On Oct. 29, members of the University of Maine Graduate Workers Union (UMGWU) were joined by Maine Sen. Mike Tipping and House Rep. Sean Faircloth to deliver a letter to University of Maine System (UMS) Chancellor Dannel Malloy and the UMS Board of Trustees (BoT), chaired by Trish Riley. The letter, signed by 75 Maine state legislators including a majority of the State Senate, calls on the system to reach a resolution to contract negotiations that adequately addresses the needs of graduate workers. The UMGWU has been bargaining for its first contract with the UMS for more than 700 days.
A copy of the letter was shared with the Maine Campus, which is addressed from the 132nd Maine Legislature to Chancellor Malloy and Riley of the UMS BoT.
“It has come to our attention that this processing of bargaining for a contract has taken an unreasonable amount of time, being well over 600 days. We see no reason that this negotiation should still be ongoing,” states the letter from legislators.
Derek DeMello, who is a UMGWU member and PhD student in history, described the experience of dropping off the letter at Chancellor Malloy’s office with Sen. Tipping and Rep. Faircloth.
“We delivered the letter to Malloy, he was not in [office] today. So, we left it with his secretary. Then we went to the Board of Trustees representative or secretary, and we left the message with her,” said DeMello. “Mike Tipping came to campus and he joined us, and then after we spoke with the Board of Trustees secretary, he spoke with her for a short time,” he added.
DeMello then shared the significance of state legislators’ support for the union’s ongoing efforts, describing it as an impactful show of solidarity at a critical point in a bargaining process that has stretched out over 23 months.
“We had the majority of the Senate sign on and then a significant portion of the House sign on. That’s notable because the State Legislature is what appropriates the funds for UMaine — so they kind of control the power of the purse,” said DeMello.
Included in an Oct. 28 press release sent out by Bergen Kenny, who is a UMGWU member, Sen. Tipping provided a statement elaborating on why so many Maine legislators signed on to the letter demanding a resolution to ongoing contract negotiations.
“The teaching and research work needed to fulfill the UMS mission does not happen without graduate workers. My colleagues and I understand that neither the high-quality education of thousands of undergraduate students, nor the world-class research that has made UMaine a top tier research university, would be possible without their labor,” said Tipping. “For our universities to remain competitive, UMS must agree to pay and benefits that meet the standards of other public research universities in New England.”
Other UMGWU members present while the letter was delivered, including Marine Sciences teaching assistant and PhD student Alexis Merk, were asked if they believe this letter will inspire UMS to action despite a history of inaction addressing concerns raised by the union, which include but are not limited to ongoing issues involving inconsistent pay, substandard health benefits and inadequate paid time off.
“We’re showing them we’re continuing this fight and it’s not only graduate workers that care. It’s the entire state of Maine and our legislators that know it’s important that we get this contract now and we get a contract that is good for graduate workers,” said Merk.
When asked for specific examples of requests made in contract negotiations that have gone unmet, Merk cited the failure of UMS to “match peer institutions” — meaning that UMS would provide pay and benefits comparable to other universities in the region.
“We need to be matching our peer institutions — like the University of New Hampshire [and] the University of Vermont. Right now we’re bargaining mostly over economics, like compensation and health care. We are asking to be matched with our peer institutions,” said Merk.
In the letter to the UMS BoT and Chancellor Malloy, involved Senators and Representatives also elaborated on the importance of matching peer institutions in New England.
“These workers deserve the protections and improvements to working conditions that are standard for peer institutions across New England. The University of Maine System produces research that is important and essential to the health and safety of our Maine constituents, as well as providing a tremendous benefit to Maine economically. This research would not be possible with the labor that graduate workers produce,” states the letter from legislators.
Elijah Bradshaw, a graduate worker in the School of Biology and Ecology and member of the UMGWU-UAW bargaining committee, also spoke on how UMS has failed to match economic securities guaranteed to other graduate workers at peer institutions.
“They [the UMS system] have insisted on minimal changes to our pay and benefits, meaning we will continue to lag behind other peer universities like University of Vermont and University of New Hampshire. They seem out of touch with the fact that an investment in graduate workers is an investment in our public universities and is an investment in Maine. The time for a fair contract is now,” said Bradshaw.
For those interested in staying updated, all proposals and UMGWU updates are publicly available on the union’s website. Community members can also stay involved by watching for updates on the UMGWU’s Instagram page. All graduate workers are also welcome to attend their weekly meetings, which occur every Tuesday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Multicultural Student Center (Room 314) of the Memorial Union.
