For immediate release
News from Graduate Employees Organization 3550
April 20, 2023
University Administration Moves to Withhold Pay from Grad Workers
On April 20th, we received information suggesting that the University Administration will be withholding pay from graduate workers for the entire month of April. Graduate workers at the University of Michigan, organized in the Graduate Employees Organization, American Federation of Teachers local 3550, have been on strike for over three weeks over issues of affordability and workplace dignity. It appears that Management will be withholding pay from all workers who refused to fill out attestation forms – regardless of whether or not they are actually on strike. “This represents a severe escalation by the Administration”, says GEO president Jared Eno. “Grad workers are already experiencing a cost of living crisis, and many will now be wondering how they’ll afford their May rent payments. It is shameful that President Ono and Provost McCauley – who both make several times in a single month what grads make in an entire year – would put their workers in this position.”
If Management plans to withhold pay solely based on a worker refusing to fill out an attestation form, this would be a clear violation of our contract and likely illegal. At a grievance meeting, Management indicated that they have no intention of actually verifying whether someone was striking or how many hours of work they missed. In our contract, the University acknowledges that the work we do “cannot be precisely standardized or measured in relation to a given period of time”. As such, graduate student instructors are paid based on an average weekly work expectation over the course of the term. Many graduate students are so overworked that they have already completed all hours required of them this term. Even so, for these graduate workers, Management appears to be docking pay for hours already worked. “Right now I live paycheck to paycheck, and the University withholding pay means I don’t know how I’m going to pay my rent and other bills next month”, says Mike Machesky, Masters student in Earth and Environmental Sciences. “A living wage would have allowed me to grow my savings and not be in the precarious situation where missing a month’s pay means I may not be able to make ends meet.”
This is only the latest in a series of underhanded strikebreaking tactics that Management has used to try to circumvent the bargaining process and impose an unfair contract on some of its lowest paid workers. The Union has already filed multiple Unfair Labor Practice charges and has numerous pending grievances with the Administration. “It’s been clear from the start that Management has not been bargaining in good faith”, says GEO secretary and Math PhD candidate Karthik Ganapathy. “This total disregard for the law and its contractual obligations is why graduate students had to go on strike over three weeks ago. We will remain on strike until we get the contract we deserve”.
Negotiations between graduate workers and Academic Human Resources remain ongoing.
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