Bangor Studio/Membership Department
63 Texas Ave.
Bangor, ME 04401

Lewiston Studio
1450 Lisbon St.
Lewiston, ME 04240

Portland Studio
323 Marginal Way
Portland, ME 04101

Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
© 2025 Maine Public
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.
Due to equipment upgrades, WMHD (Greenville) and WBSQ (Monson) will be shut off during the daytime hours for the duration of this week.

Graduate workers union calls on University of Maine System to progress contract negotiations

The University of Maine Graduate Workers Union rallies on the Orono campus, calling on the University of Maine System to negotiate a fair contract.
Kaitlyn Budion
/
Maine Public
The University of Maine Graduate Workers Union rallies on the Orono campus on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. They are calling on the University of Maine System to negotiate a fair contract.

Graduate student workers at the University of Maine rallied again in Orono Wednesday to call on the University of Maine System to move forward with union contract negotiations.

The union has been in talks for more than 10 months for its first contract, and members say UMS representatives are stalling, arriving unprepared and cancelling meetings.

Aurora Green is a second-year Ph.D. student in the clinical psychology program, who earns $20,000 working as a research assistant. Green said it's frustrating that the system doesn't seem to take negotiations seriously, when graduate students do so much work on campus.

"We teach and perform research and administrative work, and we grade and mentor and so much more, we're the backbone of the UMaine system's educational research mission, and yet, we're the lowest paid graduate workers at a public university in New England," Green said.

The union is calling for improvements to pay, health benefits and protections for international workers.

Em Sowles, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the physics department, told fellow rally goers that graduate workers support the university system's renowned research institutions, but are treated poorly at work.

"We are working as top-of-the-line academics in our respective fields, and yet we are not respected for the work that we do or the value we bring to this university," Sowles said. "We are seen as infantile students when it is convenient to the administration, and we are seen as workers when our work can be exploited by them."

A UMS spokesperson said the labor relations team is currently in negotiations with three other unions, and relies on state funding to improve conditions without shifting costs to students. The system is optimistic that an agreement can be reached that is "appropriately timely and responsive to the requests of the graduate student workers within the existing resources of our public institutions."

Kaitlyn Budion is Maine Public’s Bangor correspondent, joining the reporting team after several years working in print journalism.