Michigan State University Extension employees are hoping the state will help them form a union, giving up on a university process they say was taking too long.
MSU Extension partners with counties throughout Michigan to provide educational services. Workers assist community members in agriculture, business development, health care and tourism, among many other things.
Shortly after announcing the union in June 2024, MSU Extension union organizers claimed university arbitrators were purposely delaying important meetings and withholding information.
In October, MSU Extension held a rally outside the Hannah Administration building to protest the delays. They were joined by the Union of Tenure Stream Faculty, a group that has reported similar struggles with the university process.
MSU has a policy allowing unions to expedite the typical election process for union certification by receiving direct recognition from the university, which organizers originally tried to go through.
Now, after "extensive negotiations" with the university, the group is instead turning to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) to form the union, according to a press release.
"We said, 'clearly this isn’t going anywhere,'" said Stathis Pauls, a program instructor for the MSU-Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning, and Innovation. "Our voluntary recognition process is not being honored, and it seemed to us that there was no accountability in the process."
MSU spokesperson Amber McCann insisted the university followed its policy. She called the MERC election "the standard process to determine union representation," even though the university’s voluntary recognition policy is meant to bypass such a process.
"We look forward to continuing to work with our employees to reach the mission and goals of the university," McCann wrote.
While the state process requires more work from the union, it’s already going faster, Pauls said. MERC sent ballots to eligible employees last Friday, and an election is set to take place on Feb. 24, according to the press release.
Upwards of 400 Extension employees are eligible to be in the union, Pauls said.
Union members argue that their wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living, merit-based raises are awarded subjectively, criteria for performance evaluations is unclear and subjective, and employees belonging to marginalized groups are left out of important conversations, according to promotional material shared with The State News.
Unionizing would likely make MSU Extension the first independently organized extension bargaining unit, Pauls said.
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