As a MSU alumnus, with a law degree from the Detroit College of Law (while still based in Detroit), and as a union employee (UFCW Local 876 Legislative Director) with more than 20 years experience in labor relations, I feel compelled to write on the issue of graduate assistants voting on unionization this month.

First, while a good dean at James Madison College of MSU while I was an undergraduate student there, MSU’s Robert Banks certainly seemed paternalistic in his comments in a State News story on the upcoming vote (“Graduate union seeks to collectively bargain,” SN 3/26). Banks said MSU would monitor the election process - well dean, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission does that just fine. And, I dare say, the commission would be a much more objective monitor than MSU’s administration, that has sought to provide one-sided, anti-union information to the voters. Also, a recent letter to The State News, written by a graduate assistant, provided anti-union views out of the 19th century (“Unionizing would hurt grad students,” SN 4/2).

It is important graduate assistants who are eligible voters note that many professionals have unionized - including GAs at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. Also, nurses, lawyers and even medical doctors have sought union contract protection recently.

Unions are not archaic - they are vibrant, democratic entities uniquely fit to assist those who are not properly compensated or valued - whether at MSU or elsewhere. Voting union is a vote for yourself and your fellow GAs, to provide yourselves with job protection and continued academic freedom. So, vote union later this month.

Jack Finn
1972 MSU graduate
1979 DCL graduate