Posts tagged Baltimore
Ballot Question 2 asks: Should public defenders have the right to unionize?
September 29, 2026 // Question 2 would allow employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS, to participate in collective bargaining. If they negotiate a contract, CPCS would then be required to request the funding needed for that agreement from the governor within 30 days. The Yes On 2 campaign was organized to help grant public defenders the right to join a union. The campaign’s central argument states: CPCS employees should have the same opportunity to organize and negotiate collectively that many others have.
Nurse Files Federal Charges Challenging Union Policy that Conditions Contract Vote Participation on Signing Union Card
September 22, 2026 // Jennifer Delaney, a nurse at Ascension Health’s St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, has filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) challenging a common union boss tactic designed to coerce employees into signing union membership and dues cards. The charges were filed with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Delaney’s charges argue that when union officials block nonmembers from voting on contracts that will apply to them, the union violates the National Labor Relations Act’s (NLRA’s) prohibition on unions restraining or coercing employees’ Section 7 right to refrain from union membership. Though the NLRB has long looked the other way when union officials engage in such discrimination during contract ratification votes, the charges argue that the Board can no longer brush aside this clear violation of the text of the NLRA in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
Baltimore museum workers’ union push dissolves
August 7, 2026 // Teamsters Local 570 disclaimed its interest in representing Baltimore Museum of Industry workers in February 2026. The union lost support roughly a year after workers voted 14-8 to join in January 2025.
Mount Vernon-based Baby’s On Fire Cafe to shutter after workers seek to unionize
July 13, 2026 // Baby's On Fire Cafe will close its doors soon, according to an Instagram post made Friday. Owners Shirlé Hale-Koslowski and David Koslowski cited "significant losses in revenue" as the reason for the closure of the Mount Vernon-based cafe and record store, with the last day of service set for Sunday, July 19.
‘Blue Power’ and the Rise of Police Union Politics
April 18, 2026 // "Everybody else can indulge in politics—every black group, every political party group, every church group," groused Carl Parsell, then president of the Detroit Police Officers Association, in 1969. "Why are police officers so different?" The question goes to the heart of Stuart Schrader's Blue Power, a new book charting how police unions accreted and cemented power in the decades following Parsell's query. It's a ripe subject for review: Police officers' savvy use of public sector unions and lobbying to largely immunize themselves from oversight is one of the greatest political coups in recent American history. In under four decades, police unions evolved from beer-drinking clubs to organized bargaining units to potent political forces at the local, state, and national levels.
The Baltimore Banner’s parent nonprofit acquires the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
April 15, 2026 // The Post-Gazette is a beleaguered, historic metro daily whose union completed a divisive 1,133-day strike over health benefits last November. The NewsGuild technically won in court, but in January, Block Communications announced the newspaper’s financial losses were untenable and that it would print its final edition May 3. RELATED ARTICLE Nonprofit news site The Banner expands beyond Baltimore September 15, 2025 The Banner, meanwhile, is a national poster child for nonprofit news success. Since its founding in 2022, when Maryland businessman and Venetoulis chairman and founder Stewart Bainum pledged $50 million over about five years to the news outlet, it has won a Pulitzer, grown into the state’s largest newsroom, and rebranded from The Baltimore Banner to The Banner, even expanding coverage into D.C.’s suburbs after Washington Post layoffs. (The Banner has not yet broken even.)
Ex-workers from the Hampden MOM’s Organic Market decry pay discrimination
April 13, 2026 // Giving employees at the first MOM’s store to unionize lower weekend pay and fewer paid holidays than non-unionized locations doesn’t jibe with the chain’s high-minded core values, they say
Baltimore security officers walk out in labor dispute with Abacus Corporation
April 9, 2026 // The walkout hit posts across the city, including Harbor East, police stations, a water treatment facility and public housing developments. Officers are employed through Abacus and other firms, including Metropolitan Protective Services and Urban Development Solutions. Workers described safety concerns and alleged retaliation. Darian Wheeler, fired in March after nine years on the job, said she believes her termination was tied to union activity and came without prior discipline.
BALTIMORE: Moore administration settles contracts with state unions — except AFSCME
January 6, 2026 // According to a Monday news release from AFSCME, the contract proposal the Moore administration offered did not include wage increases aligned with inflation, nor did it fully correct wage scales for unionized workers that lag behind other state employees. Last month, a Moore administration official told The Daily Record that in his nearly three-year tenure, the average salary for AFSCME-represented workers has increased by 12.47%, while inflation increased by 8%.
‘Finally delivered for them’: Mayor signs union contract, marking historic moment for Baltimore
December 3, 2025 // Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott signed off on three American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees councils' union contracts Tuesday in a historic moment for city labor. The deal provides double-digit pay increases and puts employees onto wage steps. Advertisement The union went through a tense leadership controversy, and a runoff election for president of Local 44 will be held next month.