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Saturday, July 07, 2012

OC Employees Turn In Union Petition

If enough of the Ocean City Employee Coalition’s number of submitted signatures turns out to be true registered Ocean City voters, the group will be in the clear to have a referendum on forming a union placed on this year’s ballot.

The Ocean City Employee Coalition has submitted a petition requesting a referendum be placed on this ballot in this November’s election asking the question to whether general city employees have the right to collective bargaining or not.

Last month city employee Barbara Dahan said the petition would be wrapped up by the end of June and as of Sunday, July 1, she announced the petition’s submission. Dahan issued a statement this week.

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe- connect the dots here. You posted the article on Gardner. It's bad enough that the employees have not received a raise, while health care costs and retirement contributions have went up, but then add Gardner to the mix and human resources not acting properly and you have a situation in which the city of salisbury public works is ripe for the picking by a union. If human resources and the director would just show some common sense and common decency I think this could be avoided, but mark my words, the effort to unionize salisbury public works is already started.

It's a simple equation:

1. work a job where your customers give you little to no respect
2. your bosses give you little to no respect
3. hr does nothing to improve morale and instead creates a hostile work environment
4. no raises
5. furloughs
6. health care costs going up every year (pay decrease)
7. retirement contribution goes from 3 to 7% (pay decrease)

and do this to a body of workers during arguably the worst economic conditions since the great depression and it's easy to see why some would welcome a union- if for nothing else but to have a mechanism to use to complain about people like Gardner or hr

Anonymous said...

all across the nation unions are failing and not respected by the masses. less than 8% of the population is a union member and now this? unions aren't respected in this area by the vast majority. why would you do this?

i realize you have problems, but unions aren't the answer. work this out a different way. believe me you will be sorry...

Anonymous said...

I live in Ocean City and I will be voting "no".

Public employees do not need protection from the voters. There is no big bad boogieman boss. The unions lost in Wisconsin and they will lose here as well.

Anonymous said...

I agree with 5:29.
Ocean City has the same problem as Salisbury-Everything is the council majority's fault when in reality it's the previous admins fault.
Previous admin allowed the departments to get top heavy and approved the salaries to go along with those promotions and titles all to the detriment of the lower level employees. Budgets are out of control.
Now we have a council who understands finances and knows something has to be done and people just either refuse or are too dumb to see it.

Anonymous said...

July 7, 2012 5:05 PM what does this have to do with Ocean City?

Anonymous said...

City employees should just feel very lucky to have jobs. A slap in the face to the taxpayers, many of which - if they are local - make far less then City employees.

Time to get real. This ain't 2005 any more!

Anonymous said...

Some OC organizations do treat their employees like sh*t. Transportation is a good example but there is little alternative to keep your mouth shut. Listen in on their weekend radio communications and you will see what I mean.

I'm not saying unions are the answer but OC management needs to put more effort into treating their employees (all including seasonal) as humans rather than scum.

Ask many and you will hear that "it used to be fun".

Anonymous said...

Salisbury needs to follow what Ocean City is doing or the employees will leave for OC public works jobs.

Unionize!

Anonymous said...

Salisbury needs to follow what Ocean City is doing or the employees will leave for OC public works jobs.

Unionize!

July 8, 2012 2:20 AM

Don't let the door hit ya, etc.

Just thing back, if you're old enough, and remember what happened to the other few places around here that were union.

In theory, and in the highest order of things, unions sound good and have good intentions.

HOWEVER, in the real world, things often do not work out as union members hoped and were told.

Unions almost always turn corrupt. Inflexible and outrageous demands are usually their downfall over time.

I would just love for someone to prove me wrong and force me to eat crow.

Any takers? Anyone got any verifiable proof that what I say does not apply to any union?

Take your time and direct me to such information, if there is any out there. I will wait.

And please, do it in a respectful manner without any derogatory remarks or personal attacks.

Anonymous said...

2:20 AM: OC employees are generally related to another employee of related to a friend of an existing employee. Anyone from Salisbury attempting to migrate to OC will soon find out what nepotism means.

Anonymous said...

The only people worried about Unions are the H.R. and Admin. It will pass and this is not Wisconsin ehhh. People are sick of being told you are lucky to have a job. F.U. you are lucky to have someone who works as hard as I do for the public. Get the union you wont be sorry. It is the only way for fairness in the work place.

The good ole boys are still alive and well. Just look at the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office. They just hired a trooper and made him a Sgt. So if you have 15 years on and number one on the list to be promoted who cares. Mike Lewis' buddy gets the job. Wow I am glad I dont work there. Mike you lost my vote what in the hell is wrong with you.