Here’s what’s happened:
In the past year, we in GEO have faced attacks like we haven’t faced since our earliest days of being a union. We have seen our colleagues here at the University barred from their democratic right to organize and vote to form a union.
Workers beyond GEO have also faced attacks. We have seen our colleagues teaching in public schools forced to deal with punitive anti-union measures that are costing them hard-earned money and precious free time. We have seen our colleagues in Wisconsin have their collective bargaining rights taken away in a single legislative stroke.
And today, we are disappointed to announce that our collective effort to secure our rights has not been successful–this time.
Here’s what it means:
This campaign faced 32 million dollars worth of lying ads funded by corporate special interest groups. It also faced an economic climate in which the vast majority of workers are facing hardship and uncertainty and a political climate in which these realities have been turned into a reason to fight each other rather than work together.
This is not the way that it has to be. Despite the outcome of Proposal 2, this campaign brought the labor movement in Michigan together in a way that is unprecedented. We have never been this organized before. We only scratched the surface of what we can do when we work together and when we reach out to spread the message that collective bargaining benefits communities, not just union members.
Here at GEO, hundreds and hundreds of volunteer hours went into thousands of petition signatures, conversations, phonecalls, and Facebook shares. We turned out countless votes. Thank you! We did everything we could. This is not our defeat.
Here’s what we do now:
This union was built by graduate students who refused to let their work be ignored, belittled, and cheapened. All of us, here today, stand on the shoulders of those scholars and teachers who came before us. We will be the foundation of what is to come, and the efforts of so many tireless volunteers throughout this campaign prove that we will be a strong foundation.
The defeat of Proposal 2 does not immediately signal the end of our collective bargaining rights. It does mean that more and more severe legislative attacks on our ability to bargain a contract could come–there is no telling what or when. We, the officers of GEO, will keep you informed.
Come what may, we can and will continue to do what we always have: build relationships and solidarity between our members so that we can stand together to get fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. GEO has been through tough times in the past. We have faced legal attacks from the University that barred us from having a contract and took years of effort to overcome–but we did overcome, and we can overcome again.
Right now, the task before us is to have conversations and meetings that help us decide what we will fight for in our next contract. When we stand together, we cannot be defeated.
In solidarity,
Katie Frank
GEO President
Comments are closed