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The Employer, the Canadian government, is trying to rein in the costs of the public service. They‘re cutting up to 40,000 jobs and plan on using AI to make us more efficient.

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s set aside RTO and all the money spent on renting space.

And, let’s try to be constructive.

With that said, if the Government engaged with us, with front-line workers, and said ‘how can we make our employees more productive and efficient,’ what would you say?

We’re on the cusp of RTO four days a week and the Union is missing in action. Can anyone explain this to me?

First, the Union brought us to strike when RTO was still largely in place - but, secured. us nothing tangible. What was the point?

Now, that RTO has begun and is ramping up… it‘s crickets.

When the Treasury Board’s Bill Matthews spoke to a parliamentary committee recently and openly said there is no evidence to back RTO, you’d expect PSAC to say something, wouldn’t you? Something? But, no…

You look at the Air Canada Union and the devastatingly effective Unfair Canada ads. Why aren’t we doing ads?

Why aren’t we telling Canadians about the billions and billions of dollars in rent that they’re spending to house federal government workers that could largely be working at home? One Union official (not PSAC) cited a government study saying it could be as high as $40-billion/year.

Think about what we could do with that kind of money. Paint a picture. Talk about the opportunity costs.

Tell Canadians that $4-billion/year equals the salary of about 40,000 nurses, give or take. Heck, it would cover the federal civil servants laid off. If the purpose of RTO is downtown revitalization, how many downtown homes could we build with this money? Investments in the economy, tax cuts, cutting the deficit, fixing our crumbling infrastructure..

Why isn’t the Union talking about the other costs and their impacts on the public?

The sick time - which has risen precipitously since RTO started. About 4 days a year, per the CBC. Because, a civil servant can work from home when they have the stomach flu, or Covid, etc. - but, can’t commute for 2-3 hours and doesn’t want to be sick at work. Billions more and lost productivity.

Then, you have the productivity issue. The limited research we have from Stats Canada (per a union not named PSAC) shows a 5% reduction in productivity. Other studies show more. Makes sense. If you’re spending all this time commuting and getting ready to work in the office, you have less energy when you’re there.

We also have the environmental issues.

And, the impacts on small and local businesses in our communities. If we’re spending money on our commutes, on parking, gas, car insurance… that’s money we don’t have to support our local businesses. The parking lot owners and gas companies and insurance companies make more… but, we don’t have the means to spend in our communities. Money is not infinite and public sector workers don’t make the high incomes people think.

My question, again, is where is PSAC? Why aren’t we telling Canadians about how RTO hurts their wallets? Why it is not good for them…

Why is our Union missing in action?

And, when PSAC rarely does speak, why don’t we have a good spokesperson? Someone that can connect with people and understands how to communicate effectively?

PSAC’s abdication of truly fighting for RTO is a loss for workers paying its dues but also for the labour movement far more broadly. The federal government contracts help set the standards and norms.