Maryland COs Say Union Yes!

Thousands of Maryland corrections officers voted in December to join United Corrections and Public Safety Employees of Maryland, a landmark alliance between the two largest unions in the AFL-CIO — AFSCME and the Teamsters.

United Corrections "has so much to draw on," said Bernard Ralph, a CO in the Department of Corrections Canine Unit and a member of Maryland's Council 92 executive board. "They have resources in D.C., COs across the country. They can get us the help we need."

Over 40,000 state workers like Ralph gained the right to collective bargaining through Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening's May 24 executive order, issued after the legislature refused to consider any substantive collective bargaining bill. The 7,800-member bargaining unit of COs, parole and probation officers and juvenile justice workers includes the largest number of COs to win collective bargaining rights in over a decade.

"The election will make all the difference for COs in Maryland," said Glen Middleton, president of Maryland Council 67 and a former sergeant at Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC). "COs can now bargain for health and safety benefits, uniform allowances, shifts, posts, staff shortages, better radio equipment — all the items that are important to the officers, including wages," said Middleton, who is also an International vice president.

CO Valerie Hunt, who works at BCDC, said she's looking to United Corrections to bring back seniority, health benefits and decent wages. Hunt had an AFSCME union contract when BCDC was a city facility — and lost it overnight when the facility was taken over by the state in 1991.

This election is one of four that AFSCME won in December — the culmination of an AFSCME effort to enact collective bargaining legislation in Maryland. The measure was strongly opposed by the Chamber of Commerce and the Maryland Classified Employees Association, an unaffiliated organization that later billed itself as a union and appeared on the ballot.