Sign Your Card

We’re Uniting for a Better, More Democratic UMD

As graduate assistants, we are forming a union to bargain collectively with UMD for better working conditions and a better university. After 20 years of campaigning by UMD grads, we join almost 100,000 UAW academics across the US to build a shared political voice that supports higher education, increases research funding, and defends the rights of international scholars. Our union will improve our working conditions and make UMD a more equitable and accessible place for scholarship. Like hundreds of thousands of unionized academic workers across the US, we deserve the voice and respect we gain through collective bargaining.

Use the form to sign a union authorization card and be counted in the majority!

Without a Union:

• UMD unilaterally determines our working conditions and can change them at any time without our consent.

With a Union:

• We elect a bargaining committee that gathers input from graduate workers across campus.

• Our bargaining committee negotiates on equal footing toward a fair agreement with UMD.

•  We decide democratically, through a vote, whether to approve any agreement as our contract.

• Our contract secures employment terms and conditions and is binding & enforceable, usually through appeal to a neutral arbitrator.

• We elect shop stewards who listen to their fellow workers, field and resolve grievances, and bring collective issues to the union.