Current negotiations between the Graduate Employees’ Organization and the University of Michigan appear to be headed toward a standstill. GEO is the University’s graduate student worker union and is the primary organization responsible for collective bargaining with the University. The union consists of graduate student instructors and graduate student staff assistants. Their contract covers all things related to their employment, including but not limited to wages, hours and benefits. In 2020 and 2023, stalemates in the negotiation process led to campus-wide strikes for graduate student employees.
And both times, these strikes were bad for the campus community. This Editorial Board believes that if the University wants to avoid a strike this year, it needs to simplify the negotiation process so that campus doesn’t pay the price.
Current undergraduate seniors might remember the whirlwind of campus unrest that occurred during the previous set of GEO negotiations with the University in 2023. During this time, one of the primary demands made by the organization was to increase the graduate employee compensation by 8% to about $38,000. After months of unproductive negotiations with the University, GEO began a strike on March 27, 2023 that lasted nearly six months…