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 and strike out entire proposals:Rather than fund Doctor of Musical Arts students on a 12-month contract like all other doctoral students at U-M, HR struck out our entire proposal.Rather than provide graduate students with adequate on-campus child care facilities and capacity, where many families are currently paying tens of thousands of dollars per year for off-campus services, HR struck out our entire proposalRather than provide reasonable academic freedom protections in the classroom for graduate student instructors, HR struck out our entire proposal.Since our last episode, 2,200 Graduate Student Research Assistants (GSRAs) elected to join GEO with a 92% majority. We also organized to support (and free!) our coworker in ICE detention due to a series of repeated failures by the University of Michigan. And, we rallied for International Workers' Day before packing the bargaining room on Friday!-----Hear from U-M grad workers Gala, Shreya, and Anja about the latest news from the bargaining room, and come back soon for updates from our next session on Friday, May 15.Stay tuned for more updates!Read our bargaining bulletins: https://www.geo3550.org/news/bargaining/Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/geo_3550/Visit our website: https://www.geo3550.orgJoin our allies mailing list: https://www.geo3550.org/join/alliesDonate to the Worker Solidarity Fund: https://bit.ly/GEOWorkerSolidarity

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 for an open and transparent bargaining process as we negotiate for our 2026-2029 contract. With HR at the table, we were able to express the urgent need for immigration protections for all workers on campus and begin to pass our proposals. This is how bargaining should work, and we're excited to continue meeting with U-M HR, face-to-face, and work through the rest of our articles.-----Hear from U-M grad workers Ben, Daniel, and Anja about the latest news from the bargaining room, and come back next week for updates from our next session on Friday, March 27 at 11:30 am in Palmer Commons.Stay tuned for more updates!Read our bargaining bulletins: https://www.geo3550.org/news/bargaining/Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/geo_3550/Visit our website: https://www.geo3550.orgJoin our allies mailing list: https://www.geo3550.org/join/alliesDonate to the Worker Solidarity Fund: https://bit.ly/GEOWorkerSolidarity

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 from the state-appointed mediator, Micki Czerniak, framing our action as “prohibited conduct” and unilaterally suspending bargaining and initiating a “cooling-off period” of twenty-eight days. Rather than talk to us directly, the letter cherry-picks information from The Michigan Daily and our social media.-----Hear from U-M grad workers beck, Anu, and Anja about the latest news from the bargaining room, and come back next week for updates from our next (not bargaining) session on Friday, February 20.Stay tuned for more updates!Read our bargaining bulletins: https://www.geo3550.org/news/bargaining/Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/geo_3550/Visit our website: https://www.geo3550.orgJoin our allies mailing list: https://www.geo3550.org/join/alliesDonate to the Worker Solidarity Fund: https://bit.ly/GEOWorkerSolidarity

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 shut the door on us immediately without hearing us out or receiving our handwritten letters. Undeterred, our bargaining team announced outside their door that we would be waiting for them in the bargaining room to discuss urgent security concerns of our campus community. We slid the letters under their door.We remain ready to talk. It is time for HR to do the same.-----Hear from U-M grad workers Nathan, Nazelie, Gala, and Anja about the latest news from the bargaining room, and come back next week for updates from our next (extra special Valentines') bargaining session on Friday, February 13.Stay tuned for more updates!Read our bargaining bulletins: https://www.geo3550.org/news/bargaining/Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/geo_3550/Visit our website: https://www.geo3550.orgJoin our allies mailing list: https://www.geo3550.org/join/alliesDonate to the Worker Solidarity Fund: https://bit.ly/GEOWorkerSolidarity

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 our proposal in a sidebar meeting involving Micki and only five GEO members, we rejected this proposal, unequivocally. We will only bargain in the bargaining room together and we intend to bargain for our entire contract with our coworkers in the room.Hear from U-M grad workers Gala and Anja about the latest news from the bargaining room, and come back next week for updates from our next bargaining session on Friday, February 6.Stay tuned for more updates!Read our bargaining bulletins: https://www.geo3550.org/news/bargaining/Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/geo_3550/Visit our website: https://www.geo3550.orgJoin our allies mailing list: https://www.geo3550.org/join/alliesDonate to the Worker Solidarity Fund: https://bit.ly/GEOWorkerSolidarity

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 about HR's proposals over the course of multiple hours.Hear from grad workers Anja, Alex, and Kate who were in the room about what actually went down in Palmer Commons last Friday!Stay tuned for more updates!Read our bargaining bulletins: https://www.geo3550.org/news/bargaining/Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/geo_3550/Visit our website: https://www.geo3550.orgJoin our allies mailing list: https://www.geo3550.org/join/alliesDonate to the Worker Solidarity Fund: https://bit.ly/GEOWorkerSolidarity