‘Buy Nothing’ Hurts People Already Hurting
“Buy nothing. The needs of the downtown core shouldn’t fall on the back of workers and the federal public service. How workers spend their money on in-office days will send a clear message to politicians.”
Public Service Alliance of Canada
This is cruel.
Mom and pop sandwich shops downtown are struggling.
A diminished market downtown is hurting retail businesses downtown badly. Add to that shopping sites like Amazon curbing retail success. Why travel downtown to get a specialty item when you can dial it up from Amazon at a very competitive price from your desk at home?
Restaurants are in a very competitive market. Keeping them going and making a profit are extremely difficult. The work is hard. The vagaries of business are daunting. How many restaurants struggle, lose money and close in a few months from opening.
Still, the PSAC is boycotting downtown business because its members are forced to come into work in the core three days a week. Not good.
Owners and employees of sandwich shops must buy new shoes for baby, pay taxes and cover the mortgage just like PSAC members. And those downtown workers don’t have the job security, steady paycheque and benefits that PSAC members have.
It’s like the entitled beating down on the unentitled because they can. At best, it’s disappointing.
Look, the three-day in office work week is unlikely to last. Your agent knows the economy and efficiencies of work-at-home. That’s where The Bulldog has been published for 15 years. Were it not for work-at-home, this publication would have disappeared a decade ago.
The federal government three-day in-office work week won’t last. Government and business know they achieve real efficiencies by having employees pay for their own office space at home. And work-at-home benefits workers as well. It eliminates the daily commute which is wallet- and environmentally friendly. Why spend time battling a dysfunctional transit system and ridiculous traffic (exacerbated by the aforementioned wonky transit system) when you can have an extra cup of coffee before starting your workday down the hall of your home?
So the federal three-day at office work week doesn’t make sense in the long run for employers and employees. It won’t last. Employers and employees will see to that. People who stand in the way of history and economics are likely to be run over.
If the PSAC really wants to benefit its members, it should be working at preventing politicians moving federal departments to their ridings. A move for members to Moose Jaw is much more disrupting than a commute from Barrhaven.
Ken Gray
For You:
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Hurray For The Activists Who Promote City Democracy
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Right on, Ken! The downtown core was built to serve PSAC members and, as good members of the community, they should be helping with the transition away from that configuration, rather than saying “my needs should come first and I’m going to screw you up if they don’t”. I have appreciated much of what PSAC has done over the years for the community but this is putting its members above the community. There will be tax implications for Barrhaven if the downtown core transition doesn’t serve to keep the core strong and productive.
The members of PSAC are mules, bottom feeder mules. People that can’t think for themselves and are not capable of contributing to society without someone telling them how to act and what to do. Shame!!!
The leadership of the PSAC union are not interested in how much collateral damage they inflict. Sigh.
Kosmo,
Not every member of the PSAC supports the leadership’s suggestion that they should take out their anger at the feds on innocent shop-keepers and restaurant owners. As a former member of that organization, I take umbrage at the broad brush you’ve used to paint all of them as that unreasonable.
Union leaders often take positions or support actions that some of their members disagree with. I would suggest that this is one place where the majority of PSAC members will strongly diverge from the leadership.
I’m not spending a dime downtown while those same bussinesses don’t want to serve the actual downtown residents.
Bussinesses in Orleans adapted just fine to change why can’t the core do the same?
Keenan:
Were the city getting more highrise development downtown instead of Westboro maybe there would be more people trying to serve that market.
That said, good planning is something that is lost at Ottawa City Hall.
cheers
kgray