Calling on administrators to stop lobbying against the economic interests of its student workers and lowest-paid faculty, students from the University of Maine in Orono delivered hundreds of petition signatures to the Chancellor’s office on Wednesday afternoon. “Without student workers, this university would crumble, and it’s time that the system does something to recognize that,”…
On Friday, November 8, more than 50 University of Maine students dropped their bags and sat on the floor in the main concourse of the Memorial Union on their campus in Orono. Angry about recent revelations that Maine’s public universities have been lobbying hard against overtime, paid time off and other worker protections in the…
This week on the Beacon podcast, Maine AFL-CIO organizing director (and 4th generation UMaine alum) Sarah Bigney joins Ben and Mike to discuss Beacon‘s groundbreaking Campus Conservatism series (Parts 1, 2, 3), what has caused the university system to adopt an austerity mindset and what can be done to change their position. Sarah also gives…
This is part one of a multi-part series. Part 2. Part 3. Last March, University of Maine System director of government and community relations Samantha Warren stood before the Maine legislature’s Labor Committee and announced that, this year, things were going to be different. “As returning lawmakers may be aware, the University has historically not…