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.
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.â€
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.â€
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.
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.
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. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 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.
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.
Last week, a few faculty members inappropriately circulated an anti-union petition regarding our GSRA campaign using University resources. Although some departments issued statements of retraction, it is difficult to tell how far the impression–whether intended or not–that this was an official University petition might have spread to GSRAs.
To help mitigate this effect and restore an atmosphere of neutrality and non-intimidation, GEO members and GSRAs are now contacting faculty who we think would be willing to sign a statement of neutrality regarding our campaign for a GSRA union election.
If you, or anyone you know, would be willing to sign this petition, we encourage you to sign and share. We are days away from the hearing to determine whether GSRAs will have collective bargaining rights and we appreciate any faculty member who believes that GSRAs should have the right to determine for themselves if they want to form a union.
We were disappointed when, on Thursday, a professor of engineering established a UM website petitioning the University Regents not to recognize Graduate Student Research Assistants as employees.
This use of University electronic resources violated University policy on political campaigns (http://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/guidelines/faq/#11). When notified, the University correctly took down the petition site.
GEO President Sam Montgomery says: “We value freedom of speech, our relationships with faculty and their input, but we’re also concerned about the impact of this petition on GSRAs’ ability to freely associate. UM policy recognizes that the relationship between students and faculty is ‘inherently unequal’; when you have power over someone and tell them that you want something not to happen, you may be intimidating them without even intending it.â€
We will shortly post here a link to a petition of faculty who commit not to attempt to influence the outcome of the vote. Please look for updates, and let us know if you learn of other instances of this sort.
Hi, I’m Christie Toth and I’m a Graduate Student Research Assistant at the Sweetland Center for Writing at the University of Michigan.
I support GSRAs’ right to form a union because I believe research assistants are employees.  I love the work I do at Sweetland.  All the research I do there is related to improving writing instruction for undergraduate students at U of M, and I’m proud to be part of a great research team. Â
However, the work that I do for my RA position is completely separate from my dissertation.  The argument that my work as a research assistant is indistinguishable from my progress as a graduate student simply isn’t accurate.  And the claim that I’m not a worker is disrespectful. Â
GSRAs are workers and we have a right to vote on whether or not we want to form a union.  And it’s up to us to decide what we want to bargain for when we negotiate our first contract with the university.  I urge GSRAs to get involved: Share this video on facebook, like it on YouTube, and visit us at gsracampaign.org.
On Thursday, January 19, in response to national news coverage of a GEO press conference at which Jennifer Dibbern described her termination from the Materials Science and Engineering program because of her union involvement, the University of Michigan Provost and Dean of Engineering sent out email messages and a press statements in which they have called into question Jennifer’s academic record.
Here, we address one-by-one the points made in this email:
“It is important to understand that this is an academic matter.”
Jennifer went from winning awards and recognition from faculty in the College of Engineering and the Department of Materials Science to being fired just a few weeks later. Note that there are three awards.
Jennifer’s termination violated the department’s timelines and procedures for separating graduate students from the department—a policy that was intended to cover academic under performance, but that was not applied here.
The claim that Jennifer’s being kicked out of the department is “academic†is another way of saying “don’t look too hard at this situation; we don’t want you thinking about what you’ll find.â€
“While we are precluded by Federal law from publicly discussing a student’s
academic record, we believe that certain of the factual claims being made
are unfounded, including the allegation that the student was terminated
from a GSRA (Graduate Student Research Assistant) appointment.”
If it hadn’t been for her advisor’s turn against her—which was related both in time and in content to Jennifer’s involvement in the GSRA campaign–Jennifer would be a GSRA this semester.
In fact, in this program and with this record of achievement, the renewal of Jennifer’s appointment was so routine that when Jennifer’s former advisor decided against it, she had to take initiative to avert the routine process of renewal. Earlier renewals had been processed as routine administrative matters.
Note that UM doesn’t dispute that Jennifer was cut off from her GSRA position, or from the department—and that they don’t claim that the way those things happened was in conformity with the department’s policy.
“In addition, I am not aware of an academic grievance being filed in
this matter.”
Jennifer attempted to follow the process to which UM is referring, and which is described here. She reached out to her department chair, Professor Peter Green, and to the Rackham Ombudsperson, Ms. Darlene Ray-Johnson. Ms. Ray-Johnson—identified in the document linked above as responsible for implementation of the Rackham Academic Dispute Resolution policy—told Jennifer over the phone “this is something I can’t help you with.”
Rather than meet with Jennifer as requested, Dean Elizabeth Wagner convened a meeting that included MSE Department Chair Professor Peter Green, MSE Graduate Program Coordinator Renee Hilgendorf, and Student Advocacy Manager Angie Farrehi on December 16th to inform Jennifer that she’d be kicked out of the department.
There is no grievance filed because there is no one other than these individuals with whom to file it.
“Let me underscore that the University does not condone threats or
intimidation of, or retaliation against, graduate students for union
activity or for any other reason.”
While the actions of Jennifer’s advisor were egregious, even “innocuous†faculty comments like “I won’t write letters of recommendation for anyone who signs a union card†can have a very intimidating impact.
While not everyone who has been threatened in this way is ready to step forward, we’ve told UM that this is happening—to no avail.
We disagree with the characterization of Jennifer’s case as one of “academic judgmentâ€. We agree that genuine academic determinations should be within the purview of the University and aren’t a subject for bargaining—but we don’t agree that “academic judgment†can be used as a pretext for breaking the law, which protects employees from retaliation for union activity.
WHERE:Â Outside the Administrative Services Building, University of Michigan (1009 Greene St. Ann Arbor)Â Directions.
WHO:Â Parents’ Caucus of the Graduate Employees’ Union, AFT #3550
VISUAL:Â Parents with babies in arms holding signs that read “WORK WITH US.”
WHY: As part of contract negotiations last year between GEO and UM, a committee was created of GEO members and UM administrators to evaluate the childcare subsidy policy for graduate employee parents. $150,000 was allotted to implement recommendations made by this committee.  Unfortunately, the administrators are dragging their feet – they have not presented any ideas or data to move this process forward. They even openly state that UM’s Administration sees no need to improve the status quo. GEO finds UM’s lack of commitment to this committee and to the needs of graduate worker parents unacceptable.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization (umgeo.org) is the labor union representing ~1,800 Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) and Graduate Student Staff Assistants (GSSAs) at the University of Michigan. GEO was founded in 1970 and we won our first contract in 1975, making GEO the oldest certified graduate employee union in the United States.
