Language has connotations that influence how we interpret others' arguments.
For example, if I went to lunch with a colleague and had to get back to the office for a meeting or to get back to my computer. Or if I was at an off-site meeting that just ended and I was going to trek back to the office.
I don't say it much anymore, as WFH has cut all this needless commuting from my life, but I use to say that constantly.
It makes sense why those workers would seek to form a union; it sounds like management is really belittling their work, even through the language they feed to the press.
In the era of increasing "working from home" and working remotely from cafes and elsewhere, mixing the two is an anachronism that should stop. It also diminishes WFH.