A Dream and a Pay Cut: The Push for Union Recognition at UMD
- La Voz Latina
- Oct 8
- 4 min read
Written by: Sophia da Silva 🇧🇷
“If we don’t get it, shut it down!” rang down Baltimore Avenue last Wednesday afternoon as one thousand people marched for the University of Maryland to recognize the Graduate Labor Union (GLU).
The GLU formed in 2023, achieving majority membership last spring, and has since been fighting for collective bargaining rights from UMD. The university has resisted recognizing the union, claiming it is not something wanted by a majority of graduate student workers. The protest Wednesday, dubbed the “Majority March,” was to demonstrate that a majority does support the union.
“This is our way of showing that, yes, it is a majority of students who want this. You depend on us and our labor for the university to keep going. Watch what happens when you don't give us what we deserve,” said Victoria Fernandez, a GLU organizer and doctorate student at the Center for Mathematics Education.
Along with completing her doctorate, Fernandez works as a graduate assistant (GA), teaching two undergraduate courses for the university. Fernandez’s GA job helps her earn money while working on her doctorate, but it’s still not enough.
She currently makes $37,000 a year, which she said is on the higher end for what graduate workers make. That’s $21,643 less than the cost of living in Prince George’s County, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator.
Fernandez has side jobs to help make ends meet, something common among grad workers whose programs allow for it. Even still, between her studies, research, and teaching for the university, there’s only so much time in a day for other jobs.
“I'm exhausted all the time,” Fernandez said. “I actually go to school on Sundays most weeks and I try and get ahead of the week because if not, I'm drowning throughout the whole week.”
Fernandez worked full-time as a middle school teacher before coming to UMD and had to take a major pay cut to pursue her doctorate. Between the financial struggle, stress, and even funding cuts affecting her research, Fernandez has considered giving up on her doctorate.
“This has been a dream of mine for a long time and I feel like I can have a positive impact on math education,” Fernandez said, “so I don’t want to abandon it.”
When Fernandez and other graduate students got accepted to their programs, they received an offer letter including their salary as graduate workers. Fernandez said that these offer letters are not legally binding and not consistent across campus. She said that a recognized union would help her and other grad workers negotiate safer, more stable working conditions and get a fairer deal.
“Grad students, we kind of live in this limbo of being a student when convenient to the university and being an employee when convenient, and we really just want a clear picture of what we are to them and what rights we have,” said Kat Pacheco, a mechanical engineering grad student.
Through all of this, international students have been left especially vulnerable.
Mohamed, a reliability engineering graduate student from Egypt, said that his position at the university is unstable. If his advisor finds that he’s not working up to standard, he could easily be fired, Mohamed said.
“I'm an international student. If I'm fired, I have no visa. Instantly, I'm out of the country.”
Mohamed, along with several other international and domestic students who were interviewed, declined to have their last names published.
History and library & information science masters students Emma and Claire cited the general political climate, one that has been reported to target people for expressing their political beliefs.
The university’s stance of maintaining a low profile has left people lost on how they’re protected.
“When you're not targeted, your students are targeted,” Fernandez said, directed to the university administration. “You have so much more power than all of your students. You should be willing to absorb some of that targeting on their behalf.”
Fernandez said that a lot of international students have been reluctant to sign on to the GLU’s letter demanding recognition for fear of retaliation.
One of the speakers at the march on Wednesday was a German geography doctorate student named Judith, who also declined to have her last name published. Judith spoke about her experience as an international student and being afraid to speak up at the risk of her visa and her degree.
“We are dependent on our advisors, this university, on flying under the radar,” Judith told the crowd.
Like many international students, she came to UMD excited to be part of an acclaimed research institution and “to push the limits of knowledge and science.”
Judith talked about not being able to afford to eat more than two meals a day, her infested apartment that she shares with a roommate, the showers she takes at the office to cut down on utilities, and how her department told her she makes “a great salary” compared to other universities. Judith said she makes $28,000.
Judith went on to talk about how a union recognition would help her and other graduate students negotiate better conditions that would ultimately improve the quality of their work. She said that even without recognition, the GLU has been a better source of support for international students than the university administration.
Fernandez said that last semester, when international students were worried about their visas being revoked, the GLU was able to pressure the university to hold public forums about the issue.
“I want people to know that this university having … a graduate labor union is not gonna make the university worse,” Fernandez said.
UMD recently rose in rankings on the U.S. News and World Report to No. 16 of top public universities. Fernandez said that 12 of the schools ranked above UMD have graduate labor unions.
“We deserve to be paid,” Fernandez said. “We do a lot of work and we shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for asking for fair treatment.”
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