Graduate research assistants at MSU could gain the right to unionize if a state ballot proposal passes next month.
Ballot Proposal 2 would grant employees the right to organize labor unions and override existing laws regulating conditions of employment — including a new state law and earlier university policies banning collective bargaining — that are contrary to collective bargaining agreements.
MSU Graduate Employees Union Vice President of Organizing and Outreach Claire Yates said the ballot proposal is an important next step for labor unions, now that research assistants have been barred from organizing.
It’s unclear now how the proposal’s passage would affect research assistants, but Yates said MSU has recognized research assistants in bargaining talks, although it isn’t officially included in the GEU.
“MSU has come out publicly again to (say) they would continue that type of bargaining,” she said. “We would like to have research assistants become an official part of our membership.”
Whether they can be considered part of the workforce and not merely students depends on what happens Nov. 6, said Dan Lijana, spokesman for proposal backer Protect Working Families.
“Putting this amendment in the Constitution will ensure collective bargaining is protected regardless of political whims,” he said.
The proposal’s opponents say its language concerning “conditions of employment” is too broad and could cause existing state laws to become null if it passes.
“The devil is in the details,” Citizens Protecting Michigan’s Constitution spokesman Nick De Leeuw said.
“The way the proposal is worded, it’s deceptive in that who could be against collective bargaining?”
Collective bargaining is not at risk with the proposal’s passage, as it already is protected by law, De Leeuw said, but proposal supporters want to enshrine it in the constitution to prevent further changes.
De Leeuw said if the proposal becomes a constitutional amendment, employers would be constitutionally prohibited from any talks about terms of employment, which encompasses wages, hours and other facets.
But Lijana rejected the idea that the language was too broad, saying if the proposal passes, it would undergo a process to “harmonize” the existing laws with constitutional amendments for specific wording.
For Yates, the ballot proposal is just another part of the battle to show that research assistants are employees the way other people are employees.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
