The Public Service Alliance of Canada is encouraging its members to avoid spending money while working downtown as a way to protest the federal government’s most recent return-to-office mandate, which went into effect this week.
In a post to its social media accounts Wednesday, PSAC encouraged its members who are returning to downtown offices more frequently this week to “buy nothing” from area businesses. The move is in response to those who have pushed for federal employees to do more in-person work to help increase foot traffic in the downtown core.
“Members of Canada’s business community have been calling on the federal government to bring employees back to the office for years,” PSAC said in an Instagram post. “The needs of the downtown core shouldn’t fall on the backs of workers and the federal service. How workers spend their money on in-office days will send a clear message to politicians.”
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The post added, “Our working conditions shouldn’t be leveraged by politicians to appease commercial interests.”
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said in a statement on social media that he did not approve of the union’s decision.
“I’m very disappointed to see PSAC targeting small businesses in their dispute with the federal government,” he wrote on LinkedIn Wednesday. “Downtown businesses are not responsible for decisions about back to work. They’ve suffered significantly as a result of the pandemic. Let’s keep them out of the line of fire. Let’s support them and support a thriving downtown.”
In its post, PSAC offered alternatives to its members, such as packing a lunch and otherwise reducing spending on in-office days.
At the same time, it encouraged members to support small businesses in their own neighbourhoods and to buy local whenever possible.
For Ottawa restaurant owner Anish Mehra, whose East India Company Restaurants has a location on Somerset Street near Elgin Street, the statement from the union comes as a surprise.
“I don’t know if it was their intent necessarily to target small (downtown) businesses and I know that they’re trying to stand up for their membership,” Mehra told OBJ Wednesday. “But I feel like this tactic is all wrong.”
Mehra said federal employees have been frequent customers of his restaurant since it opened downtown 20 years ago. Since the most recent RTO mandate was announced several months ago, he said the reactions he’s heard from federal civil servants have been mixed, with some happy to return and others frustrated.
He said he’s disappointed to see the way the union is handling the situation.
“Although we love having their members at our restaurants, I don’t think we are the ones forcing them back to work,” he said. “A lot of small businesses would love to have more people in downtown regularly, but this is a federal mandate. We have no control. And to paint the small business owners as the bad guy in the situation is unfortunate. Most of us are honest, hard-working people.”
