Council 3 Updates

Sixteen years ago, John Clark was babysitting his granddaughter at home when he saw an advertisement on TV that Baltimore County Public Schools was hiring bus drivers.

Sabrina Razvi’s commitment to her community is evident both in her work as a Library Associate at the Severn Branch of Anne Arundel County Public Libraries (AACPL) and in her organizing efforts wit

For nearly 10 years, AFSCME Local 1459 Vice President Clint Stevens has worked as a high voltage electrician at the University of M

AFSCME Council 3 and AFSCME Council 67 jointly announced their endorsement of candidate and former Maryland and U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez to be our next Governor. 

AFSCME members invited all major candidates, Republicans, and Democrats, to meet with our board.  After we conducted candidate interviews our board unanimously voted to endorse Tom Perez.

Maryland has a $2.5 Billion Dollar Surplus! Join us in the fight to demand Governor Hogan use the surplus to invest in public services and the employees who provide them.

As you may have heard, recently AFSCME’s lawyers at the law firm of Kahn, Smith, and Collins (KSC) prevented the state from getting the statewide emergency pay grievance dismissed. Recently, you may have received an email from them gathering information for our case. These are our attorneys working on our behalf to win our statewide emergency pay grievance.

Earlier this month, AFSCME Council 3’s Executive Board invited the leading republican and democratic candidates for Governor to meet and interview about their plan for Maryland. As public employees, our members have a unique power to elect the boss who sits across from us at the negotiation table. Elections have consequences and there is no clearer example than the damage Governor Hogan has done to state services over the last 7 years of his term.

Last June, Governor Hogan, and his administration allowed the Emergency Paid Sick Leave program to expire, taking away vital protection from frontline workers exposed to COVID-19. Without EPSL, frontline workers must use their own time to quarantine after a workplace exposure instead of the emergency leave. Sometimes this means that they must use Leave Without Pay and stay out of work with no pay. Not only is this a burden to frontline workers and their families, but it also ultimately puts workers in the position to choose between their paycheck and their health and safety. 

On Thursday, September 30th, higher education members of AFSCME Council 3 came together for a rally to kick off our fight for a raise and to negotiate our first consolidated contract with the University System of Maryland. Over 75 members from different campuses across the USM met on zoom to discuss how to prepare for contract negotiations and hear from elected officials about the plan to override Senate Bill 9.

Throughout the pandemic, Governor Hogan's lack of respect for frontline workers has been made very clear. Whether it was underpaying emergency pay, the poor rollout of DBM's response pay, or a 5% pay cut, Governor Hogan has made his intention to balance budget problems on our backs.