Legal uncertainty is looming over a possible strike by MSU’s Graduate Employees Union on April 15.
On Tuesday, members voted 136-1 in favor of sending ballots to more than 600 members to vote on the strike. The vote’s outcome is expected this week.
If the vote passes, the union’s steering committee will decide whether to implement the strike, depending on how negotiations are going. The union has been negotiating with administrators since October.
But an issue of the strike’s legality has appeared.
Daniel Kruger, a professor of labor and industrial relations, said recently he does not think a strike would be a good idea.
Kruger said the Public Employee Relations Act of 1965 could raise legal questions.
“They can be penalized,” he said. “I don’t know what the university would do. I don’t think it’s a good strategy, but they do what they think is best for themselves.”
But others say legal problems are unlikely.
“They have the right to organize and the right to strike and there is no contract provision to permit them to strike,” said Robert McCormick, a professor of law at MSU-Detroit College of Law.
“As long as the parties are bargaining in good faith, that is really what the law requires,” he said.
He said if the strike was illegal, he does not think the graduates would be punished.
“The university has an obligation to bargain in good faith but they have to maintain the operations of the university,” he said. “The union can pressure the university and the university can pressure the union and that’s the way it goes.”
A union member, who did not want to be identified, said the strike may be illegal because they do not have a contract.
University officials cannot comment about negotiations.
“Any other time graduates have gone on strike they’ve never been prosecuted successfully in court of law,” he said.
He said union members are uncertain about how the administration will react.
“There’s a number of things that might happen,” the union member said. “(Administrators) might feel like they have to punish the people on strike, but it will be a public relations nightmare if they came down too heavily.”
But he said even if union members vote for the strike, it still might not happen.
“There are so many stages you have to go through and none of them are absolutely binding,” he said.
He said members are waiting to see how negotiations are going.
“They have a lot of things they could do as a means to threaten or make people afraid,” he said of the administration. “It’s just a case of we have to anticipate what they might do.”
