Starting March 10, thousands of Washington, D.C., employees will have to cut their remote working down to just one day a week.

Over 33,000 workers will be affected, and unions are rising up in opposition to the move to limit telework in Washington.

“[Telework] lowers cost to the employee to that doesn’t have to commute. That extra day decreases their time in traffic. It also lowers pollution, carbon emissions, parking and potential maintenance costs that you would have to incur from coming every day,” Dr. Kofi Onumah, first vice president with American Federation of Government Employees – Local 2725, said on Tuesday.

He added, “And they are safer too because we have a high crime, particularly high homicide rate in the district, going back to a 26-year high.”

According to district police data, car thefts rose 82% in the city, with 6,829 thefts in 2023. In the first four days of 2024, 53 cars had already been stolen. Violent crimes in the city had increased by 38% last year, including a rise of homicides by 35%.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has been pressuring employers and government agencies to return to the city following the pandemic as buildings have remained empty and have been shifting from office buildings to residential apartment buildings.

Bowser’s administration has been combating the car theft problem by having the district’s Metropolitan Police Department hand out digital tracking tags to help locate vehicles in areas frequently targeted by car thieves.

The city’s government hopes the shift of more workers returning will help the local economy, but unions have been encouraging employees to pack their lunches to avoid the rising crime on the streets.

“We are calling for our members to make a sacrifice and consider not going to business in their areas once they are called back to work this will decrease their chances of being in harm’s way of the crime that we are experiencing in the District,” Onumah said.

AFSCME Council 20 union strongly objects to the district backtracking on a remote working policy that has been in place before the pandemic and will hurt their ability to attain the “best individuals in the workforce.”

“The new policy is a step backwards and is an effort to help the District’s economy; which is continuously being misinterpreted as being in a deficit, but we then learn there is a surplus. Prior to the pandemic, the District’s policy allowed 2 remote days and alternative work schedules and there were no systematic problems. If there are problems now, they should be addressed on an individual basis, not globally,” Wayne L. Enoch, executive director of AFSCME Council 20, said in a statement.

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Countee Gilliam, president of AFGE Local 2725, AFL-CIO, said the push to reduce telework is an effort to use their union workers as “political pawns in an effort to coax Federal workers back into the office instead of exploring innovation methods of fostering growth in the local economy.”

Gilliam added that remote working reduces “safety concerns, environmental impact, childcare and elderly care, and the potential impact on morale and productivity.”