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Bill would let Baltimore County Public Library supervisors form separate bargaining unit; library opposes citing conflict-of-interest concerns
Summary
Delegate Kathy Forbes presented HB 10‑71 to allow supervisory employees of the Baltimore County Public Library to form a separate collective bargaining unit. Union organizers and supervisory staff testified in favor, while library leadership and the county's lobbyist opposed the measure citing conflict-of-interest and operational concerns.
Delegate Kathy Forbes told the committee HB 10‑71 would extend the state’s library collective-bargaining framework to allow a distinct bargaining unit for supervisors at Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL).
"This is a bill of parity," Forbes said, noting prior legislation that expanded bargaining rights to library employees statewide left supervisors at BCPL without the same statutory right. Supporters, including Anita Bass, president of IAM Local 4538, said the bill would give supervisors a choice to unionize and would not automatically make supervisors members of a union.
Bridget Fitzgerald of IAM described the bill as aligning BCPL with other systems that allow dual bargaining units and argued supervisors’ inclusion would preserve employees’ right to organize without forcing managers into the same unit as non‑supervisory staff. "The proposed legislation requires supervisors to organize into their own unit separate from the non supervisory staff," Fitzgerald said.
Baltimore County Public Library’s CEO, Sonia Alcantara Antoine, testified in opposition. She said the library’s current local collective-bargaining law — negotiated four years earlier with the employer and union — expressly excluded confidential employees, managers, and supervisors. Alcantara Antoine said supervisors at BCPL have authority to hire, transfer, promote, discipline, represent administration in labor-management committees and other responsibilities that could create conflicts if they were union members. "Including them in a union would create a clear conflict of interest between their duties as representatives of the employer and their interests as union members," she said.
Cornerstone Government Affairs and BCPL representatives argued that the library and union have had a constructive bargaining relationship since the original law and that adding supervisors could increase costs and complicate daily operations. Supporters countered that other systems have managed dual units and that supervisors’ choice to unionize should be respected. Committee members asked detailed questions about supervisor duties, hiring/termination authority, and comparative experiences in other jurisdictions. The transcript records extensive testimony and cross-examination but no final committee vote in the provided excerpt.
