Maryland community college faculty win first-ever union contract

United Academics of Maryland/AFT-AAUP members at the Community College of Baltimore County will enjoy higher pay, stronger job protections and improved leave benefits after reaching a tentative agreement on their first-ever union contract in late May.

After negotiating with the college for a year, the faculty voted by a 90 percent margin to ratify a contract. A ceremonial signing of the contract was held on June 22.

The new agreement gives workers a 12.6 percent raise over the next three fiscal years, with increases coming from both a merit step system and cost-of-living adjustments. Union members will also get just-cause protection-which means CCBC is prohibited from firing employees without proven reason. The contract also safeguards academic freedom, ensuring that teaching, research and publications remain the backbone of the CCBC's educational mission, and it establishes a sick leave bank.

Michael Hands, a professor at CCBC and chapter chair of the local union, said he was proud of the hard work done by the bargaining team and of how supportive the faculty was in getting a fair contract. "This agreement ensures equitable pay, increased transparency and secure employment for all faculty," he said.

CCBC is the sixth institution represented by United Academics of Maryland to reach a tentative agreement since Maryland expanded collective bargaining rights to include community college faculty in 2021.

AFT-Maryland President Kenya Campbell said that CCBC's faculty stood together in their fight. She commended the union's unity, which delivered on the issues that drove them to unionize over a year ago. "We know that when faculty have a voice at the table, everyone benefits-students, the college and the community." She called the new contract a major victory for the faculty and noted that "it is driving the fight forward for all faculty and workers across Maryland demanding the wages, protections and benefits they deserve."

AFT President Randi Weingarten called the agreement a breakthrough. She said CCBC's faculty work hard to educate students. All they ask for in return, she added, is to be treated with dignity and respect.

"This agreement is a breakthrough for faculty who for months fought to attain a real voice, job security and dignity at work," Weingarten said. "From Maryland to communities nationwide, faculty are pushing back against funding cuts and political attacks while championing a higher education system that is democratic, accessible and transformative. Public higher education strengthens the economy, expands opportunities and shapes futures. Their efforts remind us that collective action makes it possible to achieve far more together than we ever could alone."

This new contract came only weeks after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a bill expanding collective bargaining rights to most nontenure-track faculty members, including full-time and part-time/adjunct faculty, at the state's four-year public institutions. That historic win-just like the 2021 community college win-is a tribute to the years of organizing and advocacy from AAUP and AFT-Maryland members.

[Alvin Buyinza]