ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland lawmakers are trying to increase protections for workers through a grouping of eight bills focused on giving power to the employee.
Several bills aim to strengthen unions, give workers more rights to organize and allow them to skip politically motivated meetings.
The most controversial is the Maryland Worker Freedom Act. It allows workers to skip meetings where political or community opinions are being discussed without being punished.
The House of Delegates debated the bill for an hour as Republicans offered several amendments.
"You're going to get sued. You're going to spend a bunch of taxpayer money and you're going to lose. So what the amendment does is it says if they change the federal rule, we accept that and acknowledge that we are preempted," Delegate Jason Buckel said.
"They are subject to a lot of public policy, and they have to be able to have meetings to talk about these proposed changes to decide how they're going to respond," Delegate April Miller said.
Democrats shot the amendments down, saying people on both sides of the aisle need to be protected from being forced into political meetings.
"This bill is simple. Yeah, it is supported by labor unions. That's true. But if you've ever been worried about woke corporations forcing their views down employees' throats, this bill is for you. If you ever worried about a small employer forcing employees to attend quasi-cult meetings or Quran study lessons and worried that maybe a worker would be fired if their Christian views were not respected in the workplace. This bill also is for you," Delegate Vaughn Stewart said.
The legislation also protects firefighters from working long hours within a month without getting overtime. Jeff Buttle, president of the Professional Firefighters of Maryland, supports the measure.
"This legislation will ensure fairness, consistency, and transparency across the board. It guarantees that firefighters are compensated properly for the long hours they work and provide clear accountability when they are not," Buttle said.
The bills also add protections for people working in colleges and universities.
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