Marquette employees launch union organizing drive amid budget uncertainty and job cuts

A group of more than 50 Marquette University employees have launched a union organizing drive in hopes of gaining federal recognition — allowing them to negotiate over wages, benefits and workplace conditions.

The effort announced this week comes shortly after Marquette laid out plans to cut $31 million from its budget over the next seven years.

"It just seems like we need this now more than ever," said Grant Gosizk, a union steering committee member who teaches in the university's English department. "There’s an amount of pressure to the campaign now that we haven't had for the past year or two. It’s been in the works for a long time, but now it seems essential."

The unionization effort speaks to the unease felt across campus, especially among its workers who lack tenure protections. Union members believe university leaders left faculty and staff out of the decision-making process. Having a local chapter, they say, is the way to restore their seat at the table.

Marquette officials said the university is engaging with the entire campus community to decide how to cut costs and plan for the future.

"Marquette University is in a strong financial position, and strong institutions are constantly evaluating and planning for the future," university spokesperson Lynn Griffith said. "We are choosing to shape our own destiny and proactively prepare for significant demographic changes coming in 2026."

University leaders believe the campus "is best served by working collaboratively and without a third party," Griffith said. "That said, Marquette leadership has repeatedly stated that it will follow a lawful process that protects the rights of all parties, as defined by the National Labor Relations Act."

Four types of employees are part of new Marquette union

The union includes non-tenure track faculty, academic staff, graduate student workers and undergraduate workers. It is a local chapter of United Campus Workers, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America.

The chapter has not yet filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The board oversees union elections and enforces the law guaranteeing the right of most private sector employees to organize.

Among the Marquette chapter's challenges will be organizing the different bargaining units based on their job classifications. A vote has not yet been scheduled, but Gosizk said the chapter will be working on an "aggressive timeline."

Marquette union seeking longer contracts

Gosizk is in his fourth year of teaching full time at Marquette. He's received a series of one-year contract renewals.

"It's unnecessarily cruel, I think, to keep somebody guessing every year whether or not they're going to continue to have a job," he said. "We want longer contracts."

Non-tenure track faculty are also pushing for more pay. At Loyola University Chicago, one of Marquette's peer institutions, faculty with the same job title as Gosizk earn $20,000 more, he said.

Marquette has offered three-year contracts to nearly 100 of its non-tenure track faculty and developed promotion criteria. These were among 22 recommendations made by a committee that studied how to improve the non-tenure track faculty work experience.

Graduate workers seek health insurance

Marquette used to offer a voluntary health insurance plan for graduate student workers but phased it out several years ago. This leaves most graduate student workers relying on their parents' health insurance plans or buying it through the federal government.

Josh Seidman, a second-year graduate student in the math department, said his options were limited when he faced a surgery last year.

"It's pretty frustrating," he said.

Marquette offers stipends of up to $750 for graduate students to use on health care, but Seidman said it's an insufficient amount.

Marquette recently surveyed graduate students and found 94% of respondents already had health insurance, Griffith said. The university offers stipends of up to $750 for graduate students to use on health care and also partners with an outside agency to help students find a plan that works best for them.

The University Academic Senate last month voted against pursuing additional health insurance for graduate students and voted to increase graduate stipends, Griffith said.

Student workers seek higher pay

Undergraduate workers are pushing for a minimum $15 per hour wage. Some students, Gosizk said, earn less than $10 per hour.

Marquette said a new pay structure implemented last fall has increased wages for the majority of student employees. The lowest level of pay falls between $7.25 and $11 per hour.

This isn't the first time Marquette employees have tried unionizing

Marquette graduate students and non-tenure track faculty began organizing a union in 2018. The university pushed back, saying a a third party "may not understand our university, our mission, or our guiding values."

No election was held, and the organizing effort petered out.

This time around, union members said conditions are more favorable, with a friendlier political climate under the Biden administration and a wave of other unionization efforts at colleges across the country.

In 2023 alone, 26 new bargaining units representing over 40,000 graduate student workers, postdoctoral workers or researchers earned certification or voluntary recognition, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.

As Inside Higher Ed reported last month, "it's a boom time for higher education organizing."

Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette University employees launch unionization effort ahead of budget cuts