Employees at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent United States government international development agency, have voted to form a union with AFGE as their representative. The new local is preparing to start contract negotiations but already has an early win on pay!
The employees—economists, engineers, international development practitioners, procurement professionals, project managers, and others—overwhelmingly voted to join a union, with over 90% of the ballots cast favoring unionizing. They will be part of the newly chartered Local 1444, which has about 200 people in the bargaining unit.
Local President Terry Fletcher said employees decided to form the union after the agency ignored concerns over the agency's new telework and remote work policy. During the pandemic, employees were allowed maximum telework and remote work flexibility. If they wanted to work from home or come into the office, they could. The flexibility worked well for employees and supervisors, many of whom work with counterparts in countries with significant time differences, including places like Mongolia, which has a 12-hour time difference from DC.
But last summer, on a July 1, 2022, all-hands call, MCC leadership told employees they would be required to return to the office 50% of the time, essentially returning to the pre-pandemic policy. Two weeks later, about 150 staff signed a letter asking the agency to pause implementation until leadership addressed a list of concerns regarding the decision. For five months, the agency ignored the letter.
“People were very frustrated,” said Fletcher, adding that in the immediate months after the decision, "Some 10% of the workforce said they would quit imminently, and another 50% were considering resigning within the next 10-12 months.”— a concerning retention and workload redistribution prospect for a small staff with many highly specialized positions.
Besides telework, the local is also focusing on pay. MCC operates under pay bands, not the General Schedule (GS) system. The bottoms of MCC pay bands are lower than comparable GS grades, and staff does not receive cost-of-living increases. This condition equates to MCC staff receiving less compensation than their GS equivalent counterparts and receiving annual increases that lag behind inflation.
Another issue for the local is equity and equality. According to a staff-led survey, white people were twice as likely as people of color to receive a full-remote work waiver, which allows the employee to be 100% remote. The local wants to hold the agency accountable to applying policies fairly and equitably.
Asked how the employees feel about being part of the union, Fletcher concluded, "I think people feel good about it. We are excited about the local and what it can do for us. We want a seat at the table when decisions that impact our lives are made, and we look forward to working with agency management on solutions that move MCC forward. We hope having a union will help with that.”
Big win on pay
The new local is preparing to start contract negotiations but already has an early win. After consistent pressure from the union, MCC management just announced that they will be raising the bottoms of staff pay bands to match the GS scale, equivalent to more than a $10,000 raise for some of the lowest paid staff at the agency, delivering on a key priority of the local.
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