Many GSIs are assigned workloads that require them to work more hours than the University has committed to pay for.  This means that GSIs are asked to contribute unpaid labor to UM’s educational project, or that parts of that project remain undone for want of time to do them.  By keeping track of your labor, you can ensure that you are paid for the work you do. 

When a department makes GSI appointments, the appointment fraction represents the department’s best guess as to how much time it will take to accomplish the tasks required by the job.   Most departments understand that undergraduate students will receive better instruction if GSIs aren’t stretched too thin, and those departments really do attempt to guess as accurately as possible.  But only you can really know how much work the job requires.  You’ll find on our website a feedback form that you can use to help decision makers in your employing department make the best possible decisions about the use of graduate employee labor.

Our contract represents the core principle of our union: that our teaching is work and we deserve fair compensation for it. This contract is the product of years of effort by thousands of Michigan graduate employees, but it isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on unless we enforce it.  Each of us, by tracking our own hours, can help create a work environment in which following the contract is the expected and normal thing and it is assumed without argument that any GSI who works over-time will be compensated accordingly. 

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