State workers union sues Moore, university system for withheld raises

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by Will Hammann, Maryland Matters
July 24, 2026

Union leaders filed an unfair labor practice claim and said they were also filing suit against the governor and the University System of Maryland over recent layoffs and negotiated pay raises for university workers that have been withheld.

At a rally Thursday outside USM headquarters in Baltimore, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said they have been caught in a dispute over funding between the governor’s office and the university, and workers are paying the price.

“Our demands are clear: Put out the raises that you agreed to, that you negotiated. Respect our contract and rescind the layoffs,” AFSCME Council 3 President Patrick Moran said at the rally. “It’s patently unfair, it’s dishonest, and it’s wrong.”

The unfair labor practice charge was filed Wednesday and a separate lawsuit was in the process of being filed Thursday in Maryland District Court, officials said.

The unfair labor practice charge details a dispute over appropriations for the pay raises between the state and the university system that stretched from February through March.

The university system said the governor “failed to act consistent with law to appropriate all the funds necessary to honor the negotiated wage increases,” according to the complaint, while Moore’s office said the system had all the funds needed with the appropriations bill.

Moore spokesperson Rhyan Lake said in a statement Friday that the fiscal 2027 budget “increased resources to the University System of Maryland to help meet their operational and staffing needs, including their obligations under their Collective Bargaining Agreement with AFSCME.”

University System of Maryland spokesperson Michael Sandler said the system does not comment on pending litigation.

In one email to the administration, university system lawyers wrote that “if the budget is not clear about what salary increases are being funded, USM will be faced with the difficult decision” to either only provide a cost-of-living adjustment, “ignoring the AFSCME contract terms and likely face litigation with the union,” or fulfill the terms of the contract at the risk of having to lay off employees.

The university system settled on doing some of both. They laid off more than 100 union members in May and June, and are now facing the union’s litigation over the withheld wage increases.

The union sent the university system attorneys a letter demanding that they honor the union’s contract, but the system said it wouldn’t without the state expressly funding the wage increases.

“We’re in touch with the administration on a weekly basis. With USM, it’s been sporadic over the last couple months since the end of the session,” Moran said, With neither party apparently ready to force the other’s hand, the union has taken it upon itself to make them budge.

“We believe we have a very strong case here, and that’s why we’re pursuing it – because they haven’t lived up to their end of the bargain that they mutually agreed to, we negotiated, we sat in the room together for weeks to get done,” Moran said.

At the University of Maryland, College Park, 73 members lost their jobs.

“These are people who provide critical mental health services, carry out important IT and administrative tasks, plan events like commencement and Maryland Day, and even take care of the animals on our campuses 24/7,” said Todd Holden, president of the union local that represents members at the College Park campus and others.

At Bowie State University, the positions of 21 members’ jobs were eliminated.

“I’m here today to call out the university system leaders who think they can balance their budget on the backs of their most hardworking employees,” said Jontae Thomas, president of the local at Bowie State. “We are not expendable. We are the backbone of this institution, and we are not going anywhere.”

One laid-off member, Daisy McDowell, had worked at the university for almost 30 years.

“Since then, I’ve been OK. But for my future, it looks hard,” McDowell said, adding that she has yet to find another job after submitting several resumes. “We are in this together.”

Moran added that the system has hired new, non-union workers since the layoffs.

“They laid off people, and they said they had a hiring freeze, and literally the next day they started hiring people,” Moran said.

He and others at the conference criticized the university system for maintaining high-salary management jobs and giving work to contractors while telling the union that it doesn’t have the money to fulfill the contract. Moran said if the university had a contract for campus maintenance, or with the basketball coach, it would not try to short those contracts.

“So why do they feel they have the right to do that to the hardworking people behind me that make sure the students have a great place to go to school every day?” he asked.

Moran said the union has collected a list of employees with salaries of $300,000 or more, totaling $24 million. “None of those folks were touched,” he said.

“It is unbelievable that the chancellor whose office is up here is making about $1.3 million a year, and he’s not going to take a hit,” Moran said, pointing to the USM headquarters.

Meanwhile, union members pointed and shouted through megaphones at the university system offices Thursday.

“I hope they’re used to getting all this attention because it’s going to keep coming,” Moran said. “The ball is in their court, and we are not going to stop now until we come to a resolution.”

— This story was updated on Friday, July 24, to add a comment from the governor’s office.

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