About Us

Local 4502 History

Our Union started as an "Association" named the Columbus Municipal Association of Government Employees. Our roots go back to the mid 1980's when several classifications of professionals in the City of Columbus were negotiated out of AFSCME Local 1632. Subsequently, these classifications were without bargaining rights or representations and were classified as "D" for hourly workers and "E" for exempt from overtime (salary) workers.

Under the Administration of former Mayor Dana "Buck" Rhinehart, each of the department directors went before City Council that year and stated that no pay increases would be forthcoming because of the dire economic curcumstances the City was then facing. The Mayor, too, stated that pay increases were not economically feasible. But then, one by one, each Union successfully negotitated across the board pay raises. As a matter of fact, all City employees with bargaining rights/representation received pay increases. Unfortunately, the "D" and "E" class employees had no bargaining unit to fight on their behalf.

Several years passes and by 1990, the professional classes (the unrepresented "D" and "E" class employees), tired of being left hehond and anxioiusly hoping to create positive changes, started to organize by petitioning SERB (State Employees Relations Board)for the right to Unionize.

Providing additional inspiration and momentum to the movement, a 1990 study by the National Commission of Public Service reported on the loss of qualified employees in public service due to declining pay and job satisfaction. Thus, the "Association" of CMAGE was developed.

In June of 2002, members of CMAGE, looking to strenghten their representation and negotiating presence voted to affiliate with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The Union now enjoys the National resource and strength offered by CWA and is fully utilizing these resources to benefit the membership.

Recently, history was made by the current leadership of Local 4502 in a landmark court decision that restored "bumping rights" back to the bargaining unit. In 2005, you will recall, AFSCME successfully negotiated language that (effectively) negated our Civil Service rights under CSC rules - and many of our members were wrongfully terminated in the lay-off of 2008-2009. Your Local leadership held their ground and retained attorney counsel to correctly steer this matter to the Civil Courts. On June 10, 2010 the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals found in the Unions favor; that bumping rights for CWA members were wrongfully denied.Furthermore, the Court spotlighted in their written decision that the City had mutually bargained the same rights to both bargaining units, and that the fault resided in the City...and not with the Union. The City appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court; and the Court decided not to hear the City appeal. The end result is that CWA Local 4502 members enjoy the same protections under Civil Service rule as any other bargaining unit - and that the City had "created a mess" by allowing such language in to the AFSCME contract in 2005.

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