Canada Government Workers Strike Over Pay to Offset Inflation

OTTAWA—About 150,000 Canadian government workers went on strike early Wednesday, in a dispute over wage increases that could have implications on efforts by the country’s central bank to sharply slow inflation.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is seeking wage gains of 13.5% over a three-year period, or roughly 4.5% a year. Union leadership said this would help offset the sharp acceleration in inflation in Canada and the rest of the developed world since the initial wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to a combination of supply-chain constraints, stronger-than-expected consumer demand, and the war in Ukraine’s impact on commodity prices.