Colleagues,
As you are likely aware now from previous meetings and email correspondence, the MC-AAUP Chapter is actively advocating and supporting our colleagues at colleges and universities across the state as they organize and / or lobby for collective bargaining. For too long ft-faculty at MC have been the only such labor group in higher-education in Maryland, so we are delighted that this will soon no longer be the case.
Community Colleges have recently won the right to organize, if they choose to do so, and are in the beginning stages of those efforts. But now we continue to play a supportive and advisory role to support our friends in the University System of Maryland. The information below and attached is a guide to help you get involved and support various education bills and includes but is not limited to proposed legislation for ft-faculty and graduate assistants. You will not see our name included and this is by design. Our testimony and involvement will take place at strategic hearings so we are under the radar for now. However, our written and oral testimony will be the centerpiece of this effort.
I urge you to submit testimony, sign petitions, and attend sessions as your schedule allows. There is strength in numbers when we advocate for higher education, MC, ft-faculty, and academic freedom issues so needless to say this is important for these folks and for all that concerns MC faculty. If you want to get more involved with lobbying efforts specific to MC, please reach out to David Fallick here at MC as he will be helping to lead our efforts moving forward.
Check out the attached for the respective Bills. You may find that this resonates with past or current experiences and you will not be alone.
Best,
Tito
PS. Please note that while we are proudly working with our AAUP and AFT national partners, we have been careful not to endorse a particular labor group for any prospective Chapter. We know that there are numerous advantages for us all to work under the same umbrella, but we have to trust that our active involvement with our national organizations should speak for itself. The organizing groups at each institution need to make their own decisions and we will need to be well positioned to work with them, no matter who they choose as their national affiliate. We hope they choose wisely and do advise when asked, but this is as far as we are willing to go on this matter.
AJ “Tito” Baca Jr., Ed.D.
Professor – Health Sciences
President – MCAAUP Chapter
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Dear Colleagues,
We need you now!
We have just three weeks left to help push our collective bargaining bill over the finish line.
Sign up right now to let us know what you can do to help.
We need an avalanche of testimony, emails and calls to legislators, postcards from key constituent groups, and bodies in attendance at the bill’s hearings in the next three weeks. Please sign up now.
And if you missed the General Body Meeting today and would like a full update on the collective bargaining campaign, email us at umdaaup@gmail.com and we will give you access to a recording of it.
Sincerely,
UMD AAUP Executive Committee
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