Pay increases, worker safety top issues for Baltimore DPW workers after two deaths on the job

Several members of the Baltimore City Council and union leaders remembered two workers who died on the job in 2024 and vowed to improve safety and increase wages. Baltimore sanitation workers have long complained of low pay and unsafe working conditions.  

"We've had huge challenges with worker safety at DPW. We know that we've had workers die at DPW. We've had over 1,600 injuries in five years in the sanitation department at DPW," Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen said. 

DPW workers voice union concerns

Conditions became so bad, some workers did not even have access to toilet paper or proper bathroom facilities. 

The unions have come under fire from some workers who claimed they were out of touch.

Several who spoke to the inspector general criticized AFSCME, saying their "presence has been non-existent, and the union has not advocated for the workers in the last few years. One worker opined that Local 44 is absent until something drastic happens, like when a worker dies…" 

"They're lying to you all. We are tired of them. That's why we're here," said Stancil McNair, at a heated city council legislative oversight hearing on March 20. "More of us came to this hearing than we do to a union meeting. That's sad. And they're still playing games. Still playing games."

WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren asked the unions about these concerns. 

"Our goal is to protect all of you," said Antoinette Ryan-Johnson, President of City Union of Baltimore, which represents DPW supervisors. "If that means that I need to take the bow, I will do so, but we need you to be our eyes and ears."

Two DPW deaths raise alarm

After the deaths of Baltimore DPW employees Ronald Silver II and Timothy Cartwell in 2024, union leaders said Monday they will follow through on their promises to keep workers safe.

"Today, we mourn the dead, but mourning is not enough. We fight for the living—for every worker who has been ever told to suck it up instead of speak up," said Courtney Jenkins, the president of the Metropolitan Baltimore Council of AFL-CIO unions.

The city has not provided substantive updates in months on the death of Cartwell. He was crushed by a trash truck. 

Silver died after repeatedly begging for help in the extreme heat.     

"He was not replaceable," Faith Johnson, Silver's mother, said last month, her voice breaking. "He was not replaceable to us. I'm still trying to figure out how life looks without him."     

New safeguards are already in place statewide. The city is also implementing new heat standards. 

"This summer, Maryland will be only one of six states in the country that offers these protections" said Scott Schneider, the former director of occupational safety for the Laborers International Union. "It came too late for Ronald Silver, but we hope that as we remember him today on Workers' Memorial Day, his death helped prevent others from having to suffer or die of heat exposures."

Fighting for pay raises

Right now, union leaders and the city are negotiating pay raises.

The average sanitation worker earns just 15 cents an hour in hazard pay and a little more than $42,000 annually, which many said is not enough to feed their families. 

"It is the expectation of this city council that those workers will get a raise, and it will be a meaningful raise," Cohen said.

Last week, the city council president joined sanitation workers on the job. 

"It is hard work. It is backbreaking work, and they deserve more," Cohen said.

The negotiations are private, and union leaders declined to comment on specific progress Monday, but Cohen noted the DPW director has committed to providing a pay increase. 

Just weeks ago, Baltimore City signed new contracts with top leaders, with several earning more than $250,000 a year.