Two major strikes are affecting services in Canadian cities including Toronto and Montreal.
A “strike” happens when workers, who are banded together in a “union,” decide to stop working until they get something they think is fair, such as raises, health coverage or money for their retirement.
A strike puts pressure on a company to talk to the union and possibly give the workers what they want. Usually there is a “compromise,” in other words, the workers and the company get some things they want but perhaps not everything. The company and the union try to find a solution that pleases both sides.
During the strike, workers often walk around outside the company, holding signs that tell people why they are striking.
The company tries to figure out how to keep its services and products going as usual so the company’s customers are affected as little as possible.
Right now, some workers at Canada Post and some workers at Air Canada are on strike. (The strikes are not related to each other.)
Air Canada
Air Canada is one of the country’s biggest airlines. The people at Air Canada who work in sales and in customer service – about 3,800 people – are on strike. They want the airline to continue paying its retired employees the way it has up until now.
During the strike, some flights will be delayed and people who are flying will find that line-ups will be long and slow before flights. Although Air Canada has hired some temporary workers to help them during the strike, managers are also being asked to do customer service. The managers and temporary staff are not as fast at doing those jobs as the workers, who do it every day.
Canada Post
The strike by Canada Post, the people who deliver our mail, is a little more unusual. It is a “rotating strike.” In one or two cities each day, the workers are refusing to deliver mail. (The strike is “rotating” across the country from city to city.)
This week the strike affected Toronto and Montreal, as about 15,000 workers stopped working.
The workers’ union (the Canadian Union of Postal Workers) has said it wants the company to pay them fairly, to pay retired employees appropriately, and to feel safe that they will not lose their jobs.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Whether you are young or old, it seems that when two people, or groups of people, want different things it is often very hard to figure out a solution. How do you solve a situation when what you want is different from someone else?
Reading Prompt
Today’s article contains the many different opinions held by companies and their workers. What strategies do you use to make sure that you’re correctly understanding what you read?
Primary & Junior
Identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand texts (OME, Reading: 1.3).
Intermediate
Identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand increasingly complex texts (OME, Reading: 1.3).
Grammar Feature: Affect
The word “affect” often gets mixed up with “effect.” The word “affect” means to influence something; the word “effect” is another way of saying result. “Affect” is a verb and “effect” is a noun.
The two examples below both include the word “affect.”
“Two major strikes are affecting services in Canadian cities including Toronto and Montreal.”
“This week the strike affected Toronto and Montreal, as about 15,000 workers stopped working.”
Put the correct word in the correct place (affect/effect).
1. What is the _____________ of the medication?
2. He will immediately _____________ the play of his teammates.
3. Her lottery win will _______________ her lifestyle.
4. The _____________ of the experiment is that Bruce Banner is also The Hulk.
