Graduate students rally for a union at University System of Maryland institutions

In her several decades as a history professor at the University of Maryland, Robyn Muncy has seen the struggles of graduate student employees trying to form a union on campus.

“They’ve been working for 20 years,” said Muncy, a contributing editor of "Labor: Studies in Working-Class History," before the start of a noon rally held by the student-employees in a plaza in front of a library on the College Park campus.

Muncy commended the latest cohort of students’ “visibility and creativity” in the decades long effort that she said has ebbed and flowed. The organizing appears to have gotten a new impetus from the United Auto Workers who, as of Labor Day about three weeks ago, backed the graduate students’ campaign.

On campus rally, backed by state legislators

Thursday’s rally started with a few dozen students, milling around, tentatively holding signs and munching on pizza while undergraduate passersby asked: “What is this?”

After faculty, a union representative, undergraduate and graduate student employees spoke, the rally ended with a state delegate addressing a crowd of about 100 on hand, vowing to bring back legislation in the General Assembly in order to effect the change for collective bargaining rights.

The graduate student employees “need to know that there are people in Annapolis that have their back,” said state Del. Linda Foley, D-Montgomery, in an interview after the rally concluded.

State Sen. Ben Kramer, D-Montgomery, a member of the Finance Committee who backed an unpassed bill for certain graduate students’ collective bargaining rights in the last legislative session, said in a phone interview after the rally that the students’ “voices are not being heard.”

Kramer, an alumnus of the University of Maryland, College Park, said he intended to introduce legislation again in the upcoming session, which begins in January. His fellow Montgomery County Democratic legislator, Foley, pinpointed the University of Maryland’s opposition as the primary obstruction to the bill's passage.

“That’s what’s holding this off,” she said. “If the University of Maryland would drop opposition to this, the legislature would pass it very, very quickly and very easily.”

Legislation may affect employees on Eastern Shore, Western Maryland

A new law may affect graduate student employees at roughly a dozen University system schools.

Salisbury University employs 90 graduate assistants, and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore employs 96, according to spokesmen. A spokesperson for the University System of Maryland-Hagerstown, which offers three graduate programs, did not respond to a query about how many are in that position on the Western Maryland campus by the time this article was submitted.

“Those workers in the satellite (schools)” said Foley, in the on-College Park campus interview, “need to make sure that they pay attention to this and that they also add their voices to this.”

Jennifer King Rice, a senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Maryland, College Park, said in written testimony earlier this year before the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee that average stipends are $27,600 (20 hours a week for nine months) and $36,900 (20 hours a week for 12 months).

These figures, she said, represent a 32% increase in the last year, and a 58% increase in the last five years.

Raising stipends to $46,000 or above, she said, would require a 10% increase in State appropriation or a 10% increase in tuition to cover additional the $60 million per year.

Graduate student says there has been a 'lack of meaningful dialogue'

“Collective bargaining takes a long time and stable relationships,” said Rice. “This is difficult when the union representation is inexperienced and turns over every few years as students graduate.”

Nate Beard, a graduate student at the College Park campus who also submitted testimony to the General Assembly this year, said in an interview after the rally that turnover is a “natural thing.” He pointed to other unions of graduate students across the country.

Mike Lurie, a spokesperson for the University System of Maryland, pointed to the recent cost of living adjustment for system employees that the governor, legislature, and University System regents approved.

“The University System of Maryland (USM) greatly values the dedication and hard work of its employees who help maintain our universities’ national prominence in research and innovation,” he said, in an email. He did not respond to follow up questions regarding the graduate student employees’ wages by the time this article was submitted.

Speaking at the rally, Akanksha Singh, a graduate student in atmospheric and oceanic science, said the graduate student employees have had a lack of meaningful dialogue with the administration. She called the graduate student employees the “backbone” of the institution.

Beard, the fifth year Ph.D. student, originally from Colorado, who teaches undergraduate classes, said he is hoping to finish up his work in the College of Information Studies in the next year or so.

He may not be around to see the fruits of his efforts to organize, which began in 2019. In a post-rally interview, after taking 10 pizza boxes to the dumpster, Beard indicated his reason for participating.

“Democracy shouldn’t stop at the workplace,” he said, “All workers deserve dignity.”

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: USMH, Salisbury could be impacted by grad student employee unionizing