Maryland Teachers and Researchers http://www.mtrumd.org/
The TAs, adjuncts and other graduate students also employed by the university are not allowed to form a union. Thats not entirely true, graduate students can form unions, however the university doesn’t need to recognize the union or accept any collective bargaining from graduate students. Consequently, grad students have very little power in the university’s decision-making about hours, wages and leave. Grad students are put in a sore spot because the only way to improve the terms of their employment is through collective action.
Unions have the potential to put power over workplace decisions in the hands of workers. They only work if people participate. They only work if people care. They only work if people are willing to band together and assert their agency. Unions are commonly conceived as useless siphons for hardworking people’s wages. To a large extent this is true. Unions like the United Auto Workers consistently cave to pressure from industry and government, selling the livelihoods of thousands of working people. Some unions, like the Detroit Federation of Teachers, have the will to resist pressure from management and demand decent, respectable working conditions. Moreover, an effective, spirited union will not be afraid to use their power, the power of the strike to effect change in the workplace.
On Thursday 21 Feb, Scott Bruton of the Rutgers graduate student association spoke with a full room of grad and undergrad students about obtaining collective bargaining rights.
In 1973 graduate employees organized at Rutgers and formed the second graduate student union in the country. As a result, the graduate employees gained collective bargaining with the university administration and the same contract as the faculty. Now, in the United States, most public research universities have graduate student unions.
Many of the University of Maryland’s peer institutions have graduate student unions. University of Wisconsin, Madison, the first university with graduate employee collective bargaining, the University of California System ( e.g. UC Berkeley), University of Illinois, Rutgers and many others. Undergrad and grad students alike can improve their education by making the classrooms a better learning and working environment. A union allows graduate employees, most of whom are students, an opportunity to exert a greater influence within the university. Decisions that are made must pass muster with not just faculty, trustees and the regents, but now with graduate students.
In Annapolis there is legislation before both bodies in the General Assembly which would recognize the right of graduate employees to form a union and force the University to negotiate with a union as a collective bargaining agent. I think this legislation is potentially powerful. So does the University. I will keep y’all posted about what is going on in this struggle and what you can do about it.
