ANN ARBOR – Eight Ann Arbor City Council members have released a statement in solidarity with striking graduate student employees at the University of Michigan.
The Graduate Employees Organization went on strike on March 29 to demand a living wage and better healthcare, according to the union. The same day, the university filed an unfair labor practice charge against the student workers. On Tuesday, a court blocked the injunction, stating the strike had not caused the school to suffer irreparable harm. An evidentiary hearing will be held on Monday.
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School officials said the employees were in breach of contract and called for the students to end the strike and return to the bargaining table.
“Strikes have long been a key tool used by working people to challenge the powerful and win fair pay and dignified lives,” reads a statement signed by eight out of 10 City Council members. “It is through striking that workers were able to win protections that we now take for granted -- things like the weekend, the eight-hour day, and the minimum wage. GEO’s strike for affordability and dignity belongs to that tradition.”
Members of GEO have been demonstrating outside the Michigan Union building as part of now daily protests for the university administration to meet their demands.
“We’ve been receiving a lot of hostile treatment from the university just in general through the proceedings that they’re doing right now with the injunction as well as just their inability to compromise on various asks that the union is fighting for at the bargaining table,” said Emmanuel Navarro, a graduate student instructor in U-M’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
GEO representatives shared that annual salaries for student instructors begin at $24,000 and that summer funding is not always guaranteed. The union is asking for a 60% raise, which would put annual salaries at around $38,500.
“I think it’s a little startling that among our peer institutions we’re among the bottom 20% in terms of how much we pay our GSIs annually,” said Navarro.
“We did the math,” said graduate student Kimmie Sala-Hamrick, who plans on becoming a GSI next year. “The wage increase that we’re looking for has to do with inflation as well as the cost of living in Ann Arbor. It’s just sad. U-M being in the bottom 20% of anything should not be the case. Their current proposal doesn’t even account for inflation.”
University officials did not respond to A4′s request for comment.
Here’s the full statement signed by eight City Council members:
We are writing this statement in solidarity with the striking graduate student workers at the University of Michigan, unionized under GEO, as they stand against the Administration’s threats and legal action. Graduate student workers are fighting for fair pay and safe working conditions, and we support their right to strike. Labor unions and striking workers have played a critical role in the history of our country -- helping to secure better pay and safer working conditions for unionized and non-unionized workers alike. Strikes have long been a key tool used by working people to challenge the powerful and win fair pay and dignified lives. It is through striking that workers were able to win protections that we now take for granted -- things like the weekend, the eight-hour day, and the minimum wage. GEO’s strike for affordability and dignity belongs to that tradition.
The proposals graduate workers have put forward would help make graduate education at the University of Michigan more accessible to our most marginalized community members. We encourage university administration to come to the bargaining table in good faith with GEO, and provide them with a living wage, more equitable working conditions, and support their requests for a more just and inclusive university community. The recent repeal of “Right-to-Work” laws in this state shows what we’ve known all along: unions are a force for good in our communities. We support all workers exercising the right to strike. GEO members are also constituents in our community, and the lack of fair resources and pay provided to them then falls on the City and taxpayers to compensate for, burdening our systems. We stand in solidarity with U-M graduate workers and their strike, and believe their demands for fairer and more equitable work conditions benefit our community as a whole.
Sincerely,
Council Member Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, Ward 3
Council Member Jenn Cornell, Ward 5
Council Member Linh Song, Ward 2
Council Member Dharma Akmon, Ward 4
Council Member Cynthia Harrison, Ward 1
Council Member Jen Eyer, Ward 4
Council Member Erica Briggs, Ward 5
Council Member Travis Radina, Ward 3