75 Maine State Legislators Sign Letter to University of Maine Leadership Calling for a Fair Contract Addressing Graduate Worker Needs

Seventy five Maine state legislators, including a majority of the Senate, have signed on to a letter to University of Maine System (UMS) Chancellor Dannel Malloy and the UMS Board of Trustees, chaired by Trish Riley, calling on the system to reach an “expeditious” resolution to contract negotiations with the University of Maine Graduate Workers Union – UAW (UMGWU-UAW) that “addresses the needs of graduate workers”. The union has been bargaining for a first union contract with the UMS for over 700 days.

On Wednesday, October 29, 2025, Senator Mike Tipping will be joined by graduate workers on the UMaine campus in Orono to deliver the letter to the UMS Chancellor. Despite nearly two years having passed since starting negotiations, the UMS administration has still not agreed to contract provisions that address ongoing issues around low, late, and inconsistent pay, substandard health benefits, inadequate paid time off, and more.

Senator Mike Tipping of Orono commented on why legislators are weighing in: “The teaching and research work needed to fulfil 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. 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.”

Elijah Bradshaw, a graduate worker in the School of Biology and Ecology and elected member of the UMGWU-UAW bargaining committee, spoke on how the System administration has failed to address the severe economic needs of graduate workers. “The UMS team had more than enough time to present solutions that address the issues graduate workers face or to accept the solutions we have proposed. Instead, they 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.”

All proposals and union bargaining updates are publicly available on the Union website: https://umaine-gradworkers.org/bargaining/