With fewer than two months remaining in the semester, graduate employee unions throughout the state are changing their battle plans.
“I think members are getting frustrated that we don’t have a contract,” said Jessica Goodkind, MSU’s Graduate Employees Union president. “The longer they go without health care and decent pay, the more frustrated they get.”
The graduate union has been negotiating with MSU officials since October, and Goodkind said she senses a change in members’ feelings.
“All of our meetings are continuing to get bigger and bigger,” she said. “I think people are realizing this is the time where it’s really important to get involved.”
MSU officials would not comment about the negotiations.
On March 26, the union will hold a meeting where members will discuss possible tactics. Goodkind said the union has not ruled out picketing or striking.
Goodkind spoke at a one-day walkout the University of Michigan’s Graduate Employees Organization arranged Monday.
“I talked at the rally, how we are their brothers and sisters at Michigan State and they were sort of an inspiration to us,” she said.
Cedric de Leon, U-M’s graduate union president, said the walkout was a “smashing success,” and said Goodkind’s support means a lot to the union members.
“Whenever we hear from somebody from the GEU, our emotions are mixed,” he said. “We feel warmth, but also relief that we’re not at MSU living under those conditions.”
De Leon said members have changed some of their demands this week. Members were asking for a child care center for children of the organization’s members. About 160 members have children, de Leon said. Members now are asking the university to create 50 slots around campus for child care within a year of the settlement.
De Leon said the bond between the two schools’ unions has grown during the past months.
“We love those guys, and we know they love us,” he said. “We’d pretty much do anything for each other.”
Both unions said it is important to keep undergraduates up to date in their fight for contracts.
Laura Mullkoff, an art education freshman and member of Lansing-based activist group Direct Action, said the group will be recruiting undergraduates next week to support MSU’s graduate union. The group sponsored a one-day strike Monday that was not officially supported by the union.
“If the GEU will strike, we’ll be able to say, ‘We’ll strike with you,’” she said. “At that point, it will be visible student picketing.”
David Hecker, president of the Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel, said he is hopeful MSU can settle a contract without strikes or walkouts. The federation has been helping the union negotiate.
“No one in the history of the labor movement has wanted to strike,” he said.
Karen Klomparens, the dean of the Graduate School, said graduate students are valued for their teaching abilities. MSU and union officials now are meeting twice a week to negotiate.
“My opinion is MSU has been asking for more negotiation times all along,” she said. “It’s just been very hard to get a set of people together around the table for meetings.”
