This Week at the Table: A GEO3550 Podcast

Welcome back to the podcast! During our brief hiatus in podcasting, negotiations with Academic HR at the University of Michigan continued apace, with workers in the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) passing over transformative contract demands based on our actual experiences and conditions working at this university. Instead of passing back reasonable counteroffers, HR has chosen to cross out...

After four months of ineffective shuttle bargaining, HR representatives refusing to negotiate over ground rules, and a state mediator-mandated 28-day pause on negotiations, GRAD WORKERS ARE BACK AT THE BARGAINING TABLE—WITH HR FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE NOVEMBER! University of Michigan graduate workers, with the crucial support of our fellow campus laborers and community allies, fought steadfastly f...

After last week’s peaceful and silent delivery of letters to U-M’s bargaining team asking them to come to the table to discuss grad workers’ and community members' concerns around ICE and campus safety, HR yet again refused to discuss these demands face-to-face. We planned a picket highlighting our determination to have these vital conversations with HR. On Thursday morning, we received a letter f...

This week, we arrived at the bargaining table prepared to discuss campus safety and our “ICE-out” proposals, just as we were prepared to present salary proposals last week. However, HR reiterated their position that they would not meet with us. They did not offer any rationale at the time. In response, we silently marched to HR’s room. When we knocked, an HR representative opened the door only to...

This week, we tried to advance our salary contract article proposal grounded in two core demands: a living wage for all workers and the urgent need to end U-M's pay disparity policy between the Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses. U-M HR again refused to meet us in-person on Friday, instead forcing us to communicate through the state-appointed mediator, Micki Czerniak. When HR insisted on receiving ou...

Graduate workers at the University of Michigan "met in-person" with ( read : did not even catch a glimpse of ) representatives from the university's HR department. Despite HR's claims that we spoke in-person, grad workers in reality only spoke with a state-appointed mediator that U-M called in last semester before negotiations even began, who was only able to get 3 out of our 20 questions answered...