Exclusive: Inside Millennium Challenge Corp.'s fight to unionize

Employees of the Millenium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, have voted to form a union, a move fueled by widespread discontent over the development agency’s return to office policy and then grew to encompass salaries and equity for women and people of color. Over 90% of the employees who participated in the election, which took place over the holiday period late last year, voted to form a union. They are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, which has 750,000 members. MCC, which has about 300 employees, has not publicly acknowledged the existence of the union. “One of the reasons we wanted a union was to address concerns around both process and content that folks saw with the rollout of the return to office decision,” Union President Terry Fletcher told Devex. “Now that we have a union the agency is required by law to bargain with staff on changes to working conditions.” Employees argue that having a union will make the agency more competitive, by attracting top-tier talent with flexible work policies and higher salaries. This is particularly crucial, they say, as Congress is poised to expand the agency’s geographic portfolio, which could lead to higher workloads for existing staff. “In the type of work that we do, it’s hard for me to see a future in which you’d really be attracting top employees if you absolutely insist they be in this one specific place.” --— Staffer, Millenium Challenge Corporation MCC leadership told staff on an all-hands call a year ago that they would be required to return to the office 50% of the time or lose their jobs. This would essentially return the agency to its pre-pandemic remote work policy, doing away with the widespread flexibility to which staff had become accustomed. MCC Chief Executive Officer Alice Albright and Deputy CEO Mahmoud Bah refused to take questions during the meeting, according to staff, leaving them upset and without key information they needed to make decisions for their personal lives and families. Some MCC staff moved away from the D.C. area during the pandemic but continued to work for the agency. In the meeting, MCC leadership said they could apply for remote work waivers, which would exempt them from the need to come to the office to keep their job. Those would last six months on a pilot basis before the agency made any permanent policy changes, but little information was provided about how eligibility decisions would be made. MCC staff were taken off guard by the back-to-work policy announcement, one MCC staffer who joined the union but was not authorized to speak to the press told Devex. The union effort is a “gut reaction” to the way it was handled by management, that person said. “Staff felt that there wasn’t a lot of transparency in the decision making. The agency had undergone a process of getting feedback,” the staffer said. “Both staff and managers highly supported maintaining maximum flexibility in regards to telework — I think that’s why it took us all by surprise that the decision was quite different.” Staff argue that the nature of their work, which often includes calls at odd hours with people in other time zones, required an ability to adjust their schedules to suit these obligations. After the policy was announced, at least 140 MCC employees signed a letter sent to Albright, the agency chief of staff, and its vice presidents. The letter requested the back-to-office policy be paused while they navigated what it would mean for them, and asked management to come to the table to discuss a way forward that incorporated staff concerns. They did not receive a response before September when staff were expected to be back in the office, so they began to move ahead with a union effort. They contacted AFGE, which represents government employees at other development agencies, including the Development Finance Corporation and U.S. Agency for International Development. Staff describe an environment of uncertainty during this time, with some fearing for their jobs for engaging in a union effort. In February, the results were ratified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and the union was chartered in April. To form a union, organizers need to receive union cards from at least 30% of the expected bargaining unit population, which was about 190 people. In September, they received over 100 cards, handily surpassing the threshold. AFGE determined who was eligible to join the union, excluding management and some in human resources who would be required to negotiate on behalf of the agency in any union dispute. In response to a request for comment about the union, an agency spokesperson on behalf of MCC leadership told Devex that they have “long known that investment in agency staff is critical to achieving our mission.” “MCC leadership is supportive of the creation of a staff union, and is openly engaging with union representatives,” the spokesperson said. Now that the union is chartered, the upcoming bargaining process could last between six months and a year and a half. “Both us and the agency want this to move quickly,” Fletcher said. The union has already declared victory on one issue. MCC’s pay bands do not align with the “general schedule,” or GS, pay bands that dictate salary levels for government employees. This left some of the agency’s lowest-paid employees making significantly less than they would earn at an agency that has the GS scale. But MCC has now raised its lowest pay bands to align with the GS scale, amounting to a salary increase of as much as $17,000 for some. The MCC spokesperson called this “a tangible expression of our commitment to our people who demonstrate dedication to our mission every day.” The union will continue to negotiate the office requirements, seeking flexibility for staff who do not want to come in regularly. Initially, many said they would leave the agency if they could not maintain their remote work flexibility. The union has requested official numbers of attrition that may be related to the requirement to be in the office regularly, but anecdotally, staff say it seems like more people than usual have left MCC. “In the past year there has been a lot more departures than what we’re used to seeing,” the MCC staffer said. “The union does suspect that a lot of it is because of these uncertainties.” They also want to ensure women and people of color are receiving raises at the same rate as men and white people. An internal staff survey of people who had applied for remote work waivers last year found that twice as many white people as people of color were approved for the waivers. There is no appeals process for people whose waivers were denied, and no changes can be made to anyone’s remote work eligibility until an official agreement is reached with management during collective bargaining. Staff have also expressed concerns over workload, and how their task lists have ballooned as MCC takes on compacts with additional countries. “Staff feel like they’re generally overworked. And it hasn’t been clear how management would adjust the staffing within the agency if a bill is passed that does greatly expand the scope of our work. Staff just want to be part of the decision making, part of the planning process and make sure that staff’s concerns and values are really heard,” the staffer said. “In the type of work that we do, it’s hard for me to see a future in which you’d really be attracting top employees if you absolutely insist they be in this one specific place.”