The United Campus Workers of Virginia, a statewide union representing workers at the University, Virginia Commonwealth University, William & Mary and Virginia Tech, rallied in Richmond’s Capitol Square Jan. 17 to demand collective bargaining rights and advocate for systems reforms in higher education. Following a morning of lobbying sessions with state legislators, the union called for legislative action to address issues such as delayed graduate worker pay and the high cost of living near the represented universities.
The central demand of the rally was to allow for collective bargaining, the process of negotiation between employers and groups of employees to establish provisions for wages, benefits and working conditions. Union members emphasized that without this legal right in the state, public-sector workers and higher education employees alike lack a formal instrument to address issues such as insufficient or delayed pay, suppression of free expression and inadequate workplace conditions. Rally speakers argued that collective bargaining would allow workers to secure fair contracts — holding higher institutions accountable to treating their employees fairly.
Speakers also highlighted broader implications of the UCW-VA, particularly in defending free speech and academic freedoms. Mark Wood, UCW-VA member and an Assoc. Prof. at the School of World Studies at VCU, connected labor rights to broader social justice issues including the suppression of advocacy on campuses. He criticized recent legislative and institutional policies that restrict free expression following student demonstrations on campuses and claimed that universities were restricting faculty members’ freedom to speak on such issues.
“Every effort is being made to shut us down,” Wood said. “Universities have created new rules regarding how, when and where students and faculty can express their views.”
The rally’s closing speaker was Margaret Cook, vice president of the Public, Healthcare and Education Workers Sector of the Communications Workers of America Union, which serves as the parent organization to UCW-VA. Her speech urged attendees to continue mobilizing, not just for their own benefit but for the betterment of future generations of workers.
“In the face of cutbacks, in the face of censorship, in the face of attacks on our diversity and our efforts to right historical wrongs,” Cook said. “I know that today, inside the Capitol, you were making sure that we had a clear message that what we do is essential.”
Leah Esslinger, a UCW-VA organizer within the organization’s turnout committee and a Class of 2016 alumna, described the extensive preparation and outreach efforts that led to last week’s rally. According to Esslinger, planning began in June with a focus on building grassroots engagement, and mobilizing members across campuses, mentioning that the movement began to pick up in August and September.
“We want to try to get as many people from their campus who can talk about their experience, their own lived experience,” Esslinger said.
Esslinger also stated that outreach included one-on-one meetings with potential participants, a series of smaller events to build momentum, an informational session, an art session for the making of the signs and training sessions intended to prepare members for lobbying.
On the day of the event, UCW-VA members began with lobbying sessions at the Virginia General Assembly, meeting with more than 40 state legislators to discuss systemic issues facing public-sector workers.
Speakers at the rally also highlighted the issue of delayed stipend payments and their consequences for graduate workers. Graduate students at the University have reported recurring late or incomplete stipend disbursements over several years. These payments, intended to support academic and living expenses, have arrived weeks late or up to thousands of dollars short. According to a testimony shared by affected students on the UCW-VA U.Va. Instagram page, some have been forced to take out loans, miss rent payments and endure financial stress.
Cecelia Parks, chair of UCW-VA’s political coalition and policy committee and a librarian at the University, highlighted the lack of formal contracts as a root cause of these issues — many graduate workers don’t have employment contracts due to current laws. She stated that collective bargaining would allow graduate workers to negotiate contracts, enforcing provisions that ensure timely and sufficient payments.
“[Graduate workers are] not getting paid enough, not getting paid on time and those are things that simply wouldn't happen if we had a union contract,” Parks said.
The University has taken steps to address the issue, including forming a task force and hiring additional administrative staff to improve payment processing. Additionally, Ian Baucom, University executive vice president and provost, promised to rectify the issue of graduate pay before the next stipend payments were scheduled.
According to Parks, however, without legally enforceable agreements, graduate workers rely on offer letters from their departments, which do not guarantee consistent pay schedules or protections.
To address these issues, Parks said that UCW-VA U.Va. has established relationships with local legislators, including Dels. Amy Laufer (D-Albemarle County) and Katrina Callsen (D-Charlottesville), and that these relationships have been instrumental in advocating for such initiatives.
One such initiative is the Cut the Checks campaign, an initiative launched by UCW-VA in January 2023 to address systemic failures in graduate worker compensation. This campaign advocates for strict policies to ensure stipends, wages and reimbursements are paid correctly and on time.
Founded in August 2020, the University’s chapter was the inaugural chapter of UCW-VA and is the largest, according to Parks. The union was able to fight for a graduate worker stipend raise from $22,000 to $30,000 in the University’s anthropology department in 2021, establish a $2 hourly raise for graduate workers in the School of Architecture in 2022 and secure immediate payment of missing December stipend payments for graduate students across the College of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
Following the rally, Esslinger emphasized the importance of maintaining momentum beyond the rally itself.
“The most important thing is not the day [of lobbying], it's what happens after the day,” Esslinger said. “We need people to call their representatives to make sure our legislators know what we care about.”
The rally concluded with attendees chanting “Solidarity Forever,” a popular anthem adopted by trade unions worldwide.
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