Opinion The decision this week by 2,300 Manitoba Hydro workers to go on strike is hardly surprising. The decision this week by 2,300 Manitoba Hydro workers to go on strike is hardly surprising. Given the profuse serving of tough love that has been dished out over the last few years, it would have been shocking if they had stayed on the job. The workers who maintain Hydro’s power transmission and distribution systems have been without a contract since 2018. Last year, they had to absorb three unpaid days off after the Progressive Conservative government demanded the Crown corporation trim operating costs. On the heels of all that, the offer presented to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034 would seem — even to skeptics of the collective bargaining approach — to be almost punitive.