March 30th, 2026—Since 1974, Graduate Student Instructors and Staff at the University of Michigan have fought for and won higher pay, healthcare, and better working conditions through their labor union, the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO). Now, after winning an accretion election on Thursday, March 26th with a 92% majority, over 2,200 Graduate Student Research Assistants (GSRAs) will be represented in GEO’s bargaining unit.
This historic win is the result of 50 years of sustained organizing. GEO was founded for all graduate employees; after retaliation from the University of Michigan, however, the Michigan Employee Relations Committee (MERC) declared that GSRAs were not employees, revoking their right to unionize in 1981 and reaffirming that decision in 2012. The right to unionize graduate research assistants was restored in 2023, and since then, organizers have contributed tens of thousands of hours in individual conversations, department meetings, and strategy sessions in order to unionize graduate researchers with GEO.
Today, the need for a union for researchers is stronger than ever. Graduate researchers at the University of Michigan are often subjected to exploitative, abusive relationships with long hours and little recourse at the department or university levels. The Trump administration’s escalating fear-mongering over Chinese scientific and technological progress has already targeted and endangered U-M graduate researchers. In Ann Arbor and nationally, the cost of living grows higher than ever—deepening existing gaps in healthcare, parental leave, childcare support, and workplace safety.
Our win this week allows us to fight all of these issues together as graduate research assistants, instructors, and staff assistants. “No matter what job title graduate students hold, we face the same pay, same healthcare, same advisors, and same workplace issues,” said Kevin Zheng, PhD student in the School of Information. “Furthermore, each of us switch between these positions each semester: I worked as a Fellow last year, as a Research Assistant this year, and will be working as a Graduate Student Instructor in the fall. It only makes sense for us to be represented and organized together under the same union.”
GEO members will continue to bargain in ongoing contract negotiations with HR. Continuing last week’s success in winning open bargaining and bringing HR to the table, graduate workers are fighting for a campus free of ICE, additional protections for international workers, and to close all gaps in existing benefits. Building on the wins of our sibling unions on campus, we will continue fighting for the right to unionize Graduate Fellows as well, and ensure that every graduate worker on campus can organize under a union together.
Please direct further inquiries to commchair@geo3550.org.
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