UMD Graduate Labor Union

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 👀

Priced out at College Park: Graduate students struggle with high rents - Maryland Matters University of Maryland graduate students are being priced out of College Park rentals, forcing them farther from campus and cutting into time for teaching, research and coursework. Campus and city off...

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 must deliver fair pay, support labor rights for graduate workers Are we, the graduate workers of this university, not deserving of the same labor rights enjoyed by nearly every other class of public employees in the state of Maryland?

"[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.

$8.75M Investment Supports ‘Research Resilience’… | Maryland Today UMD, MPower Funds Combine to Help Preserve Institutional Capabilities, Lab Operations and More

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

Protect PTK Researchers at UMD Higher education is under attack from a federal administration that seeks to undermine our research infrastructure for political gain. Faculty at UMD conducting crucial research in fields like climate...

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

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!

University of Maryland grad workers rally for union recognition Graduate workers at the University of Maryland rallied in College Park demanding union recognition, citing low pay and limited protections compared to the county’s cost of living.

"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."

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/10/01/graduate-workers-union-rally/

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

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! 🎉

Albane Thery and Geronimo Velazquez | International postdocs and research associates are ready to vote “yes” for our union Guest columnists Albane Thery and Geronimo Velazquez argue that unionization can help address the specific challenges faced by international Postdocs and Research Associates at Penn.

"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...

Open letter to Columbia administration on replacing union labor in the Core Curriculum Here is the open letter we are asking our allies in higher education to sign on to. We will periodically update signatories in the document. It would be very helpful to us if you can provide your full...

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

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

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

ADD YOUR NAME: Sign the Open Letter in Support of NIH Staff Join the courageous and committed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public servants by adding your name now.

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

This isn’t just about David.

It’s about the right to organize. The right to speak out.
The right to be safe. The right to be treated like a human.

From this rally in Chicago to actions across the country—we won’t back down.

#FreeDavidEndRaids

‘Unrecognizable and highly toxic’: NIH staffers speak out ahead of Senate hearing on budget cuts - The Boston Globe More than 300 staffers signed a letter to the NIH director urging him to stop politically motivated cuts to research grants.

"More than 300 staffers signed a letter to the NIH director urging him to stop politically motivated cuts and delays to research grants."

@nihfellowsunited.bsky.social

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/09/m...

Postdocs: Penn is preventing a vote that would protect the workers who help it succeed | Opinion Penn's postdoctoral workers and research associates want to unionize — like the grad student workers did. But the university is putting obstacles in their way, say Marshall Padilla and Emily Perkins.

Read what two Postdocs have to say about Penn choosing to fight its own researchers forming a union in a recent op-ed in @inquirer.com www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...
.

Tell ACLU-D.C. Management to Stop Their Union-Busting Tactics! One week before Thanksgiving, one week after a union action, and one year into bargaining our first contract, ACLU-D.C. management unlawfully laid off two union members, or nearly 15% of our bargainin...

Tell ACLU-D.C. executives to stop union busting! actionnetwork.org/letters/c70b...

Operational Student Employees at Western Washington University are ON STRIKE demanding union recognition and a fair contract. Support OSEs by joining the picket lines and contributing to the hardship fund! givebutter.com/WAWUOSE @uaw.org