On Wednesday, April 9, the United Campus Workers of Alabama at Auburn University held a rally and petition signing at Toomer’s Corner. The rally highlighted their demand for the university to conduct cost of living adjustments, raise the university’s minimum wage to $17.50, eliminate graduate student fees, increase graduate student stipends to $25k, provide subsidies for childcare and family and demand fairer promotion for employees.
From 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Auburn’s United Campus Workers of Alabama chapter, Local 3821, gathered at the entrance of Toomer’s Corner between West Magnolia and South College Street. They peacefully protested by offering additional information to those wanting to know more and holding up signs directing onlookers to sign their petition online or in person with a physical petition. After the rally, the Auburn UCW chapter planned to march to Samford Hall to deliver the petition and their demands to Auburn University President Christopher Roberts and Chief Executive Officer Kelli Shomaker. However, neither of them were in office at the time of delivery.
According to Roman Vasquez, a graduate student studying theoretical mathematics and one of Auburn UCW’s organizers, the Auburn chapter has roughly 65 members, with more than 300 members statewide in the UCWAL and almost 5,000 members throughout the Southeast in the national UCW.
UCW is a union organization with branches in 13 states, including Georgia, Florida and Louisiana. The UCWAL was formed by and for campus workers in 2019 at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and aims to improve the wages, healthcare and wellbeing of campus workers. In 2020, Auburn University’s UCW chapter was formed.
Included in the petition was the demand to raise the university’s minimum wage, which is currently $15 an hour, to $17.50. On Jan. 1, 2024, the university raised the minimum wage from $14.50 to $15.
The chapter also aims for a $25k minimum stipend for all graduate students.
“There’s no minimum stipend which is one of the big things we’re asking for,” said Brooks Howe, a graduate student in Auburn’s physics department and one of the Auburn UCW organizers. “We’re asking for a minimum of $25k, which is kind of the bare minimum to be able to live in this area.”
The organizers believe this is a fair demand based on their research of similar institutions. According to Howe, Auburn UCW used a combination of the MIT living wage calculator, the current minimum wage at Auburn and the financial experiences of graduate students.
“The $25,000 for grad students [stipends] actually was based on LSU who recently implemented a minimum stipend for their grad students as well,” Vasquez said. “I believe it was like $24,000 if you’re doing a nine-month [program], and a bit higher if you’re doing a 12-month [program], and we said if they can do 24, we can do 25.”
According to Howe and Vasquez, one of the main challenges organizers face is the stigma surrounding unions, especially in the South. Many potential members voice concerns, mainly regarding the fear of backlash from their bosses.
“No one who has joined has actually been targeted or fired by the administration or anything,” Howe said. “We only engage in peaceful protests and stuff like that, so there’s not a whole lot of backlash in that way.”
According to Vasquez, workers who are members of the Auburn UCW are kept confidential from Auburn University.
“Our organization exists alongside the university rather than, like, directly connected with them,” Vasquez said. “[This] means that the university has no access to our membership list, so people who are afraid of their boss finding out—they don't need to make it public.”
Organizers said a new obstacle for them is the budget cuts United States President Donald J. Trump and his administration brought upon universities. With Trump signing an executive order that calls for the dismantling of the Department of Education back in March, concerns have been raised surrounding how the university would be able to fund these demands.
“It’s a tough environment to be making these sorts of asks,” Vasquez said. “We understand that the university is under a lot of pressure right now. No one knows what to expect next, no one knows what the outcome will be—there’s a lot of uncertainty, but I think that is just yet another reason why it’s so important that campus workers be paid a living wage.”
At 11:30 a.m., the members marched over to Samford Hall and handed over their petition to Vice President for Institutional Compliance and Security Kevin Robinson, on behalf of Roberts and Shomaker.
“Of course we wanted to deliver the petition [to Roberts and Shomaker]. We're only engaging in peaceful protests, so if there's really nothing to be worried about — we want to end up just asking the president to do the right thing and asking the CFO to do the right thing,” Howe said in response to the absence of Roberts and Shomaker. “We're definitely not trying to work against them. We would rather work with them, so that's why we want to set up a meeting with them after this as a follow-up. We wish they were here, but, you know, we can still make sure that the petition gets done.”
The Auburn Plainsman reached out to Roberts, Shomaker and Executive Director of Public Affairs and Executive of Communication Jennifer Adams. The Plainsman will update the article with comments from the university upon receiving.
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Michaela Yielding is a senior in journalism currently serving as the news editor. She has been with The Auburn Plainsman since fall 2023.
