LA PLATA — Charles County employees who have waited six years for a local bargaining law got their bill onto the books Oct. 27, when county commissioners voted 3-2 to introduce it and send it to a public hearing.
Proposed Bill 2026-12, Collective Bargaining, would allow certain county employees to form a union, according to a Charles County Government meeting summary released Oct. 29. Employees in the Emergency Medical Division are not covered. The public hearing is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17.
The vote reversed a stall from the week before. On Oct. 20, with Commissioner Vice President Ralph Patterson II absent, the board split 2-2 on declaring a legislative day, the procedural step Charles commissioners need before they can introduce any local law. Commissioner President Reuben Collins II and Commissioner Thomasina Coates voted yes; Commissioners Gilbert “BJ” Bowling III and Amanda Stewart voted no. Without the legislative day, the bill’s briefing was pulled.
The county’s Oct. 29 summary did not say how each commissioner voted on the 3-2 introduction.
Six years in the making
The General Assembly gave Charles County the power to pass a bargaining law for its regular employees in 2020, with binding arbitration. A state fiscal note said any county law would have to define unfair labor practices, prohibit strikes and leave existing public safety bargaining rights alone. The bill became law that May without then-Gov. Larry Hogan’s signature, according to AFSCME Maryland, the union organizing county workers.
The state law only opened the door. Nothing changes for county workers until commissioners adopt a local law, which is what Bill 2026-12 would do. The county held a hearing July 21 on a related measure, Proposed Resolution 2026-04, Charles County Employees Collective Bargaining.
The emergency medical exclusion reflects history. Commissioners enacted Bill 2017-11 to allow voluntary collective bargaining for full-time merit system employees in the Emergency Medical Services Division who hold the ranks of lieutenant, paramedic or emergency medical technician. The county’s summary did not say whether that was the reason those workers were left out of the new bill.
Other public workers in the county already bargain. Charles County Public Library employees, who work for a separate library system, ratified their first union contract in August after 14 months of talks. Statewide, a national report this fall gave Maryland an F on public-sector labor policy.
A crowded Nov. 17
The bargaining bill will share the evening with another hearing. Commissioners also set 6 p.m. Nov. 17 for Proposed Bill 2026-13, which would create a pretrial release and community service program. Under that bill, district and circuit judges could release people charged with certain lesser offenses who meet eligibility rules, with participants paying for monitoring and drug testing. People arrested for violent crimes, certain weapons charges and certain domestic violence-related charges would not qualify.
The hearing falls two weeks after the Nov. 3 general election. A vote to adopt the bargaining bill can come only after the hearing, so the decision will be made after voters weigh in on county races. The bill’s full text was not included in the county’s summary; meeting materials are posted on the commissioners’ meeting archive.
