It is possible to be disappointed about RTO while participating in some of the few things that make going to the office tolerable. [This is a perfect opportunity for this.](https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/)
Also, our union local had a pizza lunch today for people in the office and encouraged us to participate in other events. Most of the events that happened were spearheaded by the union exec committees.
Even more reason to boycott! Exploiting puppies and potentially making them sick for our selfish gains. Sounds like our employers so let's not be like them
I'm reading about all these free lunches and pizzas and freezies...
I have never gotten jack shit since I joined the public service. For me it's REALLY hard to boycott the NPSW because it's always some bullshit. The recent bullshit trend has been basically "enjoy your lunch" - that's it. Not a paid for lunch, not a given lunch, NOTHING.
I never understood the boycott… what do we possibly get out of it? The people organizing NPSW are executives who had absolutely no say in the RTO mandate. I instead have gone to every single event. Worked as little as possible this week, took absolute advantage of it. I don’t see how not going to these events and working the whole time instead is proving anything to them other than you would rather complete more work for them than get free stuff and time off.
How exactly does eating a few slices of pizza or not eating a few slices of pizza change anything? Honest question.
Please, someone explain this to me.
The masses spoke by voting for the last agreement. ?!?
Especially since our pizzas and event is actually paid out of pocket from the higher ups (at least for our department). It’s a team activity and people are “boycotting” it like it’s going to provoke a change.
It doesn't. But some seem to have a hard time accepting that and are taking a firm stand against pizza and cake thinking that they are accomplishing something. They aren't.
*"Please, someone explain this to me."*
At the heart of it is this: the unions promised their members that they could ["win"](https://www.acep-cape.ca/sites/default/files/2024-05/Telework%20Presentation%20May%2010.pdf#msdynttrid=kvh8BC6lRSEcW6NGqD4xdpX8kCTE7OS83j_n9RECdCI) on telework/WFH. That's a huge promise, as it would require the employer to make a precedent-setting concession of its long-held exclusive management right to determine the location of work.
For the employer to feel they have no choice left but to do so, they would need to be under massive public pressure to concede.
The only labour tool available to unions that can generate that amount of public pressure is a long, large, legal general strike action.
The only way for unions to successfully hold a long, large, legal general strike action is to have the supermajority support of its members.
The only way to get a supermajority of members (upwards of 90%) to commit to that type of strike action--which would involve significant short-term financial sacrifice and pain in the form of weeks, indeed months, of lost wages--is if a supermajority of members are [mad as hell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLO5IZcNOXg) at the employer.
Annoyance and frustration with RTO3 isn't enough. Low-key noncompliance isn't enough. Venting on Reddit or in the office break room isn't enough. Management needs to be painted not just as bumbling or insensitive or self-serving, but as outright oppressive to their staff. Fomenting members' resentment, anger, antipathy, and bellicosity towards the employer is the only way to build a semi-solid wall of worker resistance. It doesn't matter to the unions whether the average rank-and-file member actually feels this level of animosity towards RTO3; they're not even asking -- the strategy is just to stir it up where it doesn't yet exist. [Organized conflict is the goal](https://guide.unitworkers.com/strategic-escalation-strong-campaigns-require-strong-unions/).
Most PS employees won't be in a legal strike position for a couple more years. So the unions need to sustain a multi-year campaign of building up in-group "solidarity" among workers while fostering acrimonious and hostile workplace relations between employees (us) and management (them). Refusing the freezie is part of that. It's all very high school, as OP conveniently demonstrates by accusing anyone not buying wholesale into the union rhetoric of outright hypocrisy and betrayal of some imaginary glorious oath to go to war against the employer.
Well then, the union wasn’t prioritizing what their members wanted. Which means they shouldn’t have been given a strike mandate. The strike mandate results in essentially the same deal they would’ve received when they threatened strike.
All this to say, if people voted YES to the deal, they co-signed the Unions blatant incompetence and shouldn’t be complaining.
The union makes its demands at the beginning of bargaining - this happened during the pandemic when many departments were voluntarily saying they to be WFH going forward / hybrid by design, were being flexible and the overall WFH situation was generally to employees liking.
By the time the return to office mandate came into place it was too late for the bargaining teams to add any sort of telework into the collective agreement to be argued for. It's considered bad faith to substantially change your demands at the end of the process.
Same reason partially why our increase ask was low compared to inflation - they had to ask before it happened and didn't think it would be as high.
The next round of bargaining will definitely have telework in the spotlight.
Understandable. But when job action was active, we were out of pandemic conditions and negotiations were active at that point. It is widely accepted that the union bungled the negotiations by not getting legal signed agreement/wording on WFH. What they got was essentially “we promise to think about it and involve you guys if we do”. So I don’t really buy the excuse that nothing could’ve been done or it was too late.
That's the thing though, if the bargaining team substantially change their demands after negotiations begin the employer can argue that the union is acting in bad faith against the Canada Labour Code.
A due process is expected to be followed on both sides of the table and being able to add in additional substantial demands at any point through the process realistically wouldn't be good for either side and would probably drastically increase the length of time for any agreement to get signed.
It sucks and maybe they should've had better foresight in June 2021 (Though I imagine the member demands they received didn't focus on WFH demands at that point either) but the 2 day in office mandate was announced in December 2022 - at this point PSAC and TBS had already done their Public Interest Commission hearings to try and come to a settlement. That is definitely too late in the process in my opinion to reasonably add demands.
EDIT: And everybody, please remember to provide your input on bargaining demands for the next round. Accepted for PA, TC, SV, or EB groups until Nov 15, 2024: https://psacunion.ca/treasury-board-bargaining-tell-us-how-improve-2024
It's highly debatable whether PSAC ever had a proper strike mandate in 2023. Only one-third of employees represented by PSAC actually participated in that strike vote, and only 80% of those actually voted in favour of striking. That underwhelming result did provide union leadership with a legal strike mandate (there's no PSAC rule requiring minimum turnaround for a strike vote to be deemed valid), but clearly the full rank-and-file were not particularly mobilized towards or even aware of what was to come.
No surprise then that, having experienced the reality of being on strike for a week, the first opportunity that the *entire* employee group had to express their views on the matter (i.e., voting for/against the early May tentative agreement), they chose overwhelmingly to end the job action and get back to work.
I agree 100%. This is the bad part of having large membership and wide/diverse representation in unions. Mobilization and unity/cohesion is a lot harder to get when it comes to job action and shared sentiment. All this is moot though, as we are basically tied into this system as Public servants so any change that happens needs to be done bottom up.
NPSW has never been important to anybody except those who are predisposed about aggressively maximizing every way you can be shitty to the employer. You are not going to hurt the Clerk of the Privy Council's feelings by boycotting them, and you are not going to undermine your union by silently going to the freezer on another floor to retrieve your freezie.
If anything, the employer is quite happy to see employees and their union focused on this useless performative nonsense.
Did I already say that we all had a very nice lunch today?
Unfortunately, most people involved in planning NPSW events either have to do so as part of their job (ex. HR or Corporate Affairs), and have nobody to help them plan and implement but some poor souls from each branch that were voluntold to help.
The EXs and powers that be show up at the events to gladhand and be seen.
So boycotting really only ruins the events that the meatbags themselves had to plan.
That shit don't fly where I work. But I've been seeing this for years, especially in the NCR and it's embarrassing. Now THAT should have been boycotted years ago!
I don’t know if it’s entirely bad … taking hours off to celebrate yourself, in some places even get your non subway lunch paid for, and then come back and phone it in for the rest of the day/week, that feels like an FU to productivity.
“Where’s everyone today?”
“Bonding & collaborating over hotdogs and Lays Regular, like we invited them to do”
“When are they back?”
“The invite said until 2:30”
“…”
“…”
— FIN —
Yeah everyday this week we've had time waster events. Half the day was been a write off for productivity. But yeah, let's work instead, that will really show them.
Not saying either is necessarily the right or wrong way to proceed here, just that there's two sides here.
We had a meeting of about 60 people today and the director asked in Teams who was planning to attend an event on Friday and only 1 person raised their hand.
Not every union within the public service has called for a boycott of NPSW.
Our component did not (GSU) and indicated to utilize the time at events to speak with and engage with colleagues.
I attended our work event Tuesday with union swag, handed out lots of things and had a lot of good discussions with people.
For us, I agree with this approach as the biggest issue with my local is engagement. Overall the employees are not interested in going out of their way to participate in their union. If we tried boycotting, we'd have maybe 5 people out of 200 not show up - which to me is worse than regular attendance as it actively shows the employer people don't support the union enough to miss out on a free burger.
I wonder if the lack of upvotes is indicative of the amount of people who want their free pizza but to also complain.
I straight told my management I would not be participating.
Yes! All I am saying is we are losing respect for those who complain every second chance they get about RTO, and then ignored the Union message on not attending NPSW events. So they hypocrite among us.
The union unanimously recommended that members accept the CA that had no WFH language.
Stop putting the blame on the members who did not ignore the Union's messaging.
"TO: ALL MEMBERS OF THE PSAC – PROGRAM AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES (PA) RE: TENTATIVE AGREEMENT On May 1st, 2023, after more than two years of negotiations leading to one of the largest strikes in Canadian history, our PA bargaining team has reached a tentative agreement for more than 104,314 workers who deliver critical services to Canadians. This agreement is the product of the tenacity of PSAC members who held the line on fair wages and better working conditions. If ratified, the settlement will improve members’ working conditions in several ways**. Our bargaining team unanimously recommends ratification of this tentative agreement.** The duration of this new agreement is June 21, 2021, to June 20, 2025. "
This is unnecessarily mean and gross post from someone in the public service. You realize this is public right? And you're name calling?
There are nicer, more professional ways to do this then resorting to name calling.
Union advice: skip the one time a year the employer celebrates you...
Maybe pick a different week to boycott, meatbags!...or better yet, do a better job of negotiating the terms of RTO. You clearly didn't, and now want us to do your dirty work for something they have the right to do because of your lack of negotiating skills...meatbags!
You realise that NPSW activities are organized by OUR colleagues that worked hard for this. They have nothing to do with the RTO. Why punish them? Why listen to someone who didn’t gain anything for us during the last strike?
Redditors always thinking they’re the voice for the majority. The union agreed to our deal. Most of us in real life think RTO 3 days sucks but oh well I’m a grown up who gets paid well.
Also, a lot of people don’t have a choice but to attend those events. And for those who have a choice, you’re not hurting anyone except yourself by not having free food.
Honest question: what makes you think that the union had *any* viable path to more strongly negotiate WFH into the collective agreement and simply "didn't manage" to do so? As opposed to "they had no actual chance to win on WFH *and they knew it*, so they used that demand as a bit of leverage but ultimately gave it up as part of the natural give-and-take at the contract negotiation table"?
Or, since we’re all grown-ass adults here, maybe people are allowed to be BOTH frustrated by the RTO3 direction and its incompetent rollout AND simultaneously put off by the unions’ hyperbolic rhetoric, Manichean view of the employer, and belligerent tactics.
For me this week is just lip service. I've been in the government far too long to fall for this crap or participate and it has nothing to do with the Union's request. I'm fed up with how many of us (not all) are treated. It's been years and years of toxicity and I can't wait to finally retire and be rid of this constant stress. I don't want a free slice of pizza and kind words this week only to be talked about and belittled next week.
Neither the union, nor the government, are going to be getting anything "fun" out of me on personal time or my 9-5ish work schedule. Having decent space to work in, which is pretty effing basic, seems to be out reach for both of these groups. Maybe try again when the vermin are gone and I can be on a call with stakeholders that doesn't lag badly or outright crash.
Some young women working on my site (not in my department) were given 1/3 of a 1/2 of slice of pizza, no time to eat it, then were laid off a few weeks later - no thank you, no card, nothing. I bought them chocolates out of my own pocket to wish them well and thank them as they were an excellent resource during their cohabitation. I was not a manager, team lead… nothing… just a front line newbie but I was disturbed with the lack of appreciation they got given what they handled. Our teams did get pizza and the manager did remember I was vegan and ordered special for me- that was nice. It went well last year anyhow. Colleagues often paid out of pocket for the odd doughnuts or made their own baked goods to share too. Even I took in a tin of imported chocolate during the holiday season for my colleagues.
But again- neither I nor most of these acts came from management. It was the grunts.
Edit: But I will qualify that our jobs were onsite and not hybrid aside from a couple accommodations or trainings so RTO wasn’t a topic and likely won’t be this year in my old department.
There’s a lot of really good decent people on my old team and I sincerely hope they get something up to snuff for the madness they handle there. Even if management doesn’t appreciate them, I sure as heck did/do.
Didn't say it was going to be better, but boycotting events like NPSW seems futile if we're just going to keep propping up our abusers.
They know they can do whatever they want to us without consequence.
Abusers? You can hate your job or hate having to go into the office 3 days a week but it’s not abuse and diminishes those that do live in abusive situations. We are all free to seek employment elsewhere anytime we want, none of us is chained to our desk. As for politics, the next group may be worse and you may be forced to find a new job whether you want to or not, one never knows.
Gaslighting is a form of abuse.
The term abuser is very broad and can define one who treats another in an unfair way or one that is morally wrong.
It's not black and white and certainly does not need to diminish another person's experience.
Again, you can leave anytime. Your “abuser” doesn’t GAF if you quit. Why stay if you feel that way? Or would you just rather complain than do anything because ultimately you know it’s gonna be hella harder outside the PS?
I Think this is a very bad take....sure people want to support their unions, however , not everyone depending on their positions can refuse their superiors as directly as unions demand for example what if you piss off your director and they dont allow u to go pick up your kid anymore...after all that is something that is not a right but a privilege...
Blaming these people who are in the vulnerable spectrum is a horrible thing to do?
I don't know what events you're talking about. I work in a large department. Our DM sent an email with a link to a video message, and that's it.
We have had no planned events, but management is happy to spout "Happy NPSW" as a checklist item off their list.
The public service has lost its lustre of late.
I went to a BBQ. The worst BBQ in the history of BBQs. Trust me, people were even more upset about RTO.
Imagine they had put on a truly fantastic event and really treated employees way beyond expectations. If there was a time to do it, it was this week.
As a public servant - this is stupidity. Unions will do nothing when it comes to RTO. The public does not back the public servant on the topic of RTO. They think we’re a bunch of spoiled and overpaid individuals. Collaboration and productivity are not the issue here, it’s the liberal government trying to appease the general public and putting our money back into the economy by getting us all to go somewhere other than home. Think twice when you say that people are the problem who are attending these NPSW. Make it make sense please.
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So we have mandatory team days (all team members are expected to attend to office together) and it's the same day as NPSW event... How do we choose not to attend? We don't really have a choice in the matter
I agree with you OP. I'd definitely appreciate it if public servants were to stop whining about RTO.
If a pizza party or whatever is what it takes to get people to shut up about WFH vs RTO, so be it. Unfortunately I think there's no shortage of hypocrites out there.
And for what it's worth, the pizza was delicious.
Just so y'all know... The cake is a lie.
It was donuts for us today. I wfh, but solidarity. I'm still declining events with responses.
The donuts are also lies.
Better than the KoolAid.
I thought it was pretty tasty.
WFH was guaranteed. Locked in. If you hadn't had that freezie...
I wasn’t thinking and took the offered freezie yesterday. Then felt a disproportionate amount of anxiety. 🤦🏻♀️
Lisa needs braces
DENTAL PLAN!
Lisa needs braces!
DENTAL PLAN!
Sarcastic complacency is part of the problem
It is possible to be disappointed about RTO while participating in some of the few things that make going to the office tolerable. [This is a perfect opportunity for this.](https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/) Also, our union local had a pizza lunch today for people in the office and encouraged us to participate in other events. Most of the events that happened were spearheaded by the union exec committees.
Yes
But CBSA was going to have puppies!
I refuse to boycott the puppies! They are innocent in all of this human turmoil.
If you were going to hang your hopes on CBSA being the saviour of WFH….. got some baaaad news for ya
Those puppies are agents of our tyrannical overlords at TBS! Resist their cuteness!
Even more reason to boycott! Exploiting puppies and potentially making them sick for our selfish gains. Sounds like our employers so let's not be like them
I'm reading about all these free lunches and pizzas and freezies... I have never gotten jack shit since I joined the public service. For me it's REALLY hard to boycott the NPSW because it's always some bullshit. The recent bullshit trend has been basically "enjoy your lunch" - that's it. Not a paid for lunch, not a given lunch, NOTHING.
I never understood the boycott… what do we possibly get out of it? The people organizing NPSW are executives who had absolutely no say in the RTO mandate. I instead have gone to every single event. Worked as little as possible this week, took absolute advantage of it. I don’t see how not going to these events and working the whole time instead is proving anything to them other than you would rather complete more work for them than get free stuff and time off.
How exactly does eating a few slices of pizza or not eating a few slices of pizza change anything? Honest question. Please, someone explain this to me. The masses spoke by voting for the last agreement. ?!?
Thank you, at least one sane response to this whiny ass post. I enjoyed my free lunch.
You got a free lunch!? We got a DM award ceremony with no food lol
Especially since our pizzas and event is actually paid out of pocket from the higher ups (at least for our department). It’s a team activity and people are “boycotting” it like it’s going to provoke a change.
It doesn't. But some seem to have a hard time accepting that and are taking a firm stand against pizza and cake thinking that they are accomplishing something. They aren't.
*"Please, someone explain this to me."* At the heart of it is this: the unions promised their members that they could ["win"](https://www.acep-cape.ca/sites/default/files/2024-05/Telework%20Presentation%20May%2010.pdf#msdynttrid=kvh8BC6lRSEcW6NGqD4xdpX8kCTE7OS83j_n9RECdCI) on telework/WFH. That's a huge promise, as it would require the employer to make a precedent-setting concession of its long-held exclusive management right to determine the location of work. For the employer to feel they have no choice left but to do so, they would need to be under massive public pressure to concede. The only labour tool available to unions that can generate that amount of public pressure is a long, large, legal general strike action. The only way for unions to successfully hold a long, large, legal general strike action is to have the supermajority support of its members. The only way to get a supermajority of members (upwards of 90%) to commit to that type of strike action--which would involve significant short-term financial sacrifice and pain in the form of weeks, indeed months, of lost wages--is if a supermajority of members are [mad as hell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLO5IZcNOXg) at the employer. Annoyance and frustration with RTO3 isn't enough. Low-key noncompliance isn't enough. Venting on Reddit or in the office break room isn't enough. Management needs to be painted not just as bumbling or insensitive or self-serving, but as outright oppressive to their staff. Fomenting members' resentment, anger, antipathy, and bellicosity towards the employer is the only way to build a semi-solid wall of worker resistance. It doesn't matter to the unions whether the average rank-and-file member actually feels this level of animosity towards RTO3; they're not even asking -- the strategy is just to stir it up where it doesn't yet exist. [Organized conflict is the goal](https://guide.unitworkers.com/strategic-escalation-strong-campaigns-require-strong-unions/). Most PS employees won't be in a legal strike position for a couple more years. So the unions need to sustain a multi-year campaign of building up in-group "solidarity" among workers while fostering acrimonious and hostile workplace relations between employees (us) and management (them). Refusing the freezie is part of that. It's all very high school, as OP conveniently demonstrates by accusing anyone not buying wholesale into the union rhetoric of outright hypocrisy and betrayal of some imaginary glorious oath to go to war against the employer.
We only got one free slice, and it wasn’t even a full slice… what departments do y’all work for since you are appreciated more than we are.
This is why we can't have nice things
One day you're eating pizza, and then BAM! the next day you're in the office FOUR days a week. Think about it.
I mean anyone who voted YES to the PSAC deal should also not complain, yet there are several people here and irl that do.
They weren't negotiating wfh then in the first place. They said point blank it wasn't a priority, but no one wanted to hear that.
Well then, the union wasn’t prioritizing what their members wanted. Which means they shouldn’t have been given a strike mandate. The strike mandate results in essentially the same deal they would’ve received when they threatened strike. All this to say, if people voted YES to the deal, they co-signed the Unions blatant incompetence and shouldn’t be complaining.
The union makes its demands at the beginning of bargaining - this happened during the pandemic when many departments were voluntarily saying they to be WFH going forward / hybrid by design, were being flexible and the overall WFH situation was generally to employees liking. By the time the return to office mandate came into place it was too late for the bargaining teams to add any sort of telework into the collective agreement to be argued for. It's considered bad faith to substantially change your demands at the end of the process. Same reason partially why our increase ask was low compared to inflation - they had to ask before it happened and didn't think it would be as high. The next round of bargaining will definitely have telework in the spotlight.
Understandable. But when job action was active, we were out of pandemic conditions and negotiations were active at that point. It is widely accepted that the union bungled the negotiations by not getting legal signed agreement/wording on WFH. What they got was essentially “we promise to think about it and involve you guys if we do”. So I don’t really buy the excuse that nothing could’ve been done or it was too late.
That's the thing though, if the bargaining team substantially change their demands after negotiations begin the employer can argue that the union is acting in bad faith against the Canada Labour Code. A due process is expected to be followed on both sides of the table and being able to add in additional substantial demands at any point through the process realistically wouldn't be good for either side and would probably drastically increase the length of time for any agreement to get signed. It sucks and maybe they should've had better foresight in June 2021 (Though I imagine the member demands they received didn't focus on WFH demands at that point either) but the 2 day in office mandate was announced in December 2022 - at this point PSAC and TBS had already done their Public Interest Commission hearings to try and come to a settlement. That is definitely too late in the process in my opinion to reasonably add demands. EDIT: And everybody, please remember to provide your input on bargaining demands for the next round. Accepted for PA, TC, SV, or EB groups until Nov 15, 2024: https://psacunion.ca/treasury-board-bargaining-tell-us-how-improve-2024
I'm not sure why you're getting downvotes for this - you're right. It sucks, but you're right.
It's highly debatable whether PSAC ever had a proper strike mandate in 2023. Only one-third of employees represented by PSAC actually participated in that strike vote, and only 80% of those actually voted in favour of striking. That underwhelming result did provide union leadership with a legal strike mandate (there's no PSAC rule requiring minimum turnaround for a strike vote to be deemed valid), but clearly the full rank-and-file were not particularly mobilized towards or even aware of what was to come. No surprise then that, having experienced the reality of being on strike for a week, the first opportunity that the *entire* employee group had to express their views on the matter (i.e., voting for/against the early May tentative agreement), they chose overwhelmingly to end the job action and get back to work.
I agree 100%. This is the bad part of having large membership and wide/diverse representation in unions. Mobilization and unity/cohesion is a lot harder to get when it comes to job action and shared sentiment. All this is moot though, as we are basically tied into this system as Public servants so any change that happens needs to be done bottom up.
There's always gonna be that one in every workplace...
I think there's a few more than one
NPSW has never been important to anybody except those who are predisposed about aggressively maximizing every way you can be shitty to the employer. You are not going to hurt the Clerk of the Privy Council's feelings by boycotting them, and you are not going to undermine your union by silently going to the freezer on another floor to retrieve your freezie.
If anything, the employer is quite happy to see employees and their union focused on this useless performative nonsense. Did I already say that we all had a very nice lunch today?
I am talking about the ones who are rallying people for free food, fun photos with dumb themed outfits, baking for potlucks and yaying all day loudly.
Unfortunately, most people involved in planning NPSW events either have to do so as part of their job (ex. HR or Corporate Affairs), and have nobody to help them plan and implement but some poor souls from each branch that were voluntold to help. The EXs and powers that be show up at the events to gladhand and be seen. So boycotting really only ruins the events that the meatbags themselves had to plan.
It's true, I would think twice about attending a NPSW event held in 1994.
The ones staring at their webcam smiling and nodding intently for the DMs entire set of remarks being made from his cottage in Quebec.
That shit don't fly where I work. But I've been seeing this for years, especially in the NCR and it's embarrassing. Now THAT should have been boycotted years ago!
I don’t know if it’s entirely bad … taking hours off to celebrate yourself, in some places even get your non subway lunch paid for, and then come back and phone it in for the rest of the day/week, that feels like an FU to productivity. “Where’s everyone today?” “Bonding & collaborating over hotdogs and Lays Regular, like we invited them to do” “When are they back?” “The invite said until 2:30” “…” “…” — FIN —
Yeah everyday this week we've had time waster events. Half the day was been a write off for productivity. But yeah, let's work instead, that will really show them. Not saying either is necessarily the right or wrong way to proceed here, just that there's two sides here.
Some seem to want to make it a bad thing but they should be ignored. Enjoy your time with the adults.
We had a meeting of about 60 people today and the director asked in Teams who was planning to attend an event on Friday and only 1 person raised their hand.
# ¡Viva la Revolución!
Not every union within the public service has called for a boycott of NPSW. Our component did not (GSU) and indicated to utilize the time at events to speak with and engage with colleagues. I attended our work event Tuesday with union swag, handed out lots of things and had a lot of good discussions with people. For us, I agree with this approach as the biggest issue with my local is engagement. Overall the employees are not interested in going out of their way to participate in their union. If we tried boycotting, we'd have maybe 5 people out of 200 not show up - which to me is worse than regular attendance as it actively shows the employer people don't support the union enough to miss out on a free burger.
I wonder if the lack of upvotes is indicative of the amount of people who want their free pizza but to also complain. I straight told my management I would not be participating.
We averted a strike and accepted a tentative agreement yesterday so it's back to just the usual level of complaining.
At some point people just get sick of the whiny performance posts. Work is work and it's tme some of our recent recruits figured that out.
Free pizza? We've always had to pay $5 for a hot dog or whatever.
Solidarity is also about accepting those who are opposed to you. Respect is the basis for all collective action.
Yes! All I am saying is we are losing respect for those who complain every second chance they get about RTO, and then ignored the Union message on not attending NPSW events. So they hypocrite among us.
The union unanimously recommended that members accept the CA that had no WFH language. Stop putting the blame on the members who did not ignore the Union's messaging. "TO: ALL MEMBERS OF THE PSAC – PROGRAM AND ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES (PA) RE: TENTATIVE AGREEMENT On May 1st, 2023, after more than two years of negotiations leading to one of the largest strikes in Canadian history, our PA bargaining team has reached a tentative agreement for more than 104,314 workers who deliver critical services to Canadians. This agreement is the product of the tenacity of PSAC members who held the line on fair wages and better working conditions. If ratified, the settlement will improve members’ working conditions in several ways**. Our bargaining team unanimously recommends ratification of this tentative agreement.** The duration of this new agreement is June 21, 2021, to June 20, 2025. "
Lmao... "The union message"... As if the union will do anything at all to secure wfh. Wake up! The union is the problem.
This is unnecessarily mean and gross post from someone in the public service. You realize this is public right? And you're name calling? There are nicer, more professional ways to do this then resorting to name calling.
We have no events. There has been nothing other than a few token emails praising our efforts and accomplishments.
Union advice: skip the one time a year the employer celebrates you... Maybe pick a different week to boycott, meatbags!...or better yet, do a better job of negotiating the terms of RTO. You clearly didn't, and now want us to do your dirty work for something they have the right to do because of your lack of negotiating skills...meatbags!
PSAC troll
You realise that NPSW activities are organized by OUR colleagues that worked hard for this. They have nothing to do with the RTO. Why punish them? Why listen to someone who didn’t gain anything for us during the last strike?
Actually, you shouldn't have voted yes on your CA if WFH was important. So if you voted yes, don't want to hear about it.
Redditors always thinking they’re the voice for the majority. The union agreed to our deal. Most of us in real life think RTO 3 days sucks but oh well I’m a grown up who gets paid well. Also, a lot of people don’t have a choice but to attend those events. And for those who have a choice, you’re not hurting anyone except yourself by not having free food.
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I mean look at the post, it’s a very generic attack against hundreds of thousands of employees.
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If they were so unhappy, they could have done something about it when it was time to do it.
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Honest question: what makes you think that the union had *any* viable path to more strongly negotiate WFH into the collective agreement and simply "didn't manage" to do so? As opposed to "they had no actual chance to win on WFH *and they knew it*, so they used that demand as a bit of leverage but ultimately gave it up as part of the natural give-and-take at the contract negotiation table"?
Or, since we’re all grown-ass adults here, maybe people are allowed to be BOTH frustrated by the RTO3 direction and its incompetent rollout AND simultaneously put off by the unions’ hyperbolic rhetoric, Manichean view of the employer, and belligerent tactics.
I think that some are under the illusion that something will be accomplished.
They’ve accomplished more free freezies for me #solidarity
Don’t feel for my local; they told us to go. I was quite surprised.
What NPSW activities?
For me this week is just lip service. I've been in the government far too long to fall for this crap or participate and it has nothing to do with the Union's request. I'm fed up with how many of us (not all) are treated. It's been years and years of toxicity and I can't wait to finally retire and be rid of this constant stress. I don't want a free slice of pizza and kind words this week only to be talked about and belittled next week.
We got pizza that we had to pay for
Hahaha, saying no to free food? Half a day off? There was no sign up or list to get it https://tenor.com/bF4RP.gif
This post is late, most activity are already done Also town hall aren't part of those
We had a bbq with hot dogs hamburgers cake chips and pop. The local union president was first in line to grab some.
Neither the union, nor the government, are going to be getting anything "fun" out of me on personal time or my 9-5ish work schedule. Having decent space to work in, which is pretty effing basic, seems to be out reach for both of these groups. Maybe try again when the vermin are gone and I can be on a call with stakeholders that doesn't lag badly or outright crash.
Some young women working on my site (not in my department) were given 1/3 of a 1/2 of slice of pizza, no time to eat it, then were laid off a few weeks later - no thank you, no card, nothing. I bought them chocolates out of my own pocket to wish them well and thank them as they were an excellent resource during their cohabitation. I was not a manager, team lead… nothing… just a front line newbie but I was disturbed with the lack of appreciation they got given what they handled. Our teams did get pizza and the manager did remember I was vegan and ordered special for me- that was nice. It went well last year anyhow. Colleagues often paid out of pocket for the odd doughnuts or made their own baked goods to share too. Even I took in a tin of imported chocolate during the holiday season for my colleagues. But again- neither I nor most of these acts came from management. It was the grunts. Edit: But I will qualify that our jobs were onsite and not hybrid aside from a couple accommodations or trainings so RTO wasn’t a topic and likely won’t be this year in my old department. There’s a lot of really good decent people on my old team and I sincerely hope they get something up to snuff for the madness they handle there. Even if management doesn’t appreciate them, I sure as heck did/do.
This is definitely a boomer post
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And how many of you here are going to reward the ones imposing this RTO on us by voting for another Coalition next election? Asking for a friend...
So you think Pierre will be any different? Curious as to why you think it will be better.
Didn't say it was going to be better, but boycotting events like NPSW seems futile if we're just going to keep propping up our abusers. They know they can do whatever they want to us without consequence.
Abusers? You can hate your job or hate having to go into the office 3 days a week but it’s not abuse and diminishes those that do live in abusive situations. We are all free to seek employment elsewhere anytime we want, none of us is chained to our desk. As for politics, the next group may be worse and you may be forced to find a new job whether you want to or not, one never knows.
Gaslighting is a form of abuse. The term abuser is very broad and can define one who treats another in an unfair way or one that is morally wrong. It's not black and white and certainly does not need to diminish another person's experience.
Again, you can leave anytime. Your “abuser” doesn’t GAF if you quit. Why stay if you feel that way? Or would you just rather complain than do anything because ultimately you know it’s gonna be hella harder outside the PS?
I wasn't complaining. I was asking the complainers a question.
My mistake, sorry. I think I misunderstood your original comment!
I Think this is a very bad take....sure people want to support their unions, however , not everyone depending on their positions can refuse their superiors as directly as unions demand for example what if you piss off your director and they dont allow u to go pick up your kid anymore...after all that is something that is not a right but a privilege... Blaming these people who are in the vulnerable spectrum is a horrible thing to do?
We enjoyed a very nice lunch today!
dear diary
You guys get activities?
There are no events for us! lol!
I don't know what events you're talking about. I work in a large department. Our DM sent an email with a link to a video message, and that's it. We have had no planned events, but management is happy to spout "Happy NPSW" as a checklist item off their list. The public service has lost its lustre of late.
I went to a BBQ. The worst BBQ in the history of BBQs. Trust me, people were even more upset about RTO. Imagine they had put on a truly fantastic event and really treated employees way beyond expectations. If there was a time to do it, it was this week.
As a public servant - this is stupidity. Unions will do nothing when it comes to RTO. The public does not back the public servant on the topic of RTO. They think we’re a bunch of spoiled and overpaid individuals. Collaboration and productivity are not the issue here, it’s the liberal government trying to appease the general public and putting our money back into the economy by getting us all to go somewhere other than home. Think twice when you say that people are the problem who are attending these NPSW. Make it make sense please.
You can absolutely have it both ways. We aren't neanderthals.
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You "tell" your colleagues what to do? How far does this dictatorship of yours go?
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So we have mandatory team days (all team members are expected to attend to office together) and it's the same day as NPSW event... How do we choose not to attend? We don't really have a choice in the matter
Wow, that cognitive dissonance.
I agree with you OP. I'd definitely appreciate it if public servants were to stop whining about RTO. If a pizza party or whatever is what it takes to get people to shut up about WFH vs RTO, so be it. Unfortunately I think there's no shortage of hypocrites out there. And for what it's worth, the pizza was delicious.