Maryland expands collective bargaining for state workers

As the Maryland General Assembly session came to a close in April, legislators passed a bill that gives state workers in four previously excluded executive departments collective bargaining rights already enjoyed by their sisters and brothers in the state service. AFSCME members across the state worked with Gov. Martin O’Malley as he led the charge to get this critical expansion of workers’ rights through the legislative process. 

The new law will, set to take effect on July 1, will give workers at the Maryland Transit Administration, the State Board of Education, the Office of the Comptroller and the Maryland State Retirement Agency the right to organize into new bargaining units. AFSCME activists are working every day on an organizing campaign with the 2,000 employees covered by these new bargaining units.

AFSCME members lobbied hard for this ‘Freedom to Vote’ legislation. At a time when far too many governors and legislators across the country are trying to diminish workers’ rights, Gov. O’Malley and legislative leaders fought and won a battle to expand the rights of public service workers in the Old Line State. Together we have helped workers gain more of a voice in the workplace and at the bargaining table