GEO at the University of Michigan stands in solidarity with the Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago and call on the UC administration to begin bargaining with GSU immediately. We condemn the University of Chicago’s continued refusal to bargain in good faith with GSU.
The teaching and research assistants at Chicago chose overwhelmingly to unionize in October 2017, voting 1,103 to 479–or 70%–in favor of unionization. In the face of this, UC admin chose to double down on denying graduate students everywhere their rights as workers by seeking to overturn the NLRB’s 2016 Columbia decision, which legally recognized graduate students as workers. To prevent them from working with a Trump-appointed NLRB to enact national regressive labor law, GSU joined other graduate unions in seeking direct recognition from their university outside the NLRB process.
We would not have the working conditions we have today at the University of Michigan–healthcare, tuition waivers, parental rights, etc.–if the original members of GEO hadn’t stood up to an intransigent administration 40 years ago. It took several years to get our first contract, and we fully support our colleagues’ efforts to secure their own.
The University of Chicago has chosen to defy the clear will of their own workforce in the hopes that a Trump-appointed NLRB will revoke graduate workers’ right to unionize. In so doing, UC sides against workers in and outside of academia and shares in Trump’s willingness to target the vulnerable to shore up power. We urge the University of Chicago to renounce their anti-labor stance and begin bargaining with GSU immediately.
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