About 60 people formed a picket line outside the Crisler Center during the University of Michigan’s Winter Commencement ceremony Sunday afternoon. Protestors carried homemade signs next to an inflatable Grinch they set up meant to criticize the University’s greed. University Staff United, a University-wide union of non-supervisory staff members, organized the event to demand better pay while it negotiates its first contract with the University. These employees include residential life associates, financial aid officers, counseling psychologists and audio-visual technicians.
USU claims the University’s best offer included a 3% year-over-year pay increase for employees working on the Ann Arbor campus, but only a 1% yearly increase for workers on the University’s Dearborn and Flint campuses. In the United States, the average inflation rate was 2.9% in 2024, meaning the cost of living is rising faster than the proposed salaries of U-M Dearborn and U-M Flint employees.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, USU president Nathan Sadowsky, academic program manager for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said the union — which the University first recognized in February — has made gains in preventing artificial intelligence from replacing employees but is now focused on staff compensation…