BALTIMORE – AFSCME members who keep Maryland public universities running are fighting to prevent layoffs and get the raises they were promised.
On Friday, more than 75 AFSCME members who work at the University of Maryland-College Park (UMCP), Bowie State University (BSU) and other University System of Maryland (USM) institutions rallied outside the quarterly USM Board of Regents meeting in Baltimore.
AFSCME members protested the layoffs and called on the regents to honor AFSCME’s contract regarding negotiated wage increases.
“College Park announced record enrollment and record fundraising. Bowie State has been touting their largest endowment ever. The Governor’s Office and the General Assembly agreed to increased funding to the university system this year. You have more than a billion dollars in various reserve funds and endowments,” said AFSCME Maryland Council 3 President Patrick Moran.
“Before laying off AFSCME members, you didn’t even look at cutting the costly consultants and contracts that profit off the university system. This is mismanagement and failure at the highest levels, and you have made the hardworking staff who directly work with our students take the hit,” added Moran, who’s also an AFSCME International vice president.
On June 3, UMCP announced it will lay off 73 AFSCME-represented positions. At the end of May, BSU issued layoffs for 21 AFSCME-represented positions. Other USM universities have also begun to issue layoff notices. The targeted positions all served students, staff and faculty and include a range of job titles across various departments.
“The work did not disappear when my position was eliminated. It has been redistributed among already-burdened staff, creating delayed referrals, fragmented follow-up, communication breakdowns, and increased risk of student deaths and suicides,” said Emily Leak, the only integrated care manager at UMCP and a member of Local 1072, who was laid off last week. “If student mental health is truly a priority, staffing decisions must reflect that commitment.”
Victoria Kelly, an administrative assistant at BSU and the vice president of Local 1297, said workers like her are being wrongly targeted.
“With these layoffs, you are asking some of our lowest paid workers — who are NOT the reason Bowie is facing a budget problem — to pay the highest price: their livelihoods and careers. You are telling Bowie’s students that their campus experience and their success don’t matter by cutting the positions who work directly with them,” Kelly said.
AFSCME’s union contract for university staff specifies a 1.5% cost of living adjustment, a 2.5% merit increase, and a $500 flat increase — totaling $20.6 million for the university system and fully covered by state funding — but USM leaders have refused to follow through.
Council 3 represents over 55,000 public service workers in local, city, county and state governments as well as in higher education and the private sector.