Graduate students lobbying hard for union bill
Megan Eckstein
Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: News
Graduate students - who have long complained they are underpaid, overworked and not given access to affordable housing - might soon gain more clout in pay negotiations.
The Maryland General Assembly is considering a bill that would give graduate students and adjunct professors in Maryland's colleges and universities collective bargaining power, meaning they could eventually go on strike if the university refuses to budge on important issues. Lawmakers said persistent lobbying from graduate students helped propel the issue forward in the legislative agenda.
Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery), who co-sponsored the bill, said a graduate student from Towson University came to his office one day and refused to leave until the two could sit down and talk about graduate student issues and collective bargaining's potential impact.
Graduate students around the state have used this strategy, said Laura Moore, president of the Graduate Student Government. She said putting a face on this issue has made all the difference, adding that "the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive."
Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery), the bill's sponsor, was lobbied by students but also has a background in labor issues - he is the former chair of the State Higher Education Labor Relations Board. Raskin gathered 11 co-sponsors, indicating widespread support for the bill, Madaleno said.
Lawmakers passed a much-contested collective bargaining bill in 2001 that, as a compromise, included staff in its list of who could unionize but specifically excluded graduate students. Moore said there has been an effort to unionize graduate students since 2001, although she and other leaders across the state did not begin their lobbying efforts until last year.
Hearings on the current bill are expected to start in a few weeks in both houses.
Moore said most of the dozens of lawmakers she has spoken to reacted positively to the idea of unionizing graduate students.
The Maryland General Assembly is considering a bill that would give graduate students and adjunct professors in Maryland's colleges and universities collective bargaining power, meaning they could eventually go on strike if the university refuses to budge on important issues. Lawmakers said persistent lobbying from graduate students helped propel the issue forward in the legislative agenda.
Sen. Richard Madaleno (D-Montgomery), who co-sponsored the bill, said a graduate student from Towson University came to his office one day and refused to leave until the two could sit down and talk about graduate student issues and collective bargaining's potential impact.
Graduate students around the state have used this strategy, said Laura Moore, president of the Graduate Student Government. She said putting a face on this issue has made all the difference, adding that "the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive."
Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery), the bill's sponsor, was lobbied by students but also has a background in labor issues - he is the former chair of the State Higher Education Labor Relations Board. Raskin gathered 11 co-sponsors, indicating widespread support for the bill, Madaleno said.
Lawmakers passed a much-contested collective bargaining bill in 2001 that, as a compromise, included staff in its list of who could unionize but specifically excluded graduate students. Moore said there has been an effort to unionize graduate students since 2001, although she and other leaders across the state did not begin their lobbying efforts until last year.
Hearings on the current bill are expected to start in a few weeks in both houses.
Moore said most of the dozens of lawmakers she has spoken to reacted positively to the idea of unionizing graduate students.
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