For Immediate Release
Wednesday, December 04, 1996
In Nation's Largest Union Election Experience Prevails as AFSCME Maryland Wins First Two State Employee Units by Overwhelming Margin
In the first-ever collective bargaining election by Maryland state employees AFSCME Maryland was chosen as the representative for both the state's health care and human service employees and the social workers unit. AFSCME won by a better than 3-to-1 margin in the former, by 2.5-to-1 in the latter. The no-vote garnered about 2% of the ballots cast.
The election was conducted by mail ballot. These are the first results in what will ultimately be the nation's largest union election in over six years.
Health and human service employees -- bargaining unit D -- voted 758 for AFSCME Maryland; 238 for MCEA and 17 for no union representation. Social and human services employees -- bargaining unit F -- voted 1156 for AFSCME Maryland, 469 for MCEA and 52 for no union representation.
"The results are clear," said campaign director Kim Keller. "State employees voted almost 100-to-1 for collective bargaining, and overwhelmingly for AFSCME Maryland representation.
"Finally state employees will be able to speak with one strong voice in determining their future."
AFSCME Maryland led the effort to extend collective bargaining rights to state employees, which culminated in an executive order issued on May 24 of this year. In the state employee election campaign AFSCME highlighted its success in working with collective bargaining to improve the work life and livelihood of Maryland public employees and state employees nationwide. AFSCME Maryland has collective bargaining agreements covering over 20,000 Maryland public employees. AFSCME has over 500,000 state employees under collective bargaining contracts in over two dozen states. With over 1.3 million members, AFSCME is the nation's largest public employee union.
"When I worked in an Ohio state hospital we had an AFSCME contract," said Debra Gooden, a Direct Care Assistant at the Rosewood Center in Owings Mills. "It meant that rules were spelled out, they applied to everyone, and people were treated fairly. It put a stop to favoritism." Gooden is a member of the health and human services bargaining unit D.
"Today's election means finally we have a say in what's important to us," said Dorothy Jones, a Human Services Associate 2 at the Baltimore County office of the Department of Social Services and also a member of bargaining unit D. A 20-year employee, Jones noted that "We've had our pay frozen with no say, major layoffs with no say, and work policies changed with no say. Now we have a voice."
State employees looked on today's results not only as fortuitous for themselves, but the services they provide as well.
Nationally, the report of U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich's Task Force on Excellence in State and Local Government Through Labor-Management Cooperation notes a "Trend towards joining unions, reflecting partially a desire to better bring problems and ideas to the attention of emploeyrs." The report went on to state that in public sector collective bargaining, "when carried out using cooperative principles, (is) extremely supportive of quality improvement efforts and outcomes in public services."
Next week the votes will be tallied for the Public Safety and Security and the Labor and Trades bargaining units. Early next year there will be an election for the Administrative, Technical and Clerical bargaining unit.
