From Terri Chenowith, a Child Care Licensing Supervisor for MSDE:
I’ve worked at the Holly Center for over a decade. I’ve signed my AFSCME membership/authorization card already because it is my YES vote for our AFSCME supervisors’ union.
Here’s why I signed and voted YES:
- Our union AFSCME fought for a robust telework policy that reflects the realities of a modern workplace. AFSCME members are experts in our roles, and we know what it takes to do our jobs well. A strong, reasonable telework policy allows us to balance our work responsibilities with our families, children, friends, and other important parts of our lives. It also improves retention across our bargaining unit and supervisor positions.
- Our union AFSCME stopped at-will employment in MSDE and reduced reliance on contractual employees. People doing state employee bargaining unit work should be in state employee bargaining unit positions, and AFSCME negotiated with the state to end the illegal contracting out of bargaining unit positions at MSDE, protecting the integrity of our bargaining unit and state employment and ensuring everyone doing state bargaining unit work has protection from at-will employment.
- Our union AFSCME thwarted MDSE’s attempts to reclassify union positions and remove them from our bargaining unit. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly at work, and our union helped convert many positions that were incorrectly classified as “special appointee” and at-will back to bargaining unit positions covered by a union contract. Once we certify our union, we as supervisors will also have an avenue to address issues at MSDE, whether it’s through a labor-management committee or by organizing together with our coworkers.
Being able to win our union means we will finally have a say in protecting what we love about our jobs and fixing the problems we know exist at MSDE, like the larger case loads and additional on-call responsibilities that too often fall on us as supervisors.
We can’t certify our union and negotiate a union contract until a majority of supervisors signs our dual membership/authorization card, so please share this form with other supervisors that you know! Every supervisor who chooses not to sign our AFSCME card counts as a vote AGAINST our supervisors union and against having a voice in the issues we care about.
You can sign the card for AFSCME here. Please share with all of the supervisors you know across MSDE.
AFSCME Maryland MSDE Supervisors: Peter Collins, Tracey Backof, Steven Stran, Jason Schaefer