The two unions representing Baltimore City municipal workers and supervisors joined a handful of councilmembers demanding immediate changes at the Department of Public Works.
On Friday afternoon, solid waste worker Ronald Silver II was finishing his collection route when he collapsed and then later died. The Baltimore Office of the Medical Examiner has confirmed that Silver died of hyperthermia, colloquially known as heat sickness, which happens when the body’s temperature climbs too high. Baltimore City’s Health Department had called a Code Red Heat Alert, which is triggered when the heat index is expected to reach 105 degrees.
“The circumstances that led to Brother Silver’s death are deeply upsetting because they are largely preventable,” said Patrick Moran, President of AFSCME Maryland Council 3, which represents many of the city’s municipal workers, including an estimated 1,000 DPW employees.
Flanked by the silhouette of Baltimore City Hall and in temperatures that felt like 95 degrees (a cooler of water was available for all attendees), Moran and the City Union of Baltimore with Councilmembers Zeke Cohen, Antonio Glover and Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer laid out a series of safety demands.
Those include:
- An administrative hearing with the City Council and municipal hearings on the topic of worker safety
- Funding for a full-time position in the Office of the Inspector General solely dedicated to workplace safety concerns at DPW
- Commitment from the city to work with the unions on improving worker safety, including joint walkthroughs with city council and unions through every municipal work site over the next year
- An independent review of city maintenance facilities
- Additional staffing at DPW
The unions also demand to be involved with investigation processes as well as planning for training that includes health and safety, CPR and heat exposure.
There is currently no federal occupational heat standard in place by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration that would have protected a worker like Silver. Instead, businesses, states, and municipalities are left to create protections of their own.
According to data from the Maryland Health Department, the state counted 14 heat related deaths as of July 31st (Silver is not counted in that number). Last year there were nine heat related deaths and there were only five in 2022.
“We have been in constant communication with both AFSCME and the City Council throughout the duration of this latest discussion about DPW facilities. In the wake of the tragic loss of Ronald Silver II, we are going to work through every single concern alongside the union, members of council, and the rank-and-file DPW workers who are on the frontlines serving Baltimoreans every single day," said Mayor Brandon Scott in an emailed statement to WYPR. Scott said his administration is making short- and long-term investments to ensure that "our workers are able to do their work safely, securely, and with confidence that this Administration is behind them fully.”
“The toxic culture at DPW must be gutted.”
Moran made an impassioned call against what he and others have called a culture of hazing, harassment, and toxicity within the management of the Department of Public Works.
“If it’s your management style, then you need to leave or we will help you leave the city,” he said.
Those problems have been long established within the department and Councilmember Antonio Glover (District 13) recalled seeing those problems himself when he was a solid waste worker over twenty years ago.
“It's the old adage, I went through it, so you're going to go through it, right? And that's not acceptable,” said Glover, who recalled at one point he was working a route when a gun was pulled on him.
According to one sanitation worker, Stancil McNair, those incidents still happen.
“I had a gun pulled on me because somebody thought I sold drugs,” he recalled in an interview with WYPR last week. “And you know what supervision did, they laughed at me, and you know what they told me? They said ‘Oh man, you was locked up. You have family in the streets.’”
“This is how we get talked to,” said McNair, although he is mindful to say that there are supervisors and leaders who have worked to advocate on laborers’ behalf.
Baltimore has banned “the box” meaning employers cannot ask for a person’s criminal history and the opportunities provided through DPW have attracted a number of returning citizens to work there throughout the years.
But McNair and others, including Councilman Glover, have said that gives management more reasons to disrespect them.
“The mindset needs to be changed, the culture needs to be changed, and training needs to happen. We have individuals that were once coworkers and now are in management, and they've come from the culture of disrespect,” said Glover.
Some of that disrespect has been perpetuated by members of the unions gathered on Tuesday. In a report released last month, Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Cumming detailed how one supervisor was withholding toilet paper from male employees (the issue is now allegedly rectified). Also in those reports, Cumming found that facilities at Bowleys Lane and Cherry Hill lacked air conditioning. Access to water and Gatorade was also inadequate. DPW has reported those issues are being addressed.
Supervisors at the DPW facilities are represented by the City Union of Baltimore (CUB).
“I think part of the problem is that they are uneducated as well,” said CUB Vice-President Roderick Pinkett, who also reported that conversations about additional training on anti-harassment and health and safety are underway.
Glover recalled his own experience as a DPW laborer, he said training was often done haphazardly and relied on individuals passing their knowledge down to newcomers on their crews — leading to a patchwork of knowledge and potential for hazing. Glover said he did not know if training is different in 2024.
When WYPR submitted questions about health and safety training at DPW, a spokesperson responded that there is “no new information that can be shared with members of the press.” Mayor Brandon Scott spoke on WYPR’s Midday and said that heat training has been made available to DPW members in the past.
CUB has been sounding the alarm for years now on worker safety, including releasing their own data and reports about the risk to workers. A DPW worker was shot earlier this year while on their route. In 2019, DPW supervisor Trina Cunningham fell to her death through a missing grate on a catwalk at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant; according to a lawsuit, she was found drowned in an 18-foot deep wastewater chamber.
Trash and collection services were suspended Tuesday as workers at the Bowleys Lane and Cherry Hill Reedbird sanitation yards underwent mandatory OSHA heat safety training. That’s a positive thing, said union leaders on Tuesday but more needs to be done.
Silver’s death must be a wake-up call, said Democratic nominee for Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen.
“No one should have to wonder if it’s the last time they’ll say goodbye to their family when they leave for work,” he said.