Acknowledging that the General Assembly could finally approve a collective bargaining bill for university employees next spring, a committee of the university system Board of Regents voted to support the legislation. And despite an attempt by some graduate students in Maryland and across the country to form unions, Glendening's plan would not extend bargaining rights to faculty members or teaching assistants, officials said. Still, some university officials said they fear it will be harder to collaborate informally with staff on matters of campus policy when union representation enters the picture.
Collective bargaining is in effect an adversarial relationship.
In 1999, he won approval for legislation expanding collective bargaining rights for state employees, but in the final days of the legislative session, lawmakers cut out a provision to include about 8,000 employees at state campuses. At the time, university officials had lobbied against collective bargaining, arguing that their employees were already treated just as well as state employees with union representation. But union officials and some campus employees say they are poorly compensated. They also fear that universities are increasingly turning to contract employees, who don't necessarily receive benefits. Employees could opt not to join the union and not to pay dues, but they would still be represented by the union if the majority of their group had voted for it.