State employees renew call for safer working conditions and reducing staff shortages

Union workers rallied in Baltimore Tuesday at State Center, where Legionella bacteria were recently discovered in the water, to highlight the need for the state to invest in better maintenance of facilities and for higher staffing levels across several agencies.

The rally was hosted by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 3, who say that Maryland has a “backlog” of maintenance needs in various state buildings that make working conditions unsafe — with the Legionella at State Center serving as the most recent example.

“Right behind me, in front of me, all around me, the State Center buildings are battling Legionella bacteria in the water,” said Diane Williams, secretary treasurer of AFSCME local 1535 and a revenue specialist at the Comptroller’s Office.

“The state confirmed Monday, before Thanksgiving, that Legionella is still present in the State Center building,” Williams said. “They have failed to communicate a timeline for flushing the 201 and 301 building, and yet the state has made people come back to the office, even with the bacteria still in the water.”

Legionella is a bacteria that can spread through water systems and can lead to severe respiratory illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reports of Legionella at State Center began in November, but the Department of General Services confirmed that it was still present in the water as of last week, according to published reports.

“We do this work because we can, because we want to serve our community, but that doesn’t mean that we should be forced to put our bodies on the line to do this work,” Williams said.

Tuesday’s rally is the latest in a series of demonstrations to protest staffing shortages at state agencies and the state’s lack of upkeep for state buildings. AFSCME members have already held rallies in Hagerstown and Salisbury, with one more planned this month in Cumberland.

State employees from several agencies and occupations cited their concerns Tuesday with staffing shortages and unsafe working conditions.

Correctional officers said a shortage of workers is leading to a higher workload for current employees, which worsens care for incarcerated people.

“I want state leaders to know that if you really want to do right by the people we incarcerate and the people that work in the jail, you need to do the work.… We need a fair wage proposal that will actually allow us to recruit and retain staff,” said Oluwadamilola Olaniyan, president of AFSCME Local 1678, and a correctional officer sergeant at Jessup Correctional Institution.

“Officers are being mandated to work overtime, again and again, taking a toll on their physical, mental and emotional health. To make matters worse, the air conditioning never works, there’s mold in the shower, and the control panels that operate the doors don’t work. And we don’t have a way to maintain or repair them,” he said.

Meanwhile, social workers for the state say that there are not enough hands on deck to handle the demand for behavioral health needs in Maryland.

“Throughout our hospital, our security is understaffed, our nursing department is understaffed, we’re understaffed everywhere,” said Miriam Doyle, a union steward for AFSCME Local 557 and a social worker at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center. “And with uncompetitive wages and hostile leadership in our hospital, it’s no wonder I see so many of my co-workers leaving.”

Doyle said the process to discharge a patient is time-consuming, so that when she is the only social worker in a ward “there’s only so many patients I can discharge, which in turn slows down how many new patients we can admit.”

“This means that there are people who desperately need treatment but are instead languishing away in our jails,” she said. “Our hospital is then spending resources dealing with fines and sanctions from the courts because people are facing such long delays before they can be admitted. No one wins.”

AFSCME Maryland Council 3 president Patrick Moran said the General Assembly and Gov. Wes Moore need to increase state revenue so that buildings can be properly maintened and state employees can receive higher wages, even amid the state’s current tight fiscal outlook

“Our state leaders must be bold about growing the revenues that our state needs. That means closing tax looopholes that only benefit large corporations,” he said. “That means making their ultrawealthy pay their fair share.

“We must have a plan to address maintenance issues in our state facilities, and we must have wages that actually allow us to recruit, retain and properly compensate state employees for the essential work they do each and every day,” Moran said. “Now is not the time to shy away from the budget crisis in our state.”