Congratulations to LEO on a Historic Contract Agreement!

After bargaining with UM since October 2017, 1,700 Lecturers at the three campuses of the University of Michigan (represented by LEO) have won their strongest contract in recent history, including raises ranging from 44 to 50 percent, improved health care, and job security. Through organizing and solidarity with other workers on campus, LEO made the university #RespectTheLecs. LEO members will vote on ratifying the agreement this month.

Read the Michigan Daily article and the LEO’s press release on this major victory for lecturers and contingent academic workers!

The Significance of Janus vs. AFSCME

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruled in a close 5-4 decision that fair share fees collected by public-sector unions violate the First Amendment of the Constitution. The decision could have a significant impact on the capacity of public-sector unions that will continue to represent workers whether or not they contribute their share. This ruling, in effect, expands so-called “right-to-work” status to all public-sector unions in the country.

The decision is complicated, below are a few different explanations you can consult:

• Statement by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) – our parent union
• More detailed collection of relevant documents on the SCOTUS-BLOG
• (For podcast listeners): Explainer in “The Daily” by the NYTimes

The future of public-sector unions, like our own, depends on active engagement from workers like you, choosing to support your union by becoming and encouraging others to become dues-paying members.

Got Plans this Friday?

Join graduate students and GEO volunteers at our viewing party this Friday on North Campus. RSVP in our facebook event here.

Working this Summer? Know your Rights and Benefits!

If you are working this summer as a GSI or GSSA, remember to take a look at the rights and benefits contained in your contract. Click on the image below to check out our contract digest.

Highlights from GEO Detroit Labor History Tour

GEO officers, staff, and other volunteers spent last weekend in Detroit discussing goals for the next year. A highlight of the visit was a labor history tour by John Dick (blue shirt), postman, member of the National Association of Letter Carriers AFL-CIO, and of the Michigan Labor History Society. The walking tour took us down downtown Detroit’s Woodward Ave. stopping at local landmarks of labor history. Here are a few to consider visiting on your next trip to Detroit!

The Hazen S. Pingree Monument commemorates the Detroit mayor between 1890 and 1897 remembered as “the idol of the people.” A social reformer challenged the power of powerful railway and telephone companies, being among the most prominent supporters of the 1891 strike by street-car operations strike, demanding a 10-hour day (these were horse-drawn cars)!

At the center of downtown, where Woodward Ave. meets the Detroit River, is “Transcending,” a sculpture to labor’s legacy (by artist Sergio de Guisti). The sculpture was commissioned and is maintained by the Michigan Labor History Society.

The “Transcending” monument to labor is tiled with quotes from the “voices of labor.” A group favorite was Myra Wolfgang’s (the legendary women’s rights activist and hotel worker’s leader) proclamation that “Women were in labor before men were born.”

At 23, Myra Wolfgang participated in the 1937 Woolworth sit-down strike, led by the women who worked the five-and-dime store in downtown Detroit (original building still at 1261 Woodward Ave.). You can still visit the site of this historic sit-down strike that inspired service workers across the country to demand fair working conditions.