The University of Michigan’s Graduate Employees Organization coming to an agreement with university officials this week has left members of MSU’s Graduate Employees Union with mixed feelings.
“I think the mood is sort of people are excited and optimistic, but also frustrated with the lack of progress we’ve been making in bargaining,” said Jessica Goodkind, the graduate union’s president.
MSU officials were unavailable for comment on Tuesday.
Goodkind said the union and MSU agreed on a few issues, including training and development of teaching assistants, on Monday. But she said the agreements are coming in too slowly.
Next Tuesday, the union, which has been negotiating with administrators since October, plans to have its largest membership meeting. Goodkind said union members’ energy levels are rising.
“We feel like now is the time we need to be prepared to figure out what to do to get a contract by the end of the semester,” she said.
Goodkind said many members have been showing up at the meetings, but not every member has been participating. She said the union will concentrate on getting those graduates more involved.
“We have a really large membership,” she said. “We have 1,200 people and certainly not everyone is actively involved in the meetings. I think this will be the most well-attended meeting we will have.”
Todd Mireles, the union’s organizer, said if the union will participate in a work stoppage, they need every member to become involved in its meetings.
“That’s why we want members to come,” he said. “The thing is that the only people that can vote on whether or not we could have some job action are people who are TAs this semester. So they are the ones we’re concentrating on talking to this semester.”
He said he wants people to understand that the union has been working hard to get a contract by the end of the semester.
“I think people around here are pretty pragmatic,” he said. “We want to sign a contract, we want to work with administration and I don’t think there’s anything we’ve done to point otherwise.”
Mireles said there is a positive mood floating around the union office at 420 Albert Ave. The mood might be heightened when Cedric de Leon, president of U-M’s Graduate Employees Organization, visits MSU on Saturday.
Since U-M’s union settled its contract this week, members say they will devote more attention to helping MSU union members.
“We’re going to be doing house visits with them, talking with as many graduates as possible to get them out and let them understand power concedes nothing without a fight,” de Leon said.
He also said the threat of a strike at U-M contributed to the settlement without an actual work stoppage.
“Over half of our demands were met before our first strike deadline,” he said. “Then, when they wouldn’t meet our remaining demands, we went on strike for one day to show them what an indefinite strike would look like and a week later the administration settled on the rest of our demands.”
Members of the organization are feeling positive since the contract settlement and will now focus on helping MSU’s union receive a contract, de Leon said.
“Morale is really, really high,” he said. “We don’t know what to do with ourselves. We just kicked some ass and we want to kick some more.”
