On Wednesday, October 18, the AFSCME Bargaining Team met with the State’s Bargaining Team for our 4th bargaining session at the State Center in Baltimore.
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Helene Grady delivered a presentation about the administration’s budget priorities, the most recent state budget closeout report, as well as current budget forecasts. The AFSCME team asked questions about the presentation and offered suggestions that could be included in the formulation of the upcoming state budget. Our suggestions included auditing and cutting wasteful state tax credits, cutting private sector contracts that cost the state billions, creating a package of revenue enhancements, and merging all independent state personnel systems into the State Personnel Management System (SPMS) to save money, reduce redundancies, and create efficiencies.
The AFSCME team presented new proposals that included enshrining the right to select the bargaining team of our choice, granting both primary and general election days as a holiday as well as finally allowing MDOT employees the day off after Thanksgiving. We also put forth a proposal for additional leave related to COVID-19 illness, updated language on studying and preventing bullying in state workplaces, as well as language enshrining the right to binding arbitration in our contract (which will provide a neutral arbitrator to make a binding decision if we reach impasse during negotiations). Lastly, we put forth new language safeguarding employees’ rights to privacy as well as protections against digital monitoring, tracking, and artificial intelligence (AI).
During this session, the State offered new language that significantly diminished the rights of our members in the Office of the Public Defender. They also offered some proposals to “clean up” inoperable language.
The State also provided some counters to our initial proposals, including increasing our bank of release time for union activity. They also countered our initial wage proposal in a very limited fashion; their proposal offers a step and a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for 1 year only, a proposal that is clearly not good enough given the understaffing and hiring and retention issues we are facing.
Our next bargaining session will be on Tuesday, October 24. Don’t forget to wear GREEN to support your bargaining team that day!
Take Action
As we continue bargaining with the State, please join us in taking the following actions:
- Wear GREEN on bargaining days! Snap a photo of your coworkers and you wearing your AFSCME GREEN, and send your photo to info@afscmemd.org! We’ll be posting these photos on our social media.
- Post these graphics on your social media to share with your networks about what we’re fighting for! There are different image options you can use as your profile picture, your cover photo, or even your Facebook and Instagram stories!
- Sign up TWO new members during our October Week of Action happening October 23-27. We’ll be visiting worksites across the state letting everyone know how bargaining is going and how to get involved.
- And if you’d like to get more involved by joining our Member Action Team or if you want more information about upcoming opportunities during the Legislative Session, let us know here.
It will take all of us paying attention, staying informed, and getting involved to win the contract we deserve!
NOTE: Access to bargaining information is limited to bargaining unit employees (units A, B, C, D, F, and H). Be aware that details of proposals, counterproposals, and related discussions in closed collective bargaining sessions are private and confidential communications protected from unilateral public disclosure during collective bargaining negotiations under SPP § 3-501(e). Such details should not be made public while collective bargaining negotiations are taking place. The above materials in this post include details and therefore should not be circulated to the public or publicly.