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

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.

SB 971 was originally introduced by Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville on Feb. 16th and specifically targets GSRAs, attempting to ban them from organizing. This amendment comes as GSRAs at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor have been involved in pending legal efforts to form a GSRA union and are near a decision with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC).

“Since those opposed to collective bargaining have repeatedly failed at inserting themselves in ongoing court proceedings, they now seek legislation to undermine our right to collectively bargain,” said Jeremy Moore, an electrical engineering GSRA at the University of Michigan. “SB971 not only threatens GSRAs’ rights, but also the rights of all working people in Michigan to join a union and bargain collectively.”

In the spring of 2011, over 1,200 GSRAs signed cards in support of forming a union; this number was well over the 30 percent required by statute to trigger an election. However, in September 2011, MERC delayed a scheduled election in order to fully consider the question of whether research assistants, who are also students, should have their employee status recongized.

Subsequently, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a right-wing group, and Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette have unsuccessfully tried several times to insert themselves into ongoing legal challenges; all of Schuette’s and the Mackinac Center’s attempts have been dismissed. The administrative law judge in the case, Judge Julia Stern, is expected to make a recommendation to MERC in the coming weeks.

“We’re disappointed that politicians in Lansing are trying to take away the right to vote to form a union from Graduate Student Research Assistants,” said Sam Montgomery, president of GEO. “There is already a process through the state’s employment relations commission and that process should be respected. SB 971 is clearly an attempt to sidestep the existing legal process.”

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.