1. Are there graduate student unions at other schools?
2. How is it possible for graduate students to have a Union?
3. What have unions done for grad students at other schools?
4. Is it legal for Maryland grad students to form a Union?
5. Why bother organizing before the law is changed?
6. Which graduate students would be eligible to be in a union?
7. What are the benefits of a union for grad students?
8. Can International students join?
9. What will the dues be?
10. Why do we need a Union when the GSG is already representing our interests to the University?
11. What is the process to getting a graduate employee labor union?
12. Will we have to go on strike?
13. Does a union negatively impact the number of assistantships the university can offer?

More FAQs: MTR Responds to VP Ann Wylie's Claims about Grad Unionization


1. What is the relationship between grad employee unions and grad student governments?
2. What do grad unions mean for Shared Governance?
3. Who negotiates at the bargaining table?
4. How do we negotiate for raises?
5. Will unionizing impact my relationship with my dissertation chair and committee members?
6. What is a "Service Fee"?
7. Will grads still be exempt from paying FICA (Social Security and Medicare) income taxes?

I have more questions: Please see this website, or contact your department coordinator.

Q: Are there graduate student unions at other schools?

A: Yes! The best public graduate schools in the country (University of Michigan and UCal Berkeley) have unionized grad students. Of our five peer institutions (the institutions that the University of Maryland has chosen to compare itself to), four have graduate student unions: University of Michigan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UCLA, and UCal Berkeley. The exception is the University of North Carolina. Other grad student unions in the country include Rutgers, University of Florida, University of Oregon, etc. A full list can be found here. There have been previous attempts to create a graduate student union on our campus.

Q: How is it possible for graduate students to have a Union?

A: Graduate students are unionizing in their capacity as employees of the University. For example, an English 101 TA who is also a PhD student in American Studies is in the Union in her capacity as a TA, not based on her academic endeavors within her program.

Q: What have unions done for grad students at other schools?

A: In short, higher stipends, better benefits, meaningful grievance procedures, intellectual property rights, lower fees, etc. More information can be found here.

Q: Is it legal for Maryland grad students to form a Union?

A: Yes! By law, the University is not required to negotiate with a graduate student union, but it's perfectly legal for us to form, organize, and talk about a union. Long and well-tested Federal laws protect the right of employees in any situation to discuss unionization and to associate together for mutual benefit. For example, we have the right to talk about a union in the workplace, and and to have union meetings in designated non-work areas (e.g. a department lunch room).
Many states have laws that specifically deny certain groups of employees (often various types of state employees) the right to collective bargaining. Maryland currently has such laws but is amenable to changing them. In 2001, University staff were removed from the groups barred from collective bargaining. We have a very strong chance of changing this law in the 2011 legislative session. This will allow MTR to negotiate contracts on behalf of its members and others in the bargaining unit.

Q: Why bother organizing before the law is changed?

A: For starters, it will help get the law changed if we can show legislators and other key decision makers that this is something that graduate students want. Also, collective bargaining is one -- but not the only -- important service that a strong union can provide. A strong union can also fight for a standardized and binding grievance procedure, rules to prevent graduate students from working more hours than they are paid for, and increased stipends more compatible with living expenses in the DC-Metro area.

Q: Which graduate students would be eligible to join a union?

A: Potentially, all graduate students who receive funding from the University, either through a Graduate Assistantship (which would include TA's, RA's, and AA's) or through a University fellowship. Such is the case with Oregon State's graduate student union. The University of Michigan's graduate employee union covers TA's and AA's, not RA's. However, the University of Michigan voluntarily applies the same gains and benefits for TA's and AA's to RA's. In other words, if the Union negotiates a 6% pay increase for TA's and AA's, the University of Michigan applies that to RA's even though they are not contractually obligated to do so. This is a good example of how unionization can benefit all graduate students, not just those who are part of the bargaining unit.
Since there is no officially recognized bargaining unit on campus, any graduate student can join. There is no reason to restrict membership at this point.

Q: Why would grad students unionize -- what are the benefits?

A: The main benefit is that a union gives us the ability to participate in the decisions that most affect us -- decisions on stipend levels, workload, work conditions, grievance procedure, fees, etc. For example, grad students at the University of Maryland currently have no role in setting stipend levels. Grad student unions at other schools (including 4 out of 5 of our peer institutions) negotiate a contract with the University to determine stipend levels, among other things.
Another notable benefit of a union is a binding grievance procedure. Check out the grievance procedure at University of Michigan for graduate students . This grievance procedure was negotiated by UM's Graduate Employee Organization. Here at the University of Maryland, if a TA works more than the designated 20 hours/week, there is no means of redress.

Q: Can International students join?

A: Yes. Conditions of foreign student visas require that students only accept employment associated with the University. This in no way compromises the right to belong to a union that represents them in the work place. Also, confidentiality of a union membership is guaranteed by Federal labor law.

Q: What will it cost me to be in a union?

A: Currently, it does not cost anything to join. Eventually, a dues structure will be established. Dues will cover the organizing and operational costs for the union and are set at whatever level the union members determine is necessary to carry out the mission of providing services and securing collective bargaining on contracts. This does not have to be expensive and most graduate union dues across the country are quite reasonable. The best way to insure that you are comfortable with the dues required by the union is to get involved and help set them yourself!

Q: Why do we need a union when the GSG is already representing our interests to the University?

A: The Graduate Student Government (GSG) is charged with representing the needs and interests of all graduate students on campus in all facets of their lives here at the University, as well as overseeing the use of the Graduate Student Activities Fee. The GSG has worked to advance the interests of graduate employees, but cannot devote the time and resources that MTR would bring to the table. The focus of MTR is primarily on protecting the wages and rights of graduate employees. However, having a strong union provides additional benefits to all graduate students. MTR does not deal with academic issues that are unrelated to the mission of providing higher pay and better benefits to its members. The GSG has its own role in conveying the concerns of the entire community to the University administration and local and state lawmakers and must remain open to both union members and non members. Peer institutions that have strong graduate unions also have their own graduate student governments and most coexist harmoniously. There is nothing to prevent an interested student from being active in both the GSG and MTR, but there is no formal decision making relationship between the two.


Q:What is the process? How long would it take before the grads can engage in collective bargaining?


A: The University can immediately recognize the rights of grads to engage in collective bargaining and begin bargaining with them now if they choose. But in order for the state to require that the university admin sit down and engage in collective bargaining with the grads here is what needs to happen:

  1. State law must change. Right now, graduate employees have been excluded from all other public employee labor law. Member of the state assembly and the current governor have expressed their interest in granting grads employees the right to collectively bargain, and are eager to introduce a bill at the next legislative session.
  2. The grad employee organization must show a majority of grad employees support the idea of collective bargaining for grad workersThis is commonly known as a card drive; grads will be asked to sign a card demonstrating their support for collective bargaining.The grad employee organization generally has a year to get a majority of grads signing a card.
    Once they believe they have the requisite number of cards, they turn those cards over to an objective third party for verification. (Admin at no time is allowed to see who has and who has not signed a card, for anonymity's sake.) If that third party certifies that a majority of grads want collective bargaining, then....
  3. The administration can either agree to begin collective bargaining negotiations, or call for a secret ballot election.In the case of an election, the university must hold these elections usually within 4-6 weeks of card certification. If a simple majority of those voting choose union, the university must begin collective bargaining negotiations with that organization.

Q: Will we have to go on strike?


A: A strike or any other work action at a graduate employee union can only be authorized by an overwhelming majority of the graduate employees at a strike vote. The decision to go on strike is always a tactic of last resort, and will only work if a near unanimous amount of grads support/recognize it. Only grad employees can call for a strike, and it will be up to those same grad employees to convince their colleague that a strike is the best tactic.

There have been a number of graduate employee unions (eg. University of Florida GAU, founded in 1981) who have never gone on strike in the history of their existence.

Q: Will a graduate employee union cost the university more money and thus negatively impact the number of GAships the admin can offer?


A: Not necessarily. Data compiled at the University of Illinois demonstrates that the increase in pay and benefits that usually accompanies a grad employee union does not decrease the number of assistantships offered. Undergraduate enrollment and decreased state funding has had a far greater impact on number of assistantships offered than whether or not the grads are unionized.

 From the University of Illinois study:

"The evidence from unionized campuses like the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan shows that fair pay and benefits do not result in a decline in the number of assistantships. University of Wisconsin graduate employees bargained union contracts between 1970 and 1979, but the UW administration refused to bargain from 1979 to 1987. UW Teaching Assistants and Project Assistants won union rights again in 1987 and have bargained regular contracts since 1988. Since 1988 the number of assistantships at the UW has actually gone up from 2,373 to 2,839. At University of Michigan TAs and Staff Assistants won their first contract in 1975 when there were 1,200 employees. In 2000 there were 1,650 assistants."

MTR Responds to VP Ann Wylie's claims about Grad Unionization

Last spring, Graduate Student Government invited Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie to speak about what she believed to be the implications for allowing grads to unionize at the University of Maryland in College Park. The minutes to this meeting may be found at http://gsg.umd.edu/download/Minutes/29/Assembly/GSG29-Assembly-Minutes-20100416.pdf .

The following is a response to the objections the administration brought up, followed by a number of other FAQs grads at GSG have asked about unionization.

VP Wylie: "My thought is that unionization would destroy graduate student government."


MTR: Most institutions that have a graduate employee labor union still do have a graduate student council or graduate student government. Most of our "peer institutions" (Berkeley, UCLA, U of Michigan) have both a graduate employee labor union and a vibrant, strong graduate student government, too.

UC Berkeley-- http://ga.berkeley.edu/
UCLA-- http://gsa.asucla.ucla.edu/
U of Michigan-- http://www.rsg.umich.edu/

Because graduate employees are unique in that they are both graduate students and workers, graduate student governments and graduate employee unions are needed to work together—a graduate student government to advocate for student issues, and a graduate employee organization to bargain for employment issues

VP Wylie: "If you unionize, you will not be allowed to discuss things like terms and conditions of employment with the administration because those are the rules of unionization."


MTR: When the grads choose to unionize, state law requires that all terms, benefits, and conditions of employment (tuition and fee waivers, stipend levels, health benefits, work hours, etc.) must be negotiated with and approved by the graduate student members of the union. So, "you"—as graduate student members of a labor union—most certainly will be allowed to discuss things like terms and conditions of employment with the administration. In fact, the law requires it: if the grads unionize, the university administration cannot implement any of those terms and conditions of employment without the involvement and approval of the unionized graduate employees.

State law dictates that when a group of employees form an organization to collectively bargain for wages, benefits, and other conditions of employment, management can bargain a legally binding contract solely with that employee organization. Graduate Student Government does not even have the right to negotiate a legally binding collective bargaining agreement right now, so it's not certain what precisely will change with respect to GSG's role here.

However, having a graduate student labor union certainly does not prohibit graduate student members from participating in University Shared Governance Bodies either, as the collective bargaining agreement between the UMCP administration and staff makes clear:

Article 20, CBA between UMCP and Staff Union (AFSCME)

Shared Governance Related to Collective Bargaining
"The Union supports the existence of organizations in which  input from employees is gathered to advise the University on matters of interest to the University community.  All University committees, senates, forums, organizations and associations that existed prior to the certification of AFSCME as the exclusive bargaining agent for exempt bargaining unit employees may continue to operate, and any new University organizations created in the future may include as part of their regular business, discussions and decisions on any issue considered within the scope of bargaining as set forth in Title 3, Subtitle 5, Section 3-502 of the State Personnel and Pensions Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland, and as it may be determined by the State Higher Education Labor Relations Board or court of competent jurisdiction.

However, any recommended action made by any such committee as it pertains to bargaining unit employees on any subject which constitutes a mandatory subject of bargaining may not be approved, finalized or implemented by the University until the University notifies and bargains with AFSCME.  Any recommended action made by any such committee as it pertains to bargaining unit employees on any subject which constitutes a permissive subject of bargaining may not be approved, finalized, or implemented until the University notifies and, if requested, initiates bargaining with AFSCME over the impact of said action. 
                   (a) The University shall provide a copy of this provision to the Campus Senate, and any other similar University organizations identified by AFSCME.
                   (b) No employee who is a member of the bargaining unit shall be precluded by the University from participating or holding office in any University organization or committee.
                   (c) Members of the bargaining unit who participate in shared governance or similar University organizations are not empowered to enter into any agreements or waivers regarding the provisions of this MOU or any collective bargaining rights conferred by law to the exclusive representative."

 

 

VP Wylie: "With unions, just one or two persons at the bargaining table represent you."


MTR:Once we unionize, we will choose from among our ranks a bargaining committee. This committee will have to determine a number of things in close communication with the graduate student labor union general membership, including bargaining priorities, article proposals/language, and even who (and how many grads) should be at the bargaining table with the administration. Typical grad union bargaining team members range from 7-10 grads on our side of the table (for efficiency's sake); typical grad bargaining committees can have dozens of graduate employees. (For example, visit the grad union webpage at the university of Florida: the main images are from one bargaining session just on grad student fees alone. As you can tell, there are many more than "one or two persons at the bargaining table represent[ing] you." http://www.ufgau.org.)

Bargaining team members are generally elected to these positions by the grad union membership. All bargaining sessions with the administration fall under applicable state sunshine/open records and meetings law, and any agreement cannot be implemented unless ratified by the general membership of the graduate student union.

VP Wylie: "Unionizing will also not effect your wages. The unions that we have on campus do not bargain for wage increases and you will have no ability to bargain independently for them.  There are things you can get at, like uniformity across campus and you might make progress, but the state gives us the wage increases.  You will have to consider what you will be giving up versus what you will gain by unionizing."


MTR:The University Administration has argued at least two times in the past (at the 2008 legislative session and again in 2009 in a committee to review the economic situation of graduate assistants) that allowing graduate employees the right to unionize would impact their wages so much so as to nearly bankrupt the University System of Maryland. It is clear that the administration's rhetoric changes to suit its audience.

A few other grad employee unions in the US also negotiate wages directly with the state assembly. The grads at the oldest graduate labor union—the University of Wisconsin in Madison, which has been negotiating raises for grads since 1969—lobbies and bargains directly with the state assembly on stipends, and bargains directly with the University Administration for everything else.

VP Wylie: "I think unionizing will impact your role with the faculty members who advise you.  I know there are bad apples among faculty, but there are a lot of people who really do care about graduate student and they do promote you. But they don't want you to be an employee because that's a different situation."


MTR: And there are a number of faculty who really do care about graduate students and also are supporters of the right of graduate employees to unionize, including a number of department graduate coordinators. (Some of them earning their degrees from institutions where grads were already unionized.)  Grads have been unionizing regularly in the US for over 40 years at some of the nations most prestigious institutions, and that clearly hasn't hurt the academic standing of these institutions.


In fact, any empirical research done on this subject either shows that a grad labor union had no negative impact on the relationship between grads and their advisers (Julius and Gumport, 2002), or that a union actually improved the relationship between graduate students and their advisers (Hewitt, 2000). Hewitt quotes one professor at a Research I institution: "The graduate student union [on] our campus has had a positive impact on the working and, in turn, studying and research lives of our grad students. For our department, the contracts negotiated to date have helped regularize hiring, working and disciplinary procedures in positive ways."

VP Wylie: "Regarding service fees, the union wanted service fees this year and they didn't get them but they're coming.  Service fees are 1-2% of your wages that the union will take.  We don't actually have that many people paying service fees right now.  Of all the exempt employees, only 4.8% pay dues, 95% don't pay anything for that representation.  So the union wants you to pay dues, and you're all poor so you're not going to pay dues."


MTR:There's a lot of confusing ideas in this statement, about who is "the union" and what is a "service fee," that need to be unpacked.

First, we're unsure what VP Wylie means by "the union" here. Grads currently do not have the right to form a union, so surely she can't mean grads when she uses the term "the union" here. Perhaps she means AFSCME, the staff union?

Once we as graduate employees do form a union, that union, composed of and solely guided by the graduate employees of the University of Maryland, will have the power to set, raise, and lower dues for its membership. Membership or non-membership in an employee union is purely voluntary—a grad does not have to join the union, and thus will pay no dues, if she or he does not want to do so.

The admin's point about service fees is misleading because current state law prohibits it for all higher ed employees. A service fee is a fee paid by all graduate employees to the grad employee organization for representing them at the bargaining table on things like stipends raises, health benefits, etc. For example, at the University of Michigan, where service fees are legal, a grad member would pay 1.63% dues, and a non-grad member would pay 1.53% in service fees. Just like membership dues, service fees, when legal, are set by the members of the graduate employee union. (The Grad Union at Michigan earned a 3% raise for all grad employees regardless of union membership last year.)

Again, Maryland law prohibits service fees for all higher ed employees. Even if that law changes, service fees are generally only instituted once membership reaches a clear majority of graduate assistants. The union of graduate employees at Temple University, for example, needs to reach 70% membership before the grads can ask for a service fee at the bargaining table with the administration.

VP Wylie: "FICA is 7.65% and right now you are exempt. If you are moved into the category of employee you will possibly have to pay that."


MTR: FICA status is dependent upon student status, but that status is not mitigated by our recognition as employees. Rather, what determines FICA exemption eligibility is whether or not someone is attending the university primarily in order to earn a degree (which essentially describes every GA's situation). A grad assistant can still be considered an employee of the university and maintain FICA eligibility; in fact MTR knows of no institution where a grad lost her or his FICA exemption because they were unionized. Every grad union we've contacted has managed to keep the FICA exemptions for their grads.

In addition, the state already considers grads employees in a number of areas: GA stipends are taxed at both the federal and state level as employee wages, and GAs are eligible for the state employee health insurance plan. It is unclear as to why, if the grads are granted the right to collectively bargain, they will also all-of-a-sudden have to now pay FICA.

Right now, however, the university admin has been reclassifying a number of graduate employees not as graduate assistants but as lecturers or instructors. By lopping these graduate employees together with a class of employee who is not here to earn a degree, these grad employees have lost their FICA exemption. It is the university admin's own practice, not the potential of unionization, that is a bigger threat to a grad employee's FICA exemption.

For more information on FICA exemptions for graduate employees, visit http://payroll.wustl.edu/studentfica/Pages/default.aspx

VP Wylie: "I did some browsing on the web, and here's the way University of California describes their wages for graduate students.  Say you make $15,000 for an academic year, nine months, working 20 hours a week. Right away that is about $18,000 for 12 months part time, which is $36,000 for a full time employee, which won't give you a lot of sympathy as we pay plenty of employees less than that."


MTR:We're not sure if this is an argument against the grads unionizing as much as it is an argument telling the grads to be happy with what little they have. It's somewhat misleading to multiply these numbers to full-time, 12-month status, especially because is hides the fact that the real take-home pay for a graduate assistant is among the lowest of any university employee. Grads still need to pay for their groceries, rent, and utility bills not based on a pro-rated salary, but on the real take home pay we are given.