.
Collective bargaining is not only a constitutionally-enshrined right, it is also one of the fundamental privileges of living in a free society.
Just like with other workers, if the employer isn’t holding up their end of the contract – or hoping workers will work without a contract – then workers have the right to withhold their services.
It is important to note that the right to strike can be replaced with access to binding arbitration. Arbitration is seen as a fair substitute. Some professions and bargaining units which are wholly essential are simply given access to binding arbitration, with no option for conciliation. The Supreme Court has found that this is a legitimate “substitute” for the right to strike.

Not at all. Just like in the workplace, functions that must be done in person should be done on site. Whether you are working, or picketing, certain things must be done on-site, while a great many other things can be done from a computer anywhere.
CAPE believes that, when work functions can be done remotely without an adverse impact on the quality of the work, a modern economy and labour market should provide that flexibility.
Flexible work helps attract the best and brightest to the public sector, in an increasingly competitive labour market.
Further, telework opens doors to those who live outside of the National Capital Region or regional employment centres, which helps to make the public sector more representative of our country.

Remote work flexibility is actually helping defray the rising cost of living, by allowing more people to work in smaller centres away from the biggest cities or downtowns that have critical housing shortages and the highest housing costs. A distributed workforce helps rejuvenate smaller centres.
This is something we should be promoting as regional economic policy and housing policy – not treating it as some extremely generous concession. It’s simply smart economics.