State Personnel - Collective Bargaining - Part-Time Faculty
Summary
SB750 expands collective bargaining rights for certain part-time faculty at Maryland public higher education institutions. The bill defines “part-time faculty” as non-tenure track temporary, contingent, or contractual adjunct employees at University System of Maryland institutions, Morgan State University, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland whose primary duties are classroom instruction and who teach more than one class per semester. It also amends related definitions in State Government and State Personnel and Pensions law to recognize part-time faculty as employees who may participate in an employee organization for collective bargaining purposes.
The bill creates separate bargaining units for faculty and for contingent/contractual/temporary faculty, including eligible part-time faculty, at the affected institutions. It also allows those bargaining units to combine into a single unit, while prohibiting them from electing consolidated collective bargaining under the existing statutory framework. The effective date is delayed to July 1, 2026, giving institutions and employee organizations time to prepare for implementation.
Impact
SB750 amends the State Government Article and the State Personnel and Pensions Article to bring certain part-time faculty within Maryland’s public-sector collective bargaining system. It changes exclusions that previously kept contingent, contractual, temporary, and similar higher-education employees outside bargaining coverage, and it adds a new bargaining-unit structure specifically for faculty and part-time faculty at system institutions, Morgan State University, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The bill therefore affects labor relations, representation rights, and unit composition for affected higher-education employees and their employers.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have generally favorable legislative support, as reflected by the committee report of favorable with amendments, adoption in the Senate, and final passage on third reading by a 30-12 vote. That vote suggests meaningful support but not unanimity. No committee transcript was provided, so the available record shows the bill moving forward with some amendment-based refinement rather than broad controversy in the documented proceedings.
Contention
The main policy issue is how broadly to extend collective bargaining rights within higher education and how to define the covered workforce. The bill distinguishes eligible part-time faculty from other adjuncts, excluding those teaching a standardized, pre-designed temporary curriculum on a per-course basis for 12 weeks or less, as well as student workers and officers. Another point of contention is unit structure: the bill creates separate bargaining units but also addresses whether those units may combine, while expressly barring consolidated collective bargaining under § 3-602. These provisions likely reflect balancing the interests of faculty advocates seeking representation with institutional concerns about bargaining scope and labor administration.