The largest union of Maryland state government workers is escalating its concerns with Gov. Wes Moore’s administration by publicly pressing for better pay and filing complaints over administration practices.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed three complaints known as Unfair Labor Practices against the state on Tuesday.

The complaints allege that the state is not following its telework policy for employees, not giving required higher pay to employees who work unfavorable shifts and not properly implementing leave for employees called up to military duty.

The Unfair Labor Practice complaints are just the latest concern for AFSCME Maryland Council 3, which represents tens of thousands of state employees. The union called a press conference at their Baltimore office on Tuesday to urge Moore to increase their pay and make smart investments to improve the services they provide to Marylanders.

Union leaders urged the Democratic governor and state lawmakers not to balance a more than $1 billion budget gap on the backs of state employees next year.

“We’re at a critical time in Maryland when we have an administration in Washington that has made it their mission to go after the public services millions rely on,” said Patrick Moran, AFSCME’s president. “We need a state government and state leadership that are standing up to those threats and charting a different course.”

AFSCME has long pushed the state government to increase wages and staffing in offices, prisons and hospitals where union employees work. Under former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, they blasted the state employee attrition that was allowed to take place and expressed hope that Moore would fulfill a promise to rebuild state government.

But budget woes have made that promise difficult, and Moore instituted a hiring freeze and offered buyouts to state workers this year, which means that hundreds of positions have been eliminated or left unfilled.

“We cannot do our work if our government does not have our back,” said Cherrish Vick, AFSCME Maryland’s secretary-treasurer, and a state family services case worker. “And that looks like acting as a partner, working with us on cost savings and paying state workers what we deserve.”

Rhyan Lake, a spokesperson for Moore, did not respond to the union’s specific complaints but said in a statement that “the governor will continue to work with our labor partners to ensure our workers are protected.”

“This administration has continued to take steps to both support our public servants and responsibly manage a historic budget crisis as Maryland continues to face unprecedented attacks from the federal administration,” she said.

Over the last decade, AFSCME members’ cost-of-living increases have slipped 10% behind inflation, Moran said. The Moore administration, meanwhile, says that in the last three years, wages have risen more than 12%, compared to inflation at 8%.

Union members maintain that wages aren’t high enough to compete with local governments or private employers to fill open jobs. They gave examples of how vacancies and underfunding have affected their work.

Jenny Reese, a union leader and nurse at Springfield Hospital Center, a psychiatric facility in Carroll County, said understaffing leads to patient assaults on workers and patients not having access to therapeutic activities they “desperately need.” The lack of competitive pay makes it difficult to recruit and retain workers, she said.

In state prisons, workers and inmates alike are paying the price because of lack of staffing and underinvestment in the physical facilities, said Oluwadamilola Olaniyan, a correctional officer and union leader. Three people in custody have died in the past two weeks, he said.

“I see turnover rising, assaults going up and staff and incarcerated individuals left less safe because of budget decisions being made with no connection to the reality on the ground,” he said.

AFSCME is also in the midst of annual end-of-year negotiations with the state over worker pay for the next budget year.

Neither the state nor the union is allowed to comment on the status of negotiations, but the union’s decision to hold a press conference ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline may indicate discussions are not going well.