New Delhi: In Canada, there have been major cases of labour strikes that demonstrate the strength that workers have when united. The workers of Canada Post and Air Canada stopped working and demanded higher salaries, better working hours, and safety. Those strikes were of a great shortcoming to businesses and the masses.
The Canada Post strike was a slack in the delivery of mails countrywide. Significant documents, packages, and even medicines were postponed. Small enterprises that rely on the post negatively got hit. Most shopkeepers claimed that they would be unable to deliver orders in time, thus resulting in dissatisfied clients and loss of business.
Concurrently, Air Canada employees also downed their work. Flights were postponed or cancelled and thousands of passengers were stranded at the airports. Families lost their holidays, business meetings were delayed and travel plans were disrupted altogether. People waited to be given updates and this led to congestion in the airports.
Employees claimed that they had no other option. Labour unions had it that workers were working longer hours with minimal rest and no salary that reflected increasing living standards. They claimed that the company was making more earnings, yet the wages of employees were not.
Leaders of businesses cautioned that these strikes were hurting the image and economy of Canada. They opined that international business enterprises would reconsider investing in case labour conflicts persisted. But, labor unions responded that profits should not be made before treatment is given to the workers.
The Canadian government intervened to facilitate negotiations between employees and the management. Some groundwork was achieved after a couple of sessions of the discussions, but tensions were still high.
