Student research assistants vote to join University of Michigan graduate employees union

On Monday, the union representing graduate student instructors and staff at the University of Michigan announced that more than 2,200 graduate student research assistants would now be represented by their bargaining unit. 

According to the Graduate Employees Organization Local 3550 of the American Federation of Teachers, 92% of grad student research assistants voted in favor of joining the union at its accretion election on Thursday.

The union called the successful vote a “historic win” and the result of decades of sustained organizing. After the Michigan Employment Relations Commission in 1981 determined that graduate student research assistants were not considered employees under the Public Employment Relations Act, they were barred from unionizing. However, that right was restored in 2023.

“No matter what job title graduate students hold, we face the same pay, same healthcare, same advisors, and same workplace issues,” Kevin Zheng, a PhD student in the School of Information said in a statement from the union. “Furthermore, each of us switch between these positions each semester: I worked as a Fellow last year, as a Research Assistant this year, and will be working as a Graduate Student Instructor in the fall. It only makes sense for us to be represented and organized together under the same union.” 

When asked to comment, the university sent a statement from Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs and Internal Communications Paul Corliss. 

“At the University of Michigan we recognize and support the fundamental right of employees to seek union representation and to bargain collectively. We value our relationship with the graduate researchers and the important work they do for our university,” Corliss said in an email.

The Graduate Employees’ Organization said its membership would continue to bargain with the University’s Human Resources department, seeking a campus free of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, additional protections for international workers and to close gaps in existing benefits like health care, parental leave, child care support and workplace safety.

“Building on the wins of our sibling unions on campus, we will continue fighting for the right to unionize graduate fellows as well, and ensure that every graduate worker on campus can organize under a union together,” the union said in a statement.