The battle between challengers and the establishment at AFSCME took a fresh twist today, with the newly sworn-in president of Local 44 appealing the union’s decision to cancel a vote that saw him and his reform slate win top positions.

The 2,000-member local represents blue-collar workers at Baltimore’s sanitation yards, waste treatment plants, building operations and other agencies.

Tossing out the August 23 election and ordering a new vote on October 4 is “a manifest public disgrace . . . designed to allow union bosses to handpick their own,” says a nine-page letter sent by attorney Thiru Vignarajah to AFSCME’s Washington headquarters.

“Both decisions are unsupported by the record and contrary to governing rules set forth in the Elections Code of the AFSCME International Constitution and the AFSCME Local Union Election Manual,” it argued.

Vignarajah today confirmed the letter was sent on behalf of Stancil McNair, who won the August 23 election, and five members of his slate. He declined to comment otherwise.

Unless reversed by the international, Vignarajah writes, his clients will seek a court injunction to prevent Local 44 from holding “an unwarranted second election that violates its members’ contractual rights.”

The threat comes after Local Vice President Trevor Taylor, who lost the contest for union presidency, filed a protest charging that ballots were cast by non-dues-paying members (who allegedly were allowed to pay their dues on election day and vote) and that Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming had advocated on behalf of McNair on social media posts.

Vignarajah’s letter cited a provision in the union’s election manual that election challenges “cannot be made after the voter’s ballot has been cast and commingled with other ballots,” and cited a Baltimore Ethics Board opinion issued last week that found no ethics rules were violated by Cumming’s tweets about the union election and McNair’s candidacy.

Prohibiting Media Contact

Vignarajah said the complaint about Cumming was a distraction from the real issue at hand – that Taylor himself had promoted his candidacy before the election using prohibited union directory lists.

The letter cites affidavits from McNair and three members of his slate saying that AFSCME Council 3 President Pat Moran told them that he “had spoken to Mr. Taylor about the misuse of the union directory and that Mr. Taylor ‘was wrong to do that.’”

Moran swore in McNair and three other slate members on August 30, only to attend a Local 44 meeting on September 11 where it was announced by election board chair Lakesha Baines that the election had been overturned as a result of Taylor’s protest.

Attempts by members to get a report cited by Baines as grounds for the election nullification were rebuffed, Vignarajah wrote. The Brew has repeatedly requested information about the nullification as well.

At the September 11 meeting, members were instructed not to speak publicly about the election or other “internal” union business.

An email sent out to members on September 19 explicitly adds that “candidates are prohibited from talking to the media until after the election is over.”

Vignarajah’s letter asks the International Judicial Panel to reinstate the original election results, hold runoffs for vice president and an executive board position that did not reach the required majority vote on August 23, and impose “appropriate sanctions” on Taylor for his alleged misuse of the email system and other union resources.

Additional Brew Coverage

• Solid waste workers point a finger at their union for not protecting them from low pay and hazardous conditions (4/14/25)

• Showdown coming between sanitation worker activists and their union at Local 44 election tomorrow (8/22/25)

• Insurgent says he won AFSCME Local 44 presidency after grassroots campaign for better pay and working conditions (8/23/25)

• Will there be a run-off for Local 44 vice president? AFSCME won’t tell its own members (9/4/25)