Canadian overseas mission staff end six month strike

The six months of rotating strikes by Canadian overseas embassy foreign service workers has been discontinued after a tentative agreement was reached over salaries.

Visa applicants whose chances of emigrating to Canada in the immediate future had been dashed by the strike will feel some relief that visa processing is set to return to normal. However, according to a union representative, the backlog created by the rotating stoppages is considerable and will need to be cleared before new applications are dealt with.

Union boss Tim Edwards called the settlement a victory for fair and free bargaining, adding that it reflected well on the government’s commitment to both fiscal responsibility and fairness towards its employees as well as to the taxpayer. The cost of the settlement is expected at around CA$2.6 million, some 60 per cent of the amount first demanded.

Major immigration processing hubs such as Beijing, London, Mexico City and New Delhi were amongst the worst affected, but media reports state that the foreign service workers are willing to work all hours to clear the admittedly huge backlog.The strike is acknowledged to have harmed Canada’s education, tourism and immigration sectors by forcing potential visitors and students to look elsewhere for leisure trips or further education courses and disrupting the plans of thousands of would-be immigrants.