MAPE members kick off second statewide membership blitz of the year  

MAPE’s second statewide membership blitz of 2024 kicked off July 30-31, with the campaign collecting 38 membership cards in its first two days, with more sign-ups expected throughout the next month. The blitz came on the heels of MAPE’s 4.5% COLA increase, negotiated by our Negotiations Team last year. According to Local 2101 Membership Secretary Lauren Siegel, who helped organize the three-week campaign, “We wanted to talk with members after they received their first paycheck showing all 80 hours with the increased pay last week. This gave us an opening for member conversations.”   

Siegel said this membership blitz used Teams to contact potential members, similar to the first statewide membership blitz of the year. However, this membership blitz differed because members could choose to contact people in their own local or reach out to those in other locals.   

Local 401 Secretary Michael Yost said his local does regular membership campaigns to connect with the Department of Revenue employees, so he chose to call others outside his region. “I talked to a guy who had been asked to join five or six times. As we talked, what changed his mind this time was getting something in the mail - one of those anti-union form letters. He said this time he thought ‘If a bunch of rich people don’t want me to join, maybe there’s something to this union after all.'" 

“If you leave them with a positive impression, you still have a future chance to get them to join,” Yost added.     

Local 901’s Bree Landherr is a new member and said she has benefited from being part of the union. She said she wasn’t sure what to expect for the membership blitz and “enjoyed it after I got into a rhythm. I got into some online conversations, and it was interesting learning what people do.”