Today, Governor Hogan announced a $1,000 bonus for all state and higher education employees in Maryland. This will be helpful to the tens of thousands of Maryland state and higher education employees who have been working through the pandemic on the frontline under dangerous conditions with no acknowledgment from the Governor. A one-time bonus is not enough to compensate our members who are still waiting for access to the vaccine and risking their health and their family’s health by reporting to work every day.
The Governor’s announcement today proves that the state was in stable financial condition despite the Governor’s attempt to cut our pay by 5%, cut healthcare, and cut positions. The Governor praises himself for avoiding furloughs despite attempting and failing to unilaterally implement a significant package of cuts through the Board of Public Works this past July.
President Patrick Moran said, “Up until the last days of December, negotiators for the Governor were still proposing furloughs and pay cuts to our members. We rejected these offers because our members deserve more for the dangerous but necessary work they do every day. This announcement doesn’t change the Governor’s actions over the past seven years, and especially in the last year of the pandemic, to cut state services to the bone and sacrifice our member's safety to do so.
Maryland’s frontline workers have been facing the crises caused by the pandemic head-on despite many state agencies having as much as a 13% vacancy rate. Whether our members are fighting the spread of the virus in our congregate-care facilities or working to help process unemployment claims caused by COVID’s impact on the economy- our members are on the frontlines. Governor Hogan is failing to keep our members safe and failing to fund state agencies so they can perform our duties safely and effectively.”