On Feb. 6th, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith ruled the 2012 law barring Graduate Research Assistants from organizing unconstitutional. On Feb. 9, The Detroit News ran an anti-union op-ed addressing research assistant organizing. GSRA Andrea Jokisaari responds:
I’m writing in response to the Feb. 9 Detroit News editorial, “University of Michigan Students Don’t Belong in a Union.” I am not speaking in any official capacity on behalf of the University of Michigan, but I do speak on behalf of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO).
I’m a graduate student research assistant (GSRA) in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. I perform modeling and simulations of materials in nuclear power plants to gain a greater understanding of how these materials change while in service, ultimately helping contribute to even safer, more efficient power generation.
I applaud Judge Goldsmith’s ruling of unconstitutionality of the law, and he made the right decision to invalidate it. The method by which the law was passed clearly violated the Michigan constitution and it was clearly intended to circumvent the democratic process. This law was a fearful, vindictive move targeting a group of student workers who wanted the chance to work together and have their efforts recognized as work. The authors of our Michigan constitution had great foresight to prevent this type of miscarriage of democracy.
In 2012, there was a healthy debate on campus about whether GSRAs should join GEO, which is the union for graduate student instructors at UM. Some worried that the union would hurt relationships between students and their advisors. This is not the case, as demonstrated by evidence from the late 1970s, when GEO included GSRAs, and from other universities where RAs are unionized, such as SUNY-Stony Brook and the University of Oregon. We were happy to have this debate and to share with other students why we support unionization. We were looking forward to holding an up-or-down vote in which GSRAs would decide themselves on whether they wanted to join our union or not. Over 1000 GSRAs had signed cards calling for an election and pledging to vote yes. More would have signed if the legislature hadn’t stopped us from continuing to organize.
The original op-ed gave no real reasons for why GSRAs should not even be allowed to vote on whether they wish to organize themselves. Instead, the authors seek to impose their outside view on a situation that they are not part of. They reference a ruling that is over thirty years old; they do not seek to understand how research by GSRAs, including their funding and their requirements, have changed since that time. According to the President’s Council, State University of Michigan, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor is classed as a “Very High Research” university, indicating that it spends a very large amount of money on research compared to other research universities. In 2009, 23% of UM’s budget was spent on research, and in 2010, over 5,100 advanced degrees were awarded in STEM fields. Research grants, which are proposed by faculty, fund the university by way of overhead taken from awarded grants – overhead funds things such as buildings, operations, administrative staff, and faculty. The large majority of the research performed at the university is by GSRAs, who receive oversight by faculty. While GSRAs are training to perform large research projects on their own and gaining degrees from their research efforts, they are also directly contributing to the economic success of the university itself.
We call on the legislature and Attorney General Schuette to let this ruling stand and let grad students decide for themselves. It’s past time for us to recognize the important work that research assistants do at UM and across the state.
Andrea Jokisaari
Chair, GEO GSRA organizing committee
PhD Candidate, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
Read more about the recent ruling and response here and here.
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