Afscme

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposed collective bargaining law received a skeptical reception from a House committee yesterday as members zeroed in on a provision that could require state employees to pay a fee to the union that represents them.At a hearing that pitted union against union, administration officials proclaimed Maryland's 2-year-old experiment with collective bargaining a success.Budget Secretary Frederick W. Puddester told the House Appropriations Committee that despite predictions bargaining would mean "the end of the Western world," it has improved communications between the state and its work force.

The Maryland Classified Employees Association, the oldest organization representing state workers, boasts a strong record of achievement for public employees: sick leave in the 1930s, pensions in the '40s, a credit union in the '50s, longevity pay in the '60s and retirement after 25 years in the '70s.But two years after it was rejected by state employees in elections to choose a collective bargaining agent, the 64-year-old labor organization is fighting to survive the 1999 General Assembly session.

IT'S PAYBACK time in Annapolis. Gov. Parris Glendening is rewarding his friends -- is he ever -- and punishing his enemies. All in the guise of public policy.Take the governor's goodies for the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as AFSCME. Christmas is coming real early for this labor union. The governor wants to give AFSCME a giant financial windfall and cement its position as the new powerhouse of unions representing state employees.Why? Because AFSCME worked overtime to elect Mr. Glendening twice.

It was incorrectly reported in yesterday's edition that the City Union of Baltimore represents school engineers. In fact, the engineers are under the jurisdiction of the Baltimore Municipal Employees Local 44, AFSCME, AFL-CIO.The Sun regets the errors.Pub Date: 1/07/98

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.

POLITICS IS NEVER far from the mind of Maryland's governor. Parris N. Glendening proved that again last week when he ignored the General Assembly's wishes, and the wishes of the largest state-employee union, and the "fundamental policy reservation" of the state attorney general, by issuing an executive order for limited collective bargaining tailor-made for a union that has been a prime Glendening supporter.He delivered on an early pledge to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which poured money and manpower into the 1994 Glendening-for-governor campaign.

The bitter battle over union representation for 1,300 state correctional employees -- already marred with charges of corruption -- now is complicated by criminal allegations of burglary and theft.Michael K. Spiller, a former vice president of the Maryland Correctional Union, was charged during the weekend with breaking into the union office and stealing canceled checks, monthly bills and two computers containing sensitive employee information.MCU officials said they fired Spiller a week ago after discovering that he had been secretly working for a rival union trying to get the MCU to merge with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, according to court documents filed yesterday.

The board of the Maryland Correctional Union has scheduled an emergency meeting tonight to consider allegations that its president improperly took $21,000 in salary advances over the past two years and to discuss a proposal for her to repay the money.MCU President Mary Kim Howard said yesterday that she took the salary advances in part because she was not paid the first four months she was on the full-time job in 1994. She said that all advances were approved by the union's board, and that she had done nothing wrong.

Only one union submitted petitions to the state yesterday showing it is eligible to take part in elections to represent state workers under a limited form of collective bargaining granted them by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.Under Glendening's executive order giving an estimated 40,000 state employees collective bargaining, yesterday was the first day competing unions could submit petitions to the state -- and the first step in a long, complicated process that will culminate in elections later this year or early next.

Maryland state workers "don't get the pay and respect our lTC work deserves, but this November we have a chance to change all that," intones one radio advertisement."

To soften budget cuts, AFSCME, the state workers union, says Maryland should tap its rainy day fund, which the state has resisted for fear of losing its AAA bond rating. Should we use the fund? Yes 26% No 71% Not sure 3% (1,143 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : The Justice Department has announced that people who use medical marijuana and their authorized suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that, unlike Maryland, allow medical marijuana. Do you agree with this policy?

In principle, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has an excellent argument for the so-called "fair share" law that went into effect in Maryland this week. It negotiates contracts for tens of thousands of state employees, whether they are members of the union or not. Conducting those negotiations costs money, and it isn't right that nonmembers get the benefits without paying their share of the costs. But the potential side effects of the law are cause for concern.

Unfair for AFSCME to get additional fee AFSCME Maryland Director Patrick Moran was quoted in "Union seeks nonmember fees" (Feb. 18) as saying that AFSCME's efforts to seek a mandatory deduction of service fees from the paychecks of state employees is "about democracy, bottom line." What Mr. Moran, and the article addressing the legislation to allow a mandatory fee, fail to acknowledge is that when elections were held more than a dozen years ago, and AFSCME fought hard for the votes of state employees to become their collective bargaining representative, its representatives made no mention of such service fees.

The state's largest employees union wants permission to collect fees from workers who don't pay dues and who might belong to other unions, a plan that has the backing of pro-labor Gov. Martin O'Malley and awaits legislative approval. Critics characterize the proposal as a money grab that would create a labor monopoly. But leaders with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees argued yesterday that the group is unfairly subsidizing employees who don't pay dues but who benefit from its work negotiating contracts with the state and providing representation for grievances.

The workers who clean Oriole Park at Camden Yards - and who fought a successful campaign last year for higher wages - have voted to unionize, AFSCME Maryland said yesterday. The union, the state affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the cleaners voted 64 to 13 to join. About 130 were eligible to vote. AFSCME hailed the results, tallied early yesterday morning, as a victory for "contingent workers" with no set schedule. They are employed by Chimes DC, which is an arm of Baltimore nonprofit Chimes International and has a contract with the Maryland Stadium Authority.

The executive board of a union that represents about 10,000 state and university workers in Maryland has dismissed its executive director, but he is contesting the decision. Ron Bailey, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 92 for the past two years, confirmed yesterday that the union's executive board voted not to renew his contract at a meeting Oct. 11. The contract expired Tuesday. Bailey said he will take the issue to arbitration because the board failed to honor a clause requiring that he be given 90 days' notice before termination.

Baltimore's lowest-paid government workers will receive 4 percent annual pay raises under three-year contracts reached with Mayor Martin O'Malley that will likely ensure the mayor avoids labor unrest in the city as he runs for governor next year. The contracts with the City Union of Baltimore and AFSCME Local 44 complete the administration's goal of signing long-term deals with all of its bargaining unions, including the units representing police officers, firefighters and fire officers.

Anne Arundel County has reached a three-year agreement with its largest employee union, a sign that County Executive Janet S. Owens is willing to dole out raises for the next fiscal year. The county's approximately 800-member labor and maintenance union, AFSCME Local 582, ratified Thursday an agreement that would provide employees a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for the fiscal year that begins July 1, county officials said. In subsequent years they would receive raises of 3 percent and 2 percent.

DES MOINES, Iowa - "Solidarity" is the customary byword in the labor movement, but it's being intentionally ignored here as Iowans mobilize for the Jan. 19 Democratic presidential precinct caucuses. With the national AFL-CIO having declined to endorse a candidate and state federations thus prohibited from doing so, organized labor in Iowa is split, essentially between longtime champion Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of neighboring Missouri and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. Mr. Gephardt has the backing of 21 unions in Iowa under a new national umbrella organization called the Alliance for Economic Justice.

City officials and two labor unions reached a tentative agreement yesterday that would give 2 percent raises to about half the city's workers while also charging them more for health benefits. The membership of the city's two largest unions - the City Union of Baltimore and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 44 - has to approve the agreement. But after a months-long impasse, participants said they were hopeful that they'd made a breakthrough. "We've been working very hard with AFSCME and CUB, and negotiating in good faith with them in a very, very tough budget year," Mayor Martin O'Malley said.