MD Educators in Public Higher Education Deserve Collective Bargaining Rights!
Gov. Wes Moore, Senate Pres. Bill Ferguson, House Speaker Adrienne Jones, Maryland General Assembly, University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman, campus leaders
Workers in Maryland's public institutions of higher education are organizing for the passage of legislation allowing them to engage in collective bargaining. We need your support! Collective bargaining is a fundamental right of all workers, but faculty and students in Maryland state institutions of higher education are denied this right under current law, unlike almost every other state worker in Maryland. Many higher education workers are denied living wages. Sign our petition to support collective bargaining rights for all higher ed workers.
Sponsored by
To:
Gov. Wes Moore, Senate Pres. Bill Ferguson, House Speaker Adrienne Jones, Maryland General Assembly, University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman, campus leaders
From:
[Your Name]
We, the undersigned, urge you to support the passage of a bill providing Maryland State higher ed workers the right to collective bargaining. Workers should have strong and collective voices in decisions affecting their working conditions, salaries, and benefits. Collective bargaining is a fundamental right that allows workers to negotiate fair and equitable contracts with their employers, and it is essential for promoting fairness, respect, and dignity in the workplace. It is unconscionable that the state’s academic workers are denied a right enjoyed by virtually every other category of state worker in Maryland, including community college faculty. Higher ed faculty and student workers at peer institutions across the country and in neighboring states such as Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and DC enjoy these rights. Maryland’s elected officials who say they support organized labor should embrace this opportunity to improve our state university system and keep pace with neighboring states.
Collective bargaining encourages transparency and accountability between workers and management. Without this, the upper levels of higher ed administration have for years dramatically increased their own ranks and salaries, while denying living wages and job security to the majority of State higher ed employees. USM institutions, for example, currently pay poverty level wages to their undergraduate and graduate student workers. They are rapidly replacing full-time faculty positions with low-paid, contingent positions. All of these actions irreparably harm the public education and research mission and purpose of USM institutions.
Higher ed workers play an essential role in the education and research mission of our universities. They deserve to be treated with respect and to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. We call on the members of the Maryland General Assembly and higher education leaders in Maryland to support collective bargaining rights for workers in the state’s institutions of higher education.
SPONSORS:
UMD AAUP/AFT
UMD Graduate Labor Union/UAW
Towson University AAUP
Bowie University AAUP
University of Baltimore AAUP
Salisbury AAUP
ENDORSERS:
SEIU Local 500
IUPAT DC51
Washington College AAUP
UMD Black Faculty/Staff Association
TRU-UE Local 197
MD Center for Economic Policy
Good Jobs First
Frederick Community College AAUP/AFT
Howard Community College AAUP/AFT
Montgomery County College AAUP/AFT
McDaniel College AAUP
UMD Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action
UMD Youth Democratic Socialists of America
UMD United Students Against Sweatshops
AFT Maryland
Greater Baltimore Democratic Socialists of America
Delaware-Maryland Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Maryland/DC State Council, Communications Workers of America
Montgomery College AAUP-AFT