Unsafe conditions for city workers
Will there be a runoff for Local 44 vice president? AFSCME won’t tell its own members
The Baltimore DPW and other workers who scored an upset victory in last month’s union election say they are being kept in the dark and sidelined by top AFSCME officials
Above: Local 44, representing Baltimore sanitation workers and other city employees, has long been criticized for failing to inform members about meetings and elections but last month’s election saw a large turnout – and an insurgent’s win. (Madeleine O’Neill)
In a ceremony over the Labor Day holiday weekend, Baltimore sanitation worker Stancil McNair was sworn in as Local 44 president, along with other members of his slate of insurgent rank-and-file candidates.
But it’s unclear who his vice president will be. Maybe Arthur King, a Department of Transportation truck driver who already serves as a labor relations specialist with the union? Or could it be McNair’s ally, Ricardo Ward?
The two men were tied in the union election held on August 23.
In such situations, the members should get at least 15 days notice of a runoff, which should be held “as soon as possible,” AFSCME’s Local Union Election Manual says.
But members, including McNair, say they have not been informed of a runoff.
“We do not have any information from them on that. They never tell us anything about elections,” said Reginald Noble, a solid waste worker with the Department of Public Works for 40 years.
“That’s intentional because they don’t want a turnout. They want to keep their own people in there,” said the 61-year-old Noble, who works out of DPW’s Bowley’s Lane yard.
McNair said no one has reached out to him since the election about run-offs, or any of a number of important matters.
“We’re all being kept in the dark, including me – and I’m the president,” McNair lamented.
Another longtime sanitation worker, Michael Stanley, said turnout for elections is typically minuscule because they are little publicized. The more than 200 people who turned out on August 23 to elect McNair and the insurgents, he said, was “really amazing.”
Why aren’t AFSCME officials providing information about the vice president race runoff, he was asked.
“They want an insider voted in – a spy for the old regime,” said Stanley, who works at the Marine Operations Facility in Canton.
“I’m done answering questions” – AFSCME Council 3 President Pat Moran.
The Brew checked the Facebook pages and websites for AFSCME Maryland Council 3 and Local 44 and found no notice alerting members of runoff elections for the vice presidency or any other tied race.
We have repeatedly asked AFSCME officials for information about when a runoff may be scheduled. Or if one has already taken place.
We also sought out the status of a reported challenge to McNair’s victory by Trevor Taylor, Local 44’s former vice president. Again, no response even when the union’s president was questioned in person.
“Those are internal matters,” AFSCME Council 3 President Patrick Moran told Brew reporters last Saturday before demanding that they leave the union hall at 1410 Bush Street where McNair’s swearing-in ceremony was about to take place.
“I’m done answering questions,” Moran said. “You have to leave – now.”
This wasn’t the first time the union has barred The Brew from the union hall.
On April 19, a reporter was instructed to leave a scheduled Local 44 meeting where McNair and others attempted to get information about safety improvements and wage negotiations.
On August 23, The Brew and Fox45 were forbidden to step onto the union’s parking lot where workers had gathered prior to the election.
Stancil McNair, upper left, with members of his team, including vice president candidate Ricardo Ward, outside AFSCME headquarters after the August 23 election. BELOW: Before the vote, Local 44 barred the media from the union parking lot and hall. (Madeleine O’Neill)
Criticized as AWOL
Uncertainty about the election results follows a period of unusual public scrutiny directed toward Local 44, whose more than 3,000 members include blue-collar workers at the departments of Public Works, Recreation and Parks, Transportation and Baltimore City Public Schools.
Scathing reports by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming about low pay and hazardous conditions for city solid waste workers have called out not just their employer, but the union.
“Workers said Local 44’s presence has been non-existent,” Cumming’s report bluntly stated, noting that union meetings were reportedly not consistently held and that sanitation crews were never properly informed of meeting times.
A representative of Local 44 declined to discuss meeting notification practices with the inspector general and “refused to speak about the election process,” the report added.
The IG’s critical reports – and the deaths of two workers on the job last year, one expiring from the heat and the other crushed by a trash truck – resulted in union leaders being called to a City Council hearing last March.
AFSCME Council 3 President Patrick Moran (left) defends the union at a March meeting before a City Council committee. (Charm TV)
Moran, who has been with AFSCME since 2002 and has served as Council 3 president since 2012, heatedly defended the union, starting with some 50-year-old history.
“Local 44 members went on strike in the 70s for betting better working conditions and compensation,” he testified. “Unfortunately, Baltimore City banned the right to strike for city employees in 1976.”
“Had our members had stronger options to address their concerns over the years,” he continued, “we might not be facing these issues today.”
• Highlights of the Baltimore OIG report on solid waste bureau conditions and culture (3/20/25)
Pointing a finger at more recent occupants of City Hall, he singled out the Brandon Scott administration, saying the union’s attempts to bargain on pay, heat safety and other workplace issues were “pushed aside.”
“I put the blame on the Office of the Labor Commissioner because that’s who makes the decisions, and they fall under the administration,” Moran declared. “That’s where responsibility lies.”
Scott’s then chief of staff, Marvin James, had a mild-mannered response at the hearing, observing that “there is always a possibility for improvement in communications.”
“There are certain things that do require time,” James said, adding that “the Office of Labor Commissioner works very hard to be able to respond to the issues of all of our unions.”
Pay Raise Leaked
The pay raise that Scott had promised to solid waste workers in his April State of the City address also took time.
Just two days before the Local 44 election on August 23, news of a tentative contract was leaked to members.
That announcement was made in an email to union members by McNair’s opponent – Trevor Taylor, then a member of the Local 44 leadership team.
Taylor’s message touting the “biggest raises ever” included a campaign pitch that urged recipients to “Vote Trevor Taylor for President.”
McNair said he immediately reached out to Moran, protesting that Taylor’s access to email addresses as a union official gave him an unfair advantage in the election.
The union has refused to publicly address this complaint, too.
Local 44 President Dorothy Bryant and Vice President Trevor Taylor at an April membership meeting telling a Brew reporter to leave the union hall. (Fern Shen)