Rally sparked by Chamber of Commerce report

Simmering differences between city employees in Baltimore and Mayor Martin O'Malley came to a boil in early September when some 1,000 of the city's 16,500 unionized workers protested plans to stagnate pay, to deflate their health care benefits and to contract out their jobs to the business community.

Holding signs that read "Baltimore City Workers: Quality Services from Quality People," city employees gathered in front of City Hall, some 5,000 of them are represented by the FPE's City Union of Baltimore, appealing to the community for support. In addition to the workers, U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-7th district) and Democratic state senators Joan Carter Conway and Nathaniel McFadden joined the protest, as did NAACP president Kweisi Mfume and members of the local clergy.

Tension between the unions and the mayor started this past summer when O'Malley hailed a city government study by the local Chamber of Commerce recommending widespread privatization and elimination of vital city jobs and services, ranging from reducing trash collection to disbanding public housing repair crews. The study also recommended establishment of a "committee" of non-elected city officials who would oversee the contracting out of city jobs and services to private businesses.

While labor was responding to the study, conducted without any input from public workers, the city's work force was dealt a second blow. O'Malley sent letters to city workers notifying them that an expected $59 million budget shortfall over the next three years precluded the city from awarding an adequate pay increase to its employees. He also said public workers, who earn an average of $22,000 annually, would be asked to contribute more toward their health care.

Meanwhile, pay increases have been abundant for other city officials and workers under O'Malley's administration. Since December 1999, city council member pay was increased $11,000 a year; the mayor's salary was hiked from $95,000 to $125,000 annually; and the salary cap for the mayor's top deputies was raised from $108,000 to $140,000. Moreover, contract negotiations with the police officers' union rendered a 33 percent pay increase over the next three years.

"It is reasonable for a new mayor to look at city services and search for ways to improve them," Sheila Jordan, president of CUB, told the protesters. "It is not reasonable to ignore the city workers who provide those services. And it is not right to make us scapegoats for problems that politicians and city managers have ignored for years."

Three other unions--the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Baltimore Fire Officers Association and the Baltimore Firefighters Association--participated in the event, aptly billed "Labor United."