Leaders of AFSCME Local 44 representing Baltimore sanitation and other municipal workers – under criticism by rank-and-file members – are pulling out all the stops to repel efforts to unseat them in tomorrow’s election.

The election takes place between 1 and 4 p.m. at the AFSCME union hall at 1410 Bush Street. Members must attend in person to cast their votes.

Late yesterday, Local 44 Vice President Trevor Taylor sent out an email to members proclaiming “The Biggest Raises Ever!” and “Massive Hazard Pay Increase!”

The email divulged details of a tentative agreement reached between the union and the Scott administration – details that were not officially released by either side.

Taylor is running for president of Local 44 to counter an insurgency movement led by sanitation worker Stancil McNair.

The email blast hailed Taylor and the current leadership team, saying:

This Saturday vote Trevor Taylor & Team “The Real Deal” to continue building on our success and advancing the interests of our members.

When: Saturday, August 23. Elections Starts: 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.

Your vote. Your Voice. Your Future. Together We Rise! Vote Trevor Taylor for President.

Local 44 today released on Facebook the tentative terms of its pact with the city.

It calls for a 19% wage increase to be phased in over the course of a three-year contract, plus cost of living adjustments, a rise in hazard pay and a new 25-step salary scale to address the issue of wage compression.

The announcement comes amid vocal discontent by sanitation workers over current salaries, which range as low as $42,000 a year, or slightly more than the wage of a fast-food worker.

Taylor’s email blast – mixing news of a wage settlement with a campaign pitch – was denounced by McNair, who is leading a group of workers who have been speaking out about dangerous working conditions and poor union representation following the death of Ronald Silver II, who collapsed and died of heat exhaustion during his shift on a city garbage truck last August.

“They are not following the rules – this is not a fair race!” McNair told The Brew.

He said Taylor is improperly using the union membership email list he has access to as a Local 44 official.

“It doesn’t matter, though, cause we are going to win in a landslide,” McNair predicted.

Last April, McNair and his allies denounced Taylor and longtime union president Dorothy Bryant, a retired health department phlebotomist, after a Brew reporter was barred from attending a membership meeting. “That’s just like what they do to us! Cutting people off. Not letting ’em talk or be heard,” McNair said at the time.

Local 44 officials did not respond today to Brew questions about their use of the union email list.

“They didn’t do nothing”

One of McNair’s allies is Clarence Thomas, who is running for vice president.

The 13-year DPW employee said the members he has spoken to are angry and want change.

“People are fed up and tired,” Thomas said. “You got people working for the city 29, 30 years, and they’re making the same like they did some 20 years ago. Where was the union all those years?”

• BREW SPECIAL SERIES: Unsafe conditions for city workers

Taylor and other union officials, he said, became active only after the deaths of Silver and Timothy Cartwell, who was crushed last November between a garbage truck and light pole.

“They didn’t do nothing before that,” he said. “The only time you saw them was when they wanted to be in front of the camera.”

Thomas said he worked with Silver and others at DPW’s Cherry Hill sanitation yard, whose broken locker rooms, lack of air conditioning and unsanitary conditions were exposed in reports by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming.

Tentative Contract

The tentative deal disclosed today gives Local 44 officials better access to DPW work sites and safety records. DPW has pledged to improve work condition and is undertaking major repairs to sanitation yards that have been neglected for decades.

Thomas said workers haven’t gotten a chance to evaluate the new contract, which he said was rushed to completion to boost the prospects of the existing union leadership in tomorrow’s vote.

“The contract was finished last night. So before they get ready to present it, this memo goes out to all the employees. I’ve been on the front lines fighting for more hazard pay. And now we’re told hazard pay is being raised. Finally. It’s been at 15 cents an hour for 37 years, and that’s diabolical,” he said.

According to Local 44’s Facebook announcement, hazard pay will increase from 15 cents an hour to 75 cents an hour, and DPW employees in routine sanitation services will be eligible to receive it.

“We have to get our respect,” Thomas stated. “Here’s our chance to put the right people in office.”