Dear Graduate Assistants,
We are starting a series of weekly posts where every Wednesday we will share with you one of the helpful resources or GA-specific topic for your information. This week we will compare Collective Bargaining and the Meet & Confer Policy.
Collective Bargaining:
We are starting a series of weekly posts where every Wednesday we will share with you one of the helpful resources or GA-specific topic for your information. This week we will compare Collective Bargaining and the Meet & Confer Policy.
Collective Bargaining:
Collective bargaining is good faith negotiations by authorized representatives of employees and their employer with the intention of reaching an agreement about wages, hours, and other terms of conditions of employment.
The benefits of collective bargaining for graduate assistants include:
- Improved wages and benefits: through collective bargaining, graduate assistants can negotiate for better wages, health insurance, and other benefits.
- Job security: A collective bargaining contract provides protection against arbitrary layoffs or other forms of job insecurity.
- A voice in the workplace: Collective bargaining allows graduate assistants to have a say in the decisions that affect their working conditions and employment.
- Legal representation: If there are disputes or disagreements, graduate assistants are represented by their union during the collective bargaining process.
Meet & Confer:
- Meet and Confer (M&C) is a policy adopted by the University System of Maryland (USM) which allows Graduate Assistants (GAs) to engage in formal discussions with the administration regarding employment issues.
- Graduate Assistant (GAs) can use M&C platform to voice their concern regarding issues related to employment benefits, compensation, etc. in the absence of unionization and collective bargaining.
- GAAC meets with the administration for these discussions twice a year. In addition to meeting with the administration M&C also allows GAs to vote on whether or not to bring in outside representation (including unions) confer with GAAC during the discussions. However, the negotiations do not legally bind the Graduate School to take any action.
Additional Resources:
- USM Policy on Meet & Confer.
- 2022 Meet & Confer report by UMBC can be found here.
- Upcoming Collective Bargaining Bill 2023 - House Bill / Senate Bill
- A factsheet created by students at UMD can be found here.
- UMBC GSA's statement from last year can be found here.
If there is anything specific you want GAAC to discuss / explain in our Wednesday Wisdom series, please reach out to us at gaac@umbc.edu.