Portside

The University of Maine System’s graduate students have won certification for their union.

The Maine Labor Relations Board last week certified the Maine Graduate Workers Union-UAW after an independent arbitrator determined it had a majority support among graduate workers, according to the Maine AFL-CIO.

The university system said in August it would recognize the union and began bargaining if an independent analysis found it had a majority support.

The graduate workers union will represent about 1,000 graduate assistants, research assistants and teaching assistants who make up a large percentage of the teaching and research workforce across the system’s seven campuses, according to the Maine AFL-CIO, which announced the certification on Friday afternoon.

It is affiliated with the United Auto Workers.

“Today, after years of discussion and months of organizing, we are thrilled to announce that we have won our union,” said Remi Geohegan, a second-year Ph.D. student and teaching  assistant in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the University of Maine. “The University of Maine administration did the right thing by agreeing to recognize our union through a majority sign-on process, and the majority has spoken. Based on the strong support that exists across campus, and among faculty, legislators and community leaders, we are excited about the very real prospect of beginning negotiations for a strong first contract.”

The graduate workers went public with their demand for union recognition in March, saying that a union would address concerns about wages and health benefits and give them more of a voice in their workplace.

“Our work powers the educational and research mission of the University, and was instrumental in UMaine receiving the status of an R1 rated research university. In short, UMaine works because we do,” said Em Sowles, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate and research assistant in the physics department. “But for too long, we have struggled with low and inconsistent pay, substandard health benefits and the need for a voice at work. Today we are proud to have formally secured a seat at the table, so we can begin to improve our working lives through legally-enforceable contracts.”

The graduate workers are the latest academic workforce to form a union, joining those at Columbia University in New York City; Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the University of Alaska; the University of Connecticut; and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts.