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Mount Pleasant, MI – Graduate Assistants at Central Michigan University
voted overwhelmingly today for union representation, giving themselves
the right to negotiate health insurance, salary, tuition waivers, and
other conditions of employment with the university administration. The
vote, 152 in favor, 21 against, certifies the Graduate Students Union
(GSU) as a collective bargaining agent affiliated with AFT Michigan,
AFL-CIO. Eligible to vote were approximately 450 graduate students who
work teaching, grading, tutoring, and performing administrative duties
on the university's Mt. Pleasant campus. The election was conducted
yesterday and today by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC).
Teaching Assistants teach many of the introductory courses and lab
sections at the university while they simultaneously pursue graduate
degrees. Many supported unionization because of the lack of health
insurance provided by the university; other cited salaries and tuition
waivers. Overall, however, the central issue for these workers was
recognition: "We need a union to advocate for our rights" said Shelley
Leininger a GA in Clinical Psychology and a member of the union's
organizing committee. "A union will give us a voice at the university."
Like the graduate employee unions at the University of Michigan,
Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and Western Michigan
University, GSU is affiliated with AFT Michigan, AFT, AFL-CIO. Graduate
employees have also formed unions at the University of Wisconsin --
Madison, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, all
University of California campuses, and the University of Kansas.
--Jon Curtiss, AFT Michigan
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