By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com

Baltimore City Council members pressed the Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) for better communication with employees and policies at a much-anticipated city council hearing on Aug. 22.

This hearing comes after the heat-related death of DPW worker Ronald Silver II, 36, on Aug. 2. The council acknowledged the family during the hearing and gave them a platform to speak about their loss.

โ€œThis pain is indescribable, and it is not anything I would wish on my worst enemy,โ€ said Faith Johnson, Silverโ€™s mother. 

Johnson commended the council for calling the hearing, but pushed the need for the city โ€œto do what should have been done before my son died.โ€

โ€œDonโ€™t play politics with my sonโ€™s life,โ€ she said.

Throughout the hearing โ€‹โ€‹city council members questioned the city’s decision to hire Conn Maciel Carey, a D.C.-based law firm, to do an independent investigation of DPWโ€™s work conditions and practices.

โ€œThis is a firm that represents companies largely trying to push back on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA),โ€ said Councilman Zeke Cohen (D-District 01).

A proposed OSHA heat stress ruling would mandate certain employers give workers access to regular hydration, rest breaks and cooling areas among a host of other training and emergency planning measures.

In recent years, Conn Maciel Carey has led a coalition of employers and trade associations representing airline operations, petroleum refining and more, largely to ensure OSHA heat regulations donโ€™t overburden employers.

The mayorโ€™s office further explained their choice in a statement.

โ€œConn Maciel Carey has been retained to assess the cityโ€™s current policies and practices and then to help provide the city with a set of recommendations about heat safety that will be shared publicly before any decisions are made about implementation,โ€ said the mayorโ€™s office in a statement. โ€œThe firmโ€™s recommendations will be one part โ€” and will be incorporated alongside discussions with and recommendations made by our partners in the union.โ€

The AFRO reached out to Conn Maciel Carey for comment but did not receive a timely response.

According to OSHA, out of 66 heat-related illness investigations from 2011-2016, 80 percent of heat-related deaths occurred in outdoor workplaces.

Aside from safety measures, council members called to attention the need for a better work culture at DPW.

โ€œWe want folks to feel our pain,โ€ said Glover, who spent 16 years working for DPW. โ€œSee what we see. Feel what we feel.โ€  

Longtime DPW worker Michael Stanley gave an inside look at some of the issues he has faced over the years. 

Stanley said heโ€™s seen upper-level DPW employees verbally disrespect workers on the job.

โ€œInstead of sympathizing with employees and helping us make it through the day, they want to try to make it as bad as possible for them,โ€ said Stanley. โ€œThey want to send them home angry.โ€

Antoinette Ryan-Johnson, president of the City Union of Baltimore, emphasized the need for DPW to properly train their workers.

โ€œBaltimore City needs to train every employee,โ€ said Ryan-Johnson. โ€œYou cannot hire someone and expect them to know what the policies and procedures are if you do not train them.โ€

Stanley said heโ€™s had to help teach newcomers while also doing his own job, as theyโ€™re often thrown into the work without proper training.

Cohen asked if DPW would commit to working with frontline sanitation workers, their union and city council members.

โ€œI think the workers need to inform the process,โ€ said Cohen. 

Councilwoman Odette Ramos (D-District 14) questioned DPW Director Khalil Zaiedโ€™s lack of knowledge of DPW facility issues and work conditions during his site visits.

Zaeid admitted he has not done DPW ride-alongs to speak directly to employees and see their daily work conditions. 

โ€œBy the time I get to a lot of those sites, in many cases, most of the routine service drivers and laborers have left,โ€ said Zaeid.

His responses prompted Ramos to speak on what it means to be a leader.

โ€œLeadership is supposed to be there to make sure that the workers have everything that they need to be able to perform their duties,โ€ she Ramos.

The director eventually committed to doing a ride-along on one of the DPW trucks within the next few weeks.