For the first time, our contract covering 20,000 state employees in Units A, B, C, D, F, and H contains language allowing us to have five Chief Stewards!
After a long and difficult pandemic year, our AFSCME members in Higher Education are eager to bring back students this fall. Currently, our locals are engaging with the University System of Maryland to ensure safe campus reopening’s this August. We think the voices of parents, students, alumni, and all staff should be included when campuses are making these decisions on how to safely reopen.
Take action today to protect your pension and support Jamaal Craddock for the Board of Trustees for the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System. As a member of the Board of Trustees, Jamaal will be a voice at the table to protect our pension! Vote to re-elect Jamaal to serve his second term.
The statewide pay grievance continues to go forward this week after extensive delays being processed by the Office of Administrative Hearings. This month we received motions to dismiss our grievances from the state and we are working on our response to these motions. The state is pretending that all state offices and buildings were fully open the entire time of the pandemic.
Earlier this month, AFSCME Council 3 made an agreement with management at the University of Baltimore (UB) to raise the minimum wage on campus to $15/hr.
Friday, May 28 was not a very good day for workers, mass transit, health, and safety nor government transparency and accountability. Governor Larry Hogan ensured this by vetoing some of the most important legislation to come out of the 2021 General Assembly session, including bills that were AFSCME-supported.
During this year’s legislative session we beat the entire University System of Maryland (USM). We won, with veto-proof majorities, the right to bargain one master contract for all our members in the USM, just like we do for the state employees. On Friday, the USM delayed the inevitable. They relied on lame-duck Larry Hogan to delay bargaining by vetoing our legislation, SB9.
Some state employees received a limited amount of response pay for working and reporting during the pandemic. Throughout this crisis, AFSCME Council 3 members have never hesitated to report to work despite the many unclear and unknown risks of exposure. Our union has been fighting for any workers required to report to their physical workplace to receive hazard pay!
