Members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) AFT Local 3550 held a General Membership Meeting on Monday, March 20, 2023 and voted to initiate the strike authorization process. In a nearly unanimous decision, members voted overwhelmingly to begin the strike authorization process, taking GEO one step closer to striking. Of the approximately 750 members in attendance over 99% voted to initiate the process. The strike authorization vote will take place from March 21 to March 23. If approved by a majority of voters, it will formally authorize GEO’s officers to call a strike. According to GEO President Jared Eno, “the overwhelming vote to begin the strike authorization process confirms what grads have been saying for months: the University is not treating these negotiations with the seriousness they deserve.”
Graduate workers have been negotiating a new contract with University administrators for over four months, with almost no substantive progress on the serious issues graduate workers face. The University has rejected practically every one of the graduate workers’ proposals and continues to offer ‘raises’ below the rate of inflation. With many grad workers struggling to afford basic necessities, the proposal for a living wage is critical. Graduate students have seen the gap between the cost of living and their salary triple over the last three years, from a gap of over $5,000 in 2020 to a gap of almost $14.5k in 2022. At the meeting Mike Machesky, a Masters student in Earth and Environmental Sciences, noted that “my rent is going up by $250 per month. The raise offer of only $100 per month means I’ll need to find a new place to live.” University officials have admitted that they neither consider the cost of living when determining the compensation rationale for their proposed wage nor how grad workers would make ends meet under the proposal.
No progress has been made on many other critical issues, ranging from transitional funding for survivors of harassment; to better and more affordable mental healthcare, transgender healthcare, and care for chronic conditions; to the establishment of an unarmed, non-violent police alternative on campus; and to a more accessible and adequate childcare subsidy, each of which the University’s representatives have flatly rejected.
Negotiations have deteriorated as the GEO was forced to file Unfair Labor Practice charges against U-M’s unlawful conduct earlier this month. Frustration among graduate students is rapidly reaching a boiling point. Many feel there are few options left beyond a strike. At the meeting, Bailey Sullivan, a PhD candidate in History of Art, stated “We’ve tried everything – email zaps, informational pickets, attending Regents Meetings, extra bargaining sessions, and a teach-in – striking is the only tool we have left to move the needle.”
Negotiations will continue this week as the strike authorization vote is held, giving the University another chance to make a serious offer and avert a potential strike.
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