Kurl: 'Summer of discontent'? Federal public service should tread carefully in return-to-office dispute

Given the current public mood, workers who strike may not have the general Canadian population on their side.

Published May 24, 2024 • Last updated 18 hours ago • 3 minute read

PSAC is girding for a fight over the Treasury Board directive to return to place-of-work three days a week by the fall. Photo by Justin Tang /The Canadian Press

So, nearly 10,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada who work for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) have voted near-unanimously to strike if needed — which in turn could throw travel, tourism and, critically, the flow of goods in and out of this country into chaos.

The vote brings into sharper focus what has been to this point more of a tempest in the teapot that is the nation’s capital: the threat of a so-called “summer of discontent,” driven by the Trudeau government’s decision to require federal public service employees to be at a physical place of work three days a week.

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To be sure, there’s plenty not to like about the way it’s all happened: a lack of consultation alleged by union leaders caught off-guard by this policy change. The rationale, at least by some (including Ontario Premier Doug Ford), that such a change was needed because commercial life in downtown Ottawa continues to struggle. Valid questions over where many public servants, whether in the capital or other cities, might actually sit (or stand; standing is healthier) given their employer’s existing commitment to sell many of its buildings.

But even as one powerful union is upping the ante in its seriousness over remote and telework issues, the reaction of Canadians, especially those of working age, and notably, even other public sector union members, shows a lack of … solidarity … on the issue.

“Return-to-office” has been a fraught process for employers and workers across any number of sectors in the post-pandemic world. In major Canadian cities, office towers remain unfilled, although downtown cores are arguably busier now than were the eery tumbleweed-down-main-street days of 2020 and 2021. Those who worked from home during that period (or who continue to) say if anything, they were as productive as they had been in-office. As this country began to emerge from the worst of COVID-19, many remote employees vowed they’d quit their jobs rather than return full-time to a physical place of work.

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But data soon to be released by the Angus Reid Institute also shows that while a slice of these folks did, indeed, make good on their intentions, many more have come back to their workplace, in some cases fully relieved and glad to see their colleagues face-to-face again. This perhaps goes some way to explaining why six-in-10 Canadians support the federal government increasing the number of days its employees will be required to return to a physical place of work.

Consider also that nearly half of public sector union members (47 per cent) also support this requirement, according to polling released by the Institute. To be sure, these respondents are not all federal union members: they may be nurses, teachers or others who work for various levels of government and carry a union card. But their views represent an important reality check as this conflict threatens to intensify.

A significant segment among public sector union members, fully one-third of them, also say the Trudeau government should stand firm on its three-days-in-office requirement, even if it means service disruptions.

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Generational and gender differences drive opinion on this matter. Younger women are much more likely to oppose increasing the time-at-physical-work requirement. Older men, many of whom have already retired or are near retirement age, are most supportive. Fairly or unfairly, regardless of demographics, the vast majority (75 per cent) of those surveyed believe federal government employees’ working conditions are “much better” than those of other employed Canadians.

The last time CBSA workers took job action, few were travelling. It could will be different this time. Given the current public mood, striking workers may not have the general population on their side, especially if Canadians face the prospect of endless airport and border lineups. The answered question remains: who will feel more discontent this summer, and which side will blink first?

Shachi Kurl is president of the Angus Reid Institute, a national, not-for-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation.

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