Toward a People’s History of the University of Maryland: AFSCME Local 1072

Abstract

This paper covers the history of how workers at the University of Maryland, College Park won collective bargaining rights on campus through their union, AFSCME Local 1072. Starting in the late 1960s, UMCP campus workers, including housekeepers, dining service workers, and maintenance workers began to organize despite racial divisions on campus. An opportune political moment, along with strategies associated with the 9-to-5 movement to bring in clerical workers was what established AFSCME on campus as workers' exclusive bargaining representative after nearly 50 years of organizing.