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Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

cbc.ca

21–30 of 49 posts

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#21
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any job which should not be allowed to strike? It seems this is a disagreement over money which compared to national security may not quite balance.

Many government positions do not give you a right to strike. The idea of striking is to force the company to raise prices or cut management salary and give more to workers, so it's a type of political battle over the economic surplus created by the firm. That makes sense in, say, a factory or business where there is a surplus to be fought over. But Government agencies have no surpluses, they run deficits and they hav…

> Many government positions do not give you a right to strike.

That may be true in other countries. In Canada, our Federal government employees are part of a union that comprises 200,000 employees.

The rest of what you wrote is a very American perspective on public service, unions, and payroll structures that is almost entirely irrelevant to a discussion of Canadian government agencies.

As for your last paragraph, it's easy to imagine firefighters and police officers going on strike, because they do (at least here). So do our bus drivers and other critical employees; it's just done in a way that affects people, but with plans in place to reduce impacts to safety.

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#22

Sounds like they weren't doing a very good job, otherwise they could have just used the information they gathered to blackmail whatever Canada's version of congress is into giving them more money like their counterpart US spy agencies do.

Odds are that these people are way smarter than you and obviously have taken a course that allows them to not compromise their ethics, and hopefully serves to create a stronger workforce and a more secure world.

> compromise their ethics

They're spying or supporting those doing spying, right?

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odds are that these people are way smarter than you and obviously have taken a course that allows them to not compromise their ethics, and hopefully serves to create a stronger workforce and a more secure world.

I'm not sure forced attendance in an ethics course has as much of an effect as you would like it to.

Reading comprehension is important; in this case the word course relates to the path these folks took in their career.

And yes, mandatory ethics courses are an important part of helping people to understand the difference between unethical and ethical behaviour, especially if they can't or didn't learn that on their own. It's why ethics training is both offered and required in many professional roles.

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#24
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CIA and NSA are also civilian.

the NSA is "civilian" in name only, to get around that pesky constitution that the government hates soo much. the NSA is a division of the DoD, it is based on a Military Base, and it has many military officers in high ranking positions if it acts like a duck, talks likes a Duck, calling it s something else does not make it anything other than a duck, this NSA for all practical purpose is part of the military. They sa…

Its still civilian in the way that matters for this discussion in that its not a crime for an NSA employee to disobey an order.

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#25

Sounds like they weren't doing a very good job, otherwise they could have just used the information they gathered to blackmail whatever Canada's version of congress is into giving them more money like their counterpart US spy agencies do.

Odds are that these people are way smarter than you and obviously have taken a course that allows them to not compromise their ethics, and hopefully serves to create a stronger workforce and a more secure world.

> ethics

Debatable.

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#26

It's crazy to think what is basically a branch of the NSA (sorry Echelon member states) has the will and means to go on strike. Those kinds of tendencies would likely disqualify you from the job here.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but doesn't it exposes workers to OPSEC issues? I mean, if it is a strike, there must be a way to identify how is it being organized/ co-ordinated via some social media/ messaging apps leaving them wide open for other nation state actors to identify who-n-who of CSE. That is assuming CSE employees are not profiled actively before this.

Sure maybe, but then again, from the article:

The Public Service Alliance of Canada represents 2,400 employees working in cryptography, applied mathematics, advanced language analysis and cybersecurity at the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

I think some of those 2,400 union dues paying members might have taken steps to make sure they were doing things in a way that is reasonably secure... I do wonder how many other unions have that many folks able to help out.

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#27
post #9

>At issue is a change to the market allowance — a wage supplement negotiated to close pay gaps with workers doing similar work in the private sector. It's a benefit often used to attract employees into highly technical jobs in the public service So... quit and work in the private sector then?

As a Canadian, I would much prefer our government pays comparable private sector salaries.

They will when people are all leaving for better pay elsewhere.

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#28

Sounds like they weren't doing a very good job, otherwise they could have just used the information they gathered to blackmail whatever Canada's version of congress is into giving them more money like their counterpart US spy agencies do.

Odds are that these people are way smarter than you and obviously have taken a course that allows them to not compromise their ethics, and hopefully serves to create a stronger workforce and a more secure world.

Smart people don't use force to get paid. They usually obtain a pay rise through offering a better product,not through extortion scams (public sector workers striking).

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#29
I applied to work at CSE at the end of university, didn't end up getting the clearance but it was certainly an interesting experience. What I noticed:

1) Got told it was very awesome. Like mind blowing stuff that are developed there.

2) Their goal is to see if you're loyal to the country and not susceptible to blackmail and can be trusted with very delicate information. Never in the process I had the impression that they were selecting for anything else.

3) The people I've seen who worked there seemed to really care about what they do and the people I know ho work there are very good and ethical people.

4) Polygraphs work. The documentaries you've seen about how "they only test how relaxed you are" are outdated BS. By the way if you're applying don't look up how they work or how to "cheat". Not that I did it but they tell you that it will be detrimental to you passing the test.

5) Before applying, be aware that you will have to tell them all your secrets. All of them. Especially the very dark and intimate ones. This is not for everybody.

6) If you were like me and had to move out many times during your life, do not throw out your leases, you will see that it's hard to remember addresses from 5+ years ago.

7) Yes we talked about Snowden. Got told "yeah there are things most people don't know [about him]". I'll leave it at that.

Re: Hundreds of workers at cybersecurity agency vote to strike

#30
post #21
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many government positions do not give you a right to strike. The idea of striking is to force the company to raise prices or cut management salary and give more to workers, so it's a type of political battle over the economic surplus created by the firm. That makes sense in, say, a factory or business where there is a surplus to be fought over. But Government agencies have no surpluses, they run deficits and they hav…

> Many government positions do not give you a right to strike. That may be true in other countries. In Canada, our Federal government employees are part of a union that comprises 200,000 employees. The rest of what you wrote is a very American perspective on public service, unions, and payroll structures that is almost entirely irrelevant to a discussion of Canadian government agencies. As for your last paragraph, it…

They do all over the world, France for example recently.
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