The Empire Gets Off The Couch, Waddles To Its Computer, And Strikes Back

The list of Democrat governors who treated Covid like an excuse to act like banana republic Generalissimos was a long one: Cuomo, Newsom, Whitmer and on and on.  

But Tim Walz may have punched well above his weight.  He held emergency powers for almost eighteen months over a three months emergency; under his leadership, the state’s public schools stayed closed for close to two years.  

But public workers really took home the rhetorical bacon; most Minnesota state white-collar employees have been working from home for five years as of this week.  

And it’s caused problems.  There’ve been stories of workers living out of state, even overseas, and occasionally fitting in another full-time job in the bargain.  

And it’s caused other problems as well.  Minnesota’s capitol city, Saint Paul, has been famously sleepy for decades; it was atrophying even before the pandemic and – this is important – an exceedingly disproportionate share of Saint Paul’s downtown was leased by state agencies. Which means even fewer people than normal eating lunch or socializing downtown even than the fairly dismal pre-pandemic numbers. 

In the meantime, Walz is taking flak and running damage control for squandering a $16 billion dollar surplus, increasing the state budget 40%, and leaving the state with a forecast deficit of $6 billion.  State workers getting state benefits and state pensions while (let’s be charitable) working at home is a dog that just don’t play hockey (as, pinky swear, we say here in Minnesota.  Look it up).  

So it’s time for a change…maybe.

Governor Walz has ordered state workers back to the office.   He sternly scolded public employee unions for, in many cases, exploiting work from home rules, and upbraided them for stretching their hooky time to five years…

…oh, I’m just kidding.  He ordered them back to the office for 50% of their scheduled hours, according to Minnesota Public Radio:

The change to what had been a flexible telework arrangement was ordered this week by Gov. Tim Walz, who wants tens of thousands of executive branch employees back in person at least half of the time. It starts June 1.

It’s a departure from the remote arrangements that took root during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Walz said the return to more in-person work will improve collaboration and communication and follows similar shifts in the private sector.

For their part, local businesses are pretty happy (via KMSP-TV):

“We’ve got thousands of people who are going to be coming to buy lunch, buy coffee, have breakfast, buy odds and ends that people need during the day. This is going to have a really fantastic impact. It’s going to be a shot in the arm for all these businesses that rely on customers that are in during the day,” said St. Paul Downtown Alliance Joe Spencer.

Yarusso Brothers on Payne Avenue in St. Paul has been serving authentic Italian food to the community for nearly a century. The manager said day-time activity never fully recovered after many workers left the office to work remotely during the pandemic. 

For their part, state workers are, well, not happy at all (this from WCCO-TV’s Caroline Cummings):

Outside the state capitol, unions representing state employees say they will settle for “nothing less” than Gov. Walz rescinding his order that state workers go back to the office at least half the time (starting June 1). pic.twitter.com/M63CYGVXgD

— Caroline Cummings (@CaroRCummings) March 27, 2025

The state’s two largest public employee unions, the Minnesota Association of Public Employees (MAPE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (ASFSCME), are having none of it:

AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Bart Andersen said, “Let me be perfectly clear: as Executive Director of AFSCME Council 5, representing more than 18,000 state employees, we will not tolerate unilateral changes to our members’ work. The Administration’s decision to impose sweeping workplace policy changes without engaging our union and labor partners first is not just unacceptable—it’s an act of blatant disrespect. Our union members must have and deserve a seat at the table every step of the way. We are demanding full transparency and meaningful dialogue immediately. AFSCME Council 5, alongside our fellow labor union partners, will do whatever it takes to defend our members’ rights, safeguard their ability to work safely and effectively, and continue delivering high-quality public services for all Minnesotans.”

When they say “they will do whatever it takes”, you can practically picture the litigators on both sides’ eyes spinning like slot machine wheels.  

Now, Walz has been pretty much a lapdog for the public employee unions through his entire six years in office; it doesn’t seem unlikely a sharp pull on his leash will get his attention, and likely concessions, as he heads toward what many say will be a run for a third term as governor, to set himself up for his national ambitions in 2028 (about which I wrote last week).  He, and his DFL party, run on money from the trifecta of progressive plutocrats, non-profits and public employee unions; losing any leg of that triad is going to be a challenge.  

Fearless prediction:  Walz gets them back into the office after giving them a big pay raise to avert a strike.