(KNSI) – The President of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees union is voicing her displeasure with Governor Tim Walz’s abrupt return to office policy for state workers and is calling for an escalation within its membership to fight back.
On Tuesday, Walz announced that most employees must be in the office for at least half of their scheduled work days starting June 1st. Those who live 75 miles or more from their office are exempt.
In a letter from Megan Dayton to MAPE members, she describes her feelings about how what started as an emergency response to a global pandemic has now become a core issue of workplace rights, retention, and respect for employees’ needs.
She writes, “At no point was MAPE involved in this discussion or return-to-office planning process. If we had, we would have shared how the option to telework has helped recruit and retain many qualified, extraordinary state workers, especially in Greater Minnesota. We would have raised concerns about infrastructure capacity, parking and access to childcare. We could have partnered on a plan that continues supporting employee flexibility without disrupting the business needs of our agencies.”
Dayton added the move “reeks of Musk,” citing the decision as “eerily reminiscent of the disruptions our public servant counterparts are facing at the federal level.”
She called out the governor, who “stood in front of a record-breaking crowd on Lobby Day and promised investments in greater Minnesota, the values of a strong public workforce and respect for workers” before turning around less than three weeks later and attacking teleworking. Dayton says she is questioning if any of that rhetoric was real.
Employees were ordered to work from home at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic “with little prior planning or support,” Dayton says the order is now culminating “in a similar poorly planned, and even worse-timed, call back to the office.”
Dayton also called out Walz for refusing to bargain with MAPE over several rounds at the table as they fight for “stronger language in our contract to support teleworking rights for our members,” while also saying his team at the Office of Management and Budget has declined to give the union anything “that weakened their managerial right to give or take away telework at their discretion.”
Contract negotiations are on the horizon, and Dayton feels that administrators are unleashing chaos on hard working employees is “hypocritical at best,” calling it a “strategic attempt to erode the progress we’ve made to enhance our working conditions and productivity, and at worst, a short-sighted attempt at engineered attrition.”
MAPE is launching phase one of the escalation plan, including “actions members can take to fight back.”
Telework agreements are at a manager’s discretion, but Dayton says MAPE has the right to request and be granted a meeting to discuss changes to the agreements, and they can appeal the decision.
Dayton closes the letter warning members “won’t sit idly while administrators attempt to upend our working conditions, work-life balance and productivity. I’m right beside you in this, and we’re not alone in fighting for the respect we deserve at work, regardless of where that work gets done. Today, we’re angry. Tomorrow, we act.”
Walz explained that the move will help foster better collaboration and strengthen workplace culture and hopes the change will revitalize office districts, like downtown St. Paul, and boost local businesses as more workers return to in-person roles. Workers immediately spoke out, calling it a ploy by the governor and the City of St. Paul to get more people downtown and spend money, which underpaid workers can’t do as parking isn’t free and gas is expensive.
Employees with disabilities said they wanted to work for the state because of the telework option, as it allows them to support their families, and transportation is difficult. Some expressed concerns about the environmental effects of more cars on the road because telework kept people home, lowering emissions.
As Dayton and MAPE prepare to escalate their fight, the question remains: Will Walz hold his ground, or will mounting worker pressure force a reconsideration of the return-to-office mandate?
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