Local 1402 holds work-in, prepares to fight back

The Return to Office (RTO) order went into effect this week; however, it did not impact members and agencies equally. Many members have been required to be in-person even through COVID, while several agencies received implementation extensions due to capacity issues. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) office in the Palucci building in Duluth was one office that received an extension. This office is part of MAPE Local 1402, which held a work-in to show how the agency was not ready to implement the RTO.

“We knew we wanted to do something because a lot of our staff have been teleworking and returning to the office was going to be a big change,” explained Local 1402 Vice President LaRae Lehto. “AFSCME reached out and was interested in a work-in, so we decided to team up and put pressure on the office to show a lack of capacity.”

“Our office has over 100 people assigned to it and only 65 workstations, so it could be very disruptive to have everyone in the building at once. We picked a Wednesday when we had a mandatory training for the convenience of staff. There was another training day offered on Tuesday, so we recognized that staff who came in on Tuesday might not come in again for the work-in on Wednesday. After some advice from other local members, we changed the goal of our work-in to educate and build solidarity,” continued Lehto.

Lehto said, “I took some vacation time so I could be at the elevators in the morning to greet members, hand out swag and membership cards, and answer questions. It was wonderful connecting with people and putting a face to their union. The office was louder than usual and the people who usually work in the office were likely annoyed that it was so busy.”

In response to the capacity issues, MPCA in Duluth has offered people an assigned workspace and days if they agree to work three full days each week. If you do not work three full days, you must reserve your workspace each week.

“I selected three full days, because I want to be able to choose which days I need to be in the office and which days I can work remotely. It is important to have flexibility for my schedule,” Lehto explained. “I’m not sure what happens if more than 65 people request an assigned workspace. I guess we will learn more over the summer, but there is still a lot to figure out. I’m grateful for the delay; I wish it had been delayed equally across MPCA offices.”

Half of the MPCA offices that did not have capacity issues started in the office half-time on Monday. The Detroit Lake Office was one of the offices that was required to go back on time.

Joshua Prososki wrote to MAPE with an update explaining that the office was not properly set up. Some office spaces only contained chairs and desks.

“We were notified late on Friday, May 30, about the office assignment. However, the workspace assignments are not available on the agency intranet website for others to view, so upon arrival on Monday, some people just picked an office to work in because there was no notice about spaces that would be available for use.”

“Members are pretty frustrated to be brought back just to be on Teams calls all day. A lot is going on this week to get ready to fight back. There was a strike training for Local 1402 on Tuesday, there is a statewide strike training on Monday and I know many Locals are having practice pickets this week. It’s going to take all of us working together to fight back on telework, health care and raises,” said Lehto.