It's true: after 20+ years, collective bargaining rights for MD grads is on the governor's desk!
We've won against fierce opposition, but the fight isn't over. The bill excludes ~50% of UMD grads and takes effect in 2028. We'll keep escalating for the immediate bargaining rights all grads deserve!
Our bill for grads is still alive in the MGA, but some reps are trying to cut out 12 of 14 USM campuses and grant-funded workers, which would affect ~50% of UMD grad workers. If you live in MD, tell your senator that these amendments are unacceptable: actionnetwork.org/letters/coll...
It is difficult to overstate how hard UMD has been fighting its workers. They hired our previous sponsor as their lobbyist and he has lived in the statehouse since. Multiple university presidents have been going to *local delegate town halls* to lobby against us. But they lost and we won.
UMD tries to divide grads and faculty by pretending collective bargaining will ruin our relationships, but the truth is we've fought side by side for years for collective bargaining rights. What an incredible achievement by our faculty union 🎉🎉
Maryland legislators are trying to exclude grant-funded workers and 12 of 14 USM campuses, including all HBCUs, from collective bargaining rights. ALL grad workers at ALL MD public universities deserve the right to negotiate their working conditions!
Congrats to our UAW siblings at Penn! 🎉 They won a $49k minimum stipend the night before their strike deadline when just last week Penn could only offer $46.5k. This is in addition to benefits like childcare, paid leave, and a fund for international grad visa costs. Strike threats work 👀
UMD claims our stipends meet costs of living in the area based on their estimation that rent, utilities, and food costs total just over $1448/mo. Just goes to show how out of touch administrators are when rent alone is regularly $1000 - $1500/mo in College Park and surrounding areas.
This isn't the first time grads have had trouble getting paid, and it won't be the last. UMD has never faced any consequences for failing to pay grad workers on time. Recognition as workers with collective bargaining rights gives us a mechanism to hold them accountable.
"[UMD] insists that we’re “students first and foremost” so the administration can continue to skirt accountability for flagrant labor violations involving graduate workers." ‼️
Read about UMD's summer wage theft in our new op-ed: dbknews.com/2025/11/30/g...
UMD grad TAs and instructors have been warned that we do NOT have First Amendment protections in the classroom, meaning this could also happen to us. Guess what could protect us? A union contract.
Solidarity to our colleague at OU. We deserve better than our university administrations.
Within @aaup.org, there's a lot of advocacy chapters who wonder what power they have without a CBA. We're here to say it doesn't matter. Organizing is organizing is organizing. You want the contract but if you act like a union then you're a union. I call this The Newsies Principle.
We @uam-umd.bsky.social won. Faculty packed town halls, talked to their colleagues and collected hundreds of petition signatures. Now UMD is coughing up $8.75m, during a deficit, to fund faculty whose research is under attack. Not enough, but a helluva thing for a union the state calls illegal.
Struck this morning by how the win wasn’t from the UC system itself pushing back—it was its worker power through *unions* and aligned groups like @aaup.org defending UC interests, even though admin itself wasn’t.
There’s some kind of lesson here
The majority of UMD faculty are nontenure researchers on federal funding. Hundreds of our public servants are threatened by MAGA science cuts. We're asking our bosses for simple things to keep people whole or provide dignified exits.
If you work at UMD or have worked with us, please sign and share
![A graduate worker wearing a high-vis vest holds a sign which reads "Honk if you [heart symbol] unions". In the distance, grad workers march along the sidewalk](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:os7ezx2vou36qu4k6xwbinxu/bafkreih5yx6hornxv4lsrg3e4glmhu2kdsufuowajpzydsox5i7maa2hiy)
A graduate worker wearing a high-vis vest holds a sign which reads "Honk if you [heart symbol] unions". In the distance, grad workers march along the sidewalk
UMD graduate workers, many wearing red, march and chant along the sidewalk. A sign in the foreground reads, "If we don't get it, shut it down!"
A group of UMD grad workers standing along a street. Many are holding UAW signs.
UMD grad workers line the entire sidewalk stretching down Baltimore Ave during the GLU Majority March.
UMD admin, take notice: 1000 grads came out to our Majority March on Oct 1 to say that we're done playing by your rules. Negotiate with us now, or we WILL shut it down!
Shout out to our allies @umdydsa.bsky.social @uam-umd.bsky.social MD/DC AFL-CIO and others for joining us!
"At least 200 red-clad members of UMD Graduate Labor Union participated in its Majority March for Union Recognition at the University of Maryland on Wednesday, demanding that the school recognize them and begin bargaining."
www.baltimoresun.com/2025/10/01/graduate-work...
A banner advertising the UMD Graduate Labor Union Majority March on October 1st, 2025 at 1PM. The text reads: UMD Grad Workers demand job security + neutral grievance procedure + parental leave + international grad protections + subsidized healthcare + livable wages + disability justice + childcare subsidies + subsidized transit + equitable workplaces + paid vacation time + enforceable contracts + just cause protections - Collective bargaining Now! Underneath is a stylized image of grad workers picketing along McKeldin Mall.
UMD admin are still ignoring our democratic demand for union recognition while our working conditions are actively getting worse. On October 1st, 1-3PM, grad workers all across campus are marching to show that we’re not backing down – we want RECOGNITION NOW! RSVP here: forms.gle/jocuj9awDCtT...
The attack on student unions is an attack - in concert with Trump - on the better version of the university we are fighting for.
Thank you for covering our and @hgsuuaw.bsky.social's contract campaigns against corporate universities.
Because UMD refuses to recognize grads as employees, our labor rights are constantly violated and UMD is never held accountable. We change that by winning our union!
In addition, a significant number of grads had their contracts changed w/o prior notification - in some cases people are working 40hrs but only getting paid slightly above the 20hr rate. Grads are afraid to speak up about this because we lack protections against unjust firing
Many grads live paycheck to paycheck. Missing pay means we miss rent and can't afford food. UMD knows this via their own survey and there is still no urgency to fix THEIR mistakes that are causing us financial stress. And the number of affected grads this summer is unprecedented
When we were finally able to find someone to speak to in the financial office, they told us they hadn't heard about grad pay issues, even though grads spoke to college-level admin over a week ago and were promised our concerns would be elevated
A group of Graduate Labor Union members stand outside an administration building holding signs about how wage theft is illegal and grads deserve a recognized union
UMD is once again stealing grad wages - 100+ grads across multiple colleges and departments are missing pay for their work this summer. Yesterday, we went to demand answers from admin and remind them that UMD works because we do and wage theft is illegal!
Congrats to Penn postdocs on winning their union! 🎉
"Organizing and building collective power together as international scholars is the best way for us to achieve a fairer workplace and less precarious lives."
— @rapup-uaw.bsky.social
www.thedp.com/article/2025...
The cynicism is appalling, even for Columbia.
We call on our fellow workers in higher ed: sign the open letter to CU & pledge not to replace our labor. tinyurl.com/core-open-letter
Let's fight together for more just and democratic workplaces for all
Image of the Alma Mater statue on Columbia campus, with text: "Columbia is replacing union labor"
Columbia is replacing union labor as we negotiate a new contract.
Admin is emailing other universities to recruit teachers, while refusing to reappoint returning SWC instructors, who still don't know if they will teach or get paid in September.
This is textbook union busting
A graphic with a bold orange border and a white background features the logo of UC-AFT Local 1474, which includes a blue outline of the state of California with a flame inside and the words “UC-AFT LOCAL 1474.” To the right, bold blue text reads: “UC-AFT Joins CFA in demanding the release of Prof. Jonathan Caravello.” Below, the body text states that UC-AFT calls for the immediate release of Professor Jonathan Caravello, who was reportedly beaten and abducted by ICE during a Thursday raid in Ventura County. The union expresses solidarity with immigrant colleagues, students, and neighbors, and joins the California Faculty Association in urging elected officials—including Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, Representatives Salud Carbajal and Julia Brownley, and State Senator Monique Limón—to take action and demand accountability for what are described as “kidnappings in broad daylight.” The statement ends with a call for ICE, DHS, and CBP to stop invading communities.
UC-AFT joins the call for the immediate release of Professor Jonathan Caravello, who was beaten and abducted by ICE on Thursday at a raid in Ventura County. @cfaunited.bsky.social
“These politically motivated attacks jeopardized medical and scientific progress and threatened the jobs of researchers studying climate change, renewable energy, cancer, viral pandemics, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s,” said Brandon Mancilla, Director of @uawregion9a.bsky.social
What does 18,000+ brave signatories look like standing together in massive solidarity with the #NIH heroes of the historic Bethesda Declaration??...
Find out by adding YOUR NAME to our #NIHLove letter here! -
actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na...
#StandUpForScience
#BethesdaDeclaration
#StopTrump
