Insurgent sanitation workers won Baltimore Local 44 top offices. Now there will be a new election
AFSCME Maryland officials won’t say why they have reportedly nullified the August 23 election – and ordered another vote next month
Above: Stancil McNair (upper left) and other members of his slate after they announced he won the Local 44 presidency on August 23. (Madeleine O’Neill)
The August 23 election in which Stancil McNair and other insurgent candidates won AFSCME Local 44 leadership positions has been nullified and will be re-run next month, according to a Baltimore sanitation worker who ran unsuccessfully for vice president.
“It was decided last night at a meeting of the election committee at the union hall,” Clarence Thomas, a solid waste worker, told The Brew this afternoon.
Thomas didn’t go to the meeting – in which those in attendance were reportedly sworn to secrecy about the decision – but said he was later informed of it by a person who attended.
A new election will be held on October 4, he said.
Patrick Moran and top AFCSME Maryland Council 3 officers have not responded to calls and emails asking for more details.
Local 44 represents Baltimore City sanitation workers and blue-collar employees in several other departments.
Since holding the August 23 election, Moran has refused to confirm who won the local’s top positions, but was present at the August 30 swearing-in of McNair as Local 44 president at union headquarters.
Two Brew reporters tried to attend the swearing-in at 1410 Bush Street, but were ordered out of the building by Moran, who said it was a private event involving internal union matters.
“I’m done answering questions,” Moran said. “You have to leave – now.”
Union officials also barred The Brew and other media from attending the August 23 election, ordering a reporter off the union’s parking lot where workers assembled before the vote.
Local 44 vice president Trevor Taylor was the candidate favored by Moran to win the election.
But he lost to McNair, who ran on a platform of improving safety conditions and salaries for sanitation crews following two on-the-job deaths and highly critical reports of working conditions by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming.
Moran, who has been Maryland Council 3’s top executive since 2012, heatedly defended the union’s record at a City Council hearing last spring.
DPW solid waste worker Clarence Thomas speaks at a March 2025 City Council hearing on pay and workplace conditions. (Charm TV)
McNair: No Comment
McNair emerged from the union hall on August 23 with a reported 125-103 vote victory over Taylor. He declined to comment today about a new vote.
Before the election, there were complaints about alleged improprieties.
An email sent out by Taylor two days before the vote broadcast details of a tentative contract between the union and the Brandon Scott administration.
The email touted the “biggest raises ever” and included a campaign pitch that urged recipients to “Vote Trevor Taylor for President.”
McNair said he protested to Moran that Taylor’s access to union email addresses gave him an unfair advantage in the election.