By Apurva Mahajan
Cries of “Shame!” rang across McKeldin Mall Friday during United Students Against Sweatshops Local 54’s “Time For 22” rally where dozens of university workers and students called on President Darryll Pines to raise the minimum wage to $22.65/hour.
The rally also advocated for the Maryland General Assembly to guarantee collective bargaining rights for all workers at public universities in the state.
This campaign is part of Labor Spring 2023, a nationwide series of local teach-ins and events to uplift ongoing labor campaigns. USAS Local 54’s $22.65 figure comes from the MIT Living Wage Calculator’s estimate of a living wage for a single adult living in Prince George’s County.
“Living wage means having a good quality of living. You have housing security, you can live somewhere that is safe,” said Carolyn Robbins, a communications doctoral student and member of Fearless Student Employees’ leadership committee. “It means you can put food on the table [and] can afford to keep your vehicle. Maybe you can even travel sometimes. There’s a difference between living and surviving.”
In 2018, the Maryland hourly minimum wage was $10.10, which would be $12.30 today. Since the increase to a $15 hourly minimum wage this January, workers have gotten just a 21.9% increase in their hourly wages in five years. Even with that, $15 is not considered a living wage in Prince George’s County.
Currently, undergraduate and graduate student workers and faculty do not have collective bargaining rights. The only workers on campus who can legally collectively bargain with their employers are staff like groundskeepers, facilities employees and IT professionals who are in non-academic positions.
“If we were able to unionize, we would be able to negotiate a living wage and we would be able to advocate for ourselves,” said Grace Orellana, junior immersive media design major and vice president of USAS Local 54.
“So many of these employees have been loyal to UMD for decades and have received very little in compensation or gratitude, and I think that needs to change today.”
The right to collective bargaining allows workers to unionize and negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers through a legally binding agreement in which employers are mandated by law to negotiate with their employees.
Without collective bargaining rights, employers don’t have to listen to their employees, and workers can be subject to poor wages and working conditions. Without a union, workers individuals representing themselves against large companies.
“If you ask any worker what it’s like to go and ask their bosses for better hours, better conditions or hazard pay, sick pay, oftentimes, they’re just shut down because it’s just them,” said Jack Maloy, a junior computer science major. “[Bosses] don’t have the legal obligation to give them those benefits.”
The “Time For 22” movement has gained supporters even outside of the university community. On Thursday, USAS Local 54 shared a video on Twitter that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders sent in support of their movement.
“[The campaign], as part of the National Labor Spring Campaign on campuses is an important step to ensure that workers at the University of Maryland in Prince George’s County receive a living wage and are able to afford rent and a better way of life,” Sanders said in the video.
USAS Local 54 is not recognized by the university as an official student organization. They were able to hold their rally on McKeldin Mall through solidarity with Students for Justice in Palestine, which helped USAS get the space through its status as a recognized organization.
“The fight for women’s liberation, the fight for worker liberation, the fight for Black liberation, all of our liberation is connected, so that is why we must stay united,” said Kelsey Coleman, senior Black liberation studies and performing arts major.
USAS Local 54 had been advocating for a $15 minimum wage since 2021 through their “Pay Up Pines” campaign directly calling out the president.
According to Coleman, who is the president of USAS Local 54, USAS organized a town hall meeting in 2021 and invited members of administration to have a conversation with students, but nobody from administration showed up.
USAS also delivered a letter to Pines as part of their “Time For 22” movement, but according to Maloy, Pines did not receive the letter himself and instead sent a member of his staff to receive the letter and open it for him.
“There’s a huge disconnect between the student body and administration, especially Darryll Pines,” said Maloy. “This is why we have to be out here making this much noise with this much presence, you know, because that’s what it takes for them to listen.”
Featured Image: Dozens of workers in front of McKeldin Library at the USAS Rally on April 21. Photo by Apurva Mahajan.