Thursday, March 28, 2024

Union for U

State commission should allow graduate students to organize

The formation of the Graduate Employees Union will benefit graduate employees and is unlikely to hurt the university.

The recently formed union is awaiting approval by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. The union, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO, presented the commission with a petition of more than 900 signatures on Feb. 12.

With commission approval, the group would gain collective bargaining power, which would allow negotiations with university administration.

The University of Michigan and Wayne State University have had graduate employee unions since 1975 and 1998, respectively.

A graduate employees union would not hurt the university. While this would give collective bargaining power to graduate employees, it would not take all of the administration’s power away. The administration will still have a say in the graduate employee contract, and the employees will have a say in their own working conditions.

Graduate employees have said the university has been very accommodating as far as conditions for employees go. Because of that, some may argue that a union is not needed. However, there is no harm in letting the employees have a say in their working conditions. If there haven’t been any significant issues between the administration and the employees, it is unlikely a union would cause any more conflicts.

Union members would pay dues, costing the university next to nothing in the operation of the group. And considering graduate employees have not voiced a long list of concerns with current conditions, it doesn’t seem likely that the union would ask for anything that would hurt the university’s budget.

One concern the union has brought up is health care. Graduate employees are provided with the same health insurance available to undergraduates at MSU. The coverage does not include preventative medicine such as regular checkups.

Graduate employees argue that because they work for the university, they should receive the same benefits as full-time faculty. Michigan offers graduate employees the same health insurance options as faculty. Many MSU graduate employees with families have to rely on their spouse’s insurance.

MSU graduate students do already have an outlet to help their voices be heard in the Council of Graduate Students, the graduate student government. The issues the union would address make up a small portion of COGS’ agenda.

But while it helps graduate students, COGS doesn’t have the power a union would. MSU administration doesn’t have to do anything COGS requests or recommends. A union would wield real authority in dealing with graduate student issues.

The university community should not fear the effects of a unionized graduate employee body. Such a union would help ensure continued quality and improve conditions for employees and improve MSU.

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