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Negotiation Bulletin #40: Grad Workers Withstand DPSS Intimidation
This week, grad workers went public about facing intimidation from the campus cops over their participation in an action in April. On May 21st, at 6:30pm, DPSS police officer John Buehler (#167) approached a grad student in their home and attempted to intimidate them, threatening to file a report with the Washtenaw County prosecutor’s office…
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Negotiation Bulletin #39: Pressure Mounts Over Falsified Grade Scandal
The Administration’s decision to pressure department chairs and non-instructional staff to submit hundreds of falsified grades for striking GSIs is coming under increased scrutiny. This week, the story was picked up The Detroit News, Fox 2, Detroit Metro Times, and Inside Higher Ed. Regent Paul Brown is now calling for an investigation into the fake…
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Negotiation Bulletin #38: Grads Confront Admin About Falsified Grades
In a move that is unprecedented in the history of academic labor disputes, the U-M Administration has pressured department chairs and non-instructional staff into submitting falsified grades for the students of striking GSIs. In some cases, this means that students are getting As across the board. In other cases, students are getting lower grades than…
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Negotiation Bulletin #37: HR Offers Pay Cut in ‘Comprehensive Package’
At bargaining on Friday, HR put forward a so-called ‘comprehensive package’ of proposals, addressing our entire suite of proposals. The package offered the same ‘raise’ in the first year of around $100 per month that HR has been offering since before grad workers went on strike. Though HR inched up by a few dollars in…
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Negotiation Bulletin #36: GEO Members Join May Day March in Detroit
On Monday, grad workers took to the streets of Detroit alongside comrades from the Teamsters, UAW, and other allied organizations to celebrate International Workers Day. Workers gathered to hear speeches, poetry and music from dozens of comrades from across Southeast Michigan, reminding us that our struggles are deeply interconnected. GEO president Jared Eno spoke to…
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Negotiation Bulletin #35: Striking GSIs Gather to Send Off Graduates
On Friday, grads braved pouring rain to hold lively pickets at the CCRB construction site and at Rackham’s graduate commencement. Many of the picketing workers are graduating themselves, and took the chance to reflect. “It’s so beautiful to be able to gather and celebrate our students, while at the same time fighting to leave this…
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Negotiation Bulletin #34: Grads Call Out Bullshit Grades, UM Scrambles
International GSIs and other grads gathered to picket on North Campus, highlighting the unique challenges IGSIs face, and the proposals put forward to remedy them. The University wants a ‘global campus.’ This is impossible to achieve without our international grad workers, who provide quality instruction in countless departments, and are the majority of language instructors…
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Negotiation Bulletin #33: Grads Call Out Bullshit Grades, UM Scrambles
On Monday, math GSIs picketed outside of East Hall, where a small group of scabbing workers graded the final exams of hundreds of students whose GSIs are on strike. Grading the work of students one has not taught is violation of professional ethics and an infringement on academic freedom. More importantly, it’s not fair to…
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Negotiation Bulletin #32: Ono Attempts to Arrest Picketing Workers
On Thursday, Santa Ono proved he would rather try to arrest his workers than pay us a living wage, calling the cops on picketers just hours after withholding pay from hundreds of striking grad workers. Grads had arrived outside Ono’s private dinner party on Thursday evening, hoping to discuss UM’s decision to withhold pay. When…
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Negotiation Bulletin #31: Grads Ask for a Living Wage, UM Withholds Pay
Grads started the day bright and early on Thursday, joining forces with labor siblings from the building trades to shut down the billion dollar Michigan Medicine pavilion construction site. Together, workers again showed the administration that we have the power to stop business as usual, and will do so until we win the contract we…
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Negotiation Bulletin #29: Bargaining Ends Early, as HR Comes Unprepared
Grad workers met HR for bargaining today, but the session was cut short as HR failed to prepare enough counters to fill the full length of the session. HR passed back a counter on harassment protections, explaining that regressive mandatory reporting requirements remain a sticking point for them. They said the requirements – which run…
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Negotiation Bulletin #28: Grads Occupy Ruthven for Hot Labor Summer
Striking grad workers celebrated an incredible week of victories with a bash – hosting a party outside the Ruthven administration building and occupying the building itself for much of the day. It was an incredible scene: students and workers transformed the usually sterile plaza next to the Central Campus Transit Centre into a summer carnival,…
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Negotiation Bulletin #27: Grads Picket as Part of Trans Day of Rage
On Day 15 of our strike, the energy and enthusiasm of grad workers shows no signs of letting up. Pickets once again marched and chanted across central campus and Thursday marked the strike’s first trans rage picket. Trans and queer workers came together to, in the words of one grad, “scream at the universe, to…
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Negotiation Bulletin #26: Over 99% Vote to Extend Strike at GMM
Click here for a PDF version of this bulletin Wednesday was another joyful day of picketing on central and north campuses. In pickets organized by department, grads in Political Science, English, Classics, History, Comparative Literature, Earth and Environmental Sciences, SEAS, Physics, Statistics, Astronomy, Anthropology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Math, American Culture, and History of Art…
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Negotiation Bulletin #25: Out of the Courtroom, Into the Streets
In the wake of our court victory, grads hit the picket lines with renewed energy and conviction on Tuesday. Pickets continued across central and north campus, and crafty grads held a second knit in at Haven Hall. The mood was both victorious and determined. As Kelsie, a Middle East Studies grad, put it, “the denial…
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Negotiation Bulletin #24: Injunction Denied! Grads Win Big in Court
Grad workers won a massive victory in court on Monday, with Judge Carol Kuhnke denying the boss’ request for an injunction. UM’s attorneys – some of the same that blocked the investigation into the Flint, MI water crisis – asked the judge for an injunction. In doing so, they joined the long and repressive history…
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Negotiation Bulletin #23: Joyous Picket Lines Cap Off Second Week
Grad workers ended the week on a high note, with dancing, good food, camaraderie, and sunshine. Dozens of grads gathered outside of Palmer Commons as bargaining was taking place. Union chants rung out in three languages (English, Spanish, and French) as workers demonstrated in support of a living wage and dignified working conditions. Workers fired…
