A state employees union sued the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation yesterday, claiming the deck had been stacked against it in recent collective bargaining elections.
The suit, filed in Washington County Circuit Court in Hagerstown, came after the department rejected the Maryland Classified Employees Association's petition protesting the procedures for holding the elections.
MCEA, a 62-year-old labor organization that claims 23,000 state workers as members, won none of the seven elections in which it sought the right to represent state employees under new collective bargaining procedures. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and an affiliate won five, while other unions won three others, including one MCEA did not enter.
W. Frank Masters, executive director of MCEA, charged that the state had failed to provide a "level playing field." But AFSCME spokesman John Funiciello called the lawsuit a case of "sour grapes."
Pub Date: 6/06/97
