ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Resident advisors at the University of Michigan have ended their nearly two-week strike after reaching a deal with the university. Residential Staff members demanded more protections including regular access to testing for all residence staff, and enforcement of the university mask and social distancing mandates in dining and residence halls. We’d like to thank everyone that supported us during our strike, especially GEO, AFT, our regents, our LT, & everyone on campus that supported us. GEO members had been on strike since Tuesday, Sept. 8 calling on university leadership to ensure better protections from COVID-19 on campus. That strike ended on Thursday, Sept. 17 after a vote from GEO members the previous evening.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Members of the Graduate Employee’s Organization (GEO) voted Wednesday to accept the University of Michigan’s latest offer regarding issues of mutual concern and end their strike. The university and GEO union announced the strike end Thursday morning. “GEO said its members would return to their duties beginning this morning,” reads a statement from the university. At our largest general membership meeting to date, 1,074 GEO members voted to accept the university’s offer, 239 members voted to reject, and 66 abstained. GEO members and supporters now return to our regular work duties.

Maren Spolum and Dr. Hannah Maier from Public Health will speak on the public health implications of GEO's demands. pic.twitter.com/qcTi6pZ3Ns — GEO at U-Michigan (@geo3550) September 16, 2020U-M postdoctoral research fellow in Epidemiology Hannah Maier and public health doctoral student Maren Spolum each spoke on the public health implications of GEO’s demands. She discussed how policing is related to public health and how data from DPSS supports GEO’s demand to disarm police on campus. Addressing the U-M’s claim that some demands are not bargaining items, GEO member Sasha Bishop went over each of GEO’s anti-policing demands. Bishop elaborated on why the student unions' demands address the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – On Friday, undergraduate students at the University of Michigan voiced support for graduate students and resident advisors on strike through a solidarity protest and march. More than 250 undergraduates and members of Students Demand Representation, a U-M student activist organization, listened to speeches given from the steps of the Michigan Union about labor unions and the safety of university workers. After the speeches, undergraduate students marched through downtown Ann Arbor and across campus to join those on strike and to support U-M Dining employees who staged a walkout last week. On Monday afternoon, University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel said through video that the university has taken legal action against the strike. According to University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald, the move includes a “temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the union strike.”More University of Michigan strike coverage: