Monthly Archives: February 2012

Call your Representative now! Stop law banning GSRA union

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Today (2/22/12) a law was passed in the Michigan State Senate that seeks to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of Graduate Student Researchers Assistants.  The bill now heads to the Michigan House of Representatives.  It has been put on the fast track, so all members need to act now.

Please take a moment to call your House Representative and say something along the lines of:

“Hello, I’m a constituent and a graduate student at U of M and I’m calling in opposition to SB 971.  Can you tell me what my Representative’s position is on this bill?”

To find your Representative’s phone number, go here:  http://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/

Lastly, we anticipate that this may very quickly land on Governor Snyder’s desk.  Call Snyder and leave a message at 517-373-3400.

Everyone should call.  If you don’t get a solid commitment that they will oppose the bill, call back every day.  Please forward this information widely, encourage friends and colleagues to make phone calls as well, as this heinous legislation would take away rights of thousands of GSRAs across the state.

We must act now!  This legislation may pass in the next week, so make your calls right away.

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Press release: Graduate Employees Testify Against Latest Republican Attacks on Collective Bargaining

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News From Graduate Employees Organization

Contact:
Liz Rodrigues  commchair@geo3550.org
Jim McAsey jim.mcasey@geo3550.org
Phone (office): (734) 995-0221

Graduate Employees Testify Against Latest Republican Attacks on Collective Bargaining

SB 971 latest attempt to undermine rights of graduate student research assistants to form union at University of Michigan

LANSING – Concerned citizens and the University of Michigan Graduate Employees Organization (GEO/AFT Local 3550/AFL-CIO) today testified at a Senate Government Operations Committee hearing in opposition to SB 971, a recently introduced bill that would undermine public employees’ rights to collectively bargain and form a union. SB 971 was amended last week to include provisions seeking to bar graduate student research assistants (GSRA) in the state of Michigan from collective bargaining.

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GEO responds to Administrative Law Judge’s decision to call more witnesses in GSRA fact-finding hearing

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For Immediate Release: Thursday, 16 February 2012
Contact:
GEO Staff Organizer Jim McAsey; jim.mcasey@geo3550.org  Phone (office): (734) 995-0221
GEO Communications Chair Liz DeLisle Rodrigues; commchair@geo3550.org      

GEO responds to ALJ’s acceptance of additional testimony
On Wednesday, the administrative law judge currently hearing the petition of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) for an election to form a union of Graduate Student Research Assistants (GSRAs) at the University of Michigan announced that she will accept testimony from a few additional witnesses beforeconcluding the hearing process next week.
GEO President Samantha Montgomery said “We are glad that the hearing record is nearing completion; we are confident that the process will conclude smoothly, and we look forward to getting to an election.”
Attempts by the Mackinac Center and the Michigan Attorney General to intervene in the hearing as parties have been repeatedly rejected by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, the Michigan Court of Appeals, the state Supreme Court, and by a state circuit court.
“We look forward to the timely conclusion of this hearing process, and to an election,” said Electrical Engineering and Computer Science GSRA Jeremey Moore. “We want what we have wanted all along, which is to vote.”
GEO, an affiliate of AFT Michigan, is the labor union representing approximately 1800 graduate teaching and staff assistants at UM. GEO is the second-oldest graduate employee union in the United States, having won its first contract in 1975.

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Accommodations for Graduate Students with Disabilities

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Last year GSIs and GSSAs, through our labor union, negotiated a new contract with the University that covers our wages, benefits, and working conditions (see contract.umgeo.org). Not only did we win raises to our salary and maintain our current benefits, but we also won, for the first time, a clear process through which GSIs or GSSAs with disabilities could apply for accommodations for their work (see it here). The University has now implemented this new process.  For more information, please see Rackham’s new website for Accommodations for Graduate Students with Disabilities.

If you or someone you know has a disability or serious medical condition and would like to apply for an accommodation for your work as a GSI or GSSA, please follow the procedures on Rackham’s new website.  Grads have many options in the process: they can talk to their direct supervisor, or to an administrative designee within their own school or college, or to the central office itself, run by Darlene Ray-Johnson (phone at (734) 936-1647), the Rackham Disability Coordinator.

If you are having any difficulties with the new process or have additional questions, please feel free to ask your GEO steward, or email the GEO Grievance Committee at grrr@geo3550.org.

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Rutgers Professor Q&A about grad unionization

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Lisa Klein, PhD, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering Graduate Program Director at Rutgers University

1.         In general, what is the impact of the existence of a research assistants’ union on your relationships with your research assistants?  On the quality of life for research assistants at your institution?

The existence of a graduate employee union means that our graduate employees are treated with respect. They have benefits that are the same as those of the faculty, particularly in terms of health care. Once the employments issues are taken care of, it means my relationship with my graduate students is one of mutual interest in our shared goal of doing outstanding original research.

2.         Do the union or the union contract play any role in the mentoring or evaluation of your GSRAs?

The contract underpins the mentoring relation, but strictly speaking, the mentoring relation is the traditional one, between an advisor and a graduate student. I think of my graduate students as my legacy. I want them to gain professionalism from the experience in graduate school and move on to permanent positions.

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Video-GSRAs speak out: Benefits of unionization

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Text:

Hi, I’m Rob Gillezeau, and I am a former GSRA, GSI, and fellowship holder in the Economics Department at the University of Michigan.

I served as the President of the Graduate Employees’ Organization during our last round of contract negotiations with the university while I worked as a GSRA myself. I, along with dozens of other GSRAs volunteered in that round of contract negotiations because we wanted to help improve the working conditions of our colleagues and also recognizing that when GEO bargains a contract for GSIs, it tends to improve working conditions for GSRAs as well. I also recognized that it was pretty likely that I work as a GSI again during my time at Michigan. However, during my entire period volunteering in that campaign, as a GSRA, I lacked the basic workplace protections that my GSI colleagues had access to.

I support forming a union for GSRAs because I believe that you shouldn’t lose your workplace protections just because you happen to be employed as a research assistant instead of a Student Instructor. And in my department, the Economics Department, these protections are fundamentally important. It’s because of the union that my department, they had to stop paying GSIs late, and we stopped having our health care lapse well into the fall. It’s because of the union that we’ve maintained our office space for graduate students and maintain our lounge space. And it’s because of the union that our department now informs us of GSI hiring in a timely manner such that if we don’t get jobs, we have the ability to apply to open positions across the university. I believe that GSRAs in the Economics Department, and across campus, should have access to these same rights that GSIs have accesss to.

I believe that GSRAs are workers and have the right to vote to form a union. And I, like so many of my colleagues, believe that we should exercise that right to join the Graduate Employees’ Organization.  I urge you to get involved in the campaign. Share this video on facebook, get in touch to volunteer, and visit us at gsracampaign.org.

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