A unit of just under 1,500 graduate teaching and research assistants at Michigan State University has cast an overwhelming vote to unionize. The final vote count on April 20 was 662 to 192 for the Graduate Employees Union, an affiliate of the Michigan Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel and the AFT.

GEU joins two other MFT&SRP/AFT graduate employee unions in the state, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and at Wayne State University in Detroit. It comes on the heels of another win with the Temple University Graduate Students' Association victory in Pennsylvania. And it brings to over 25 the number of graduate employee unions in the country, 12 of which are represented by the AFT. "When we looked at what other graduate workers at other universities have for health care coverage and living standards, it seemed the difference between what they had and what we have is a union," says Andy Nolan, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the English department.

The graduate assistants had to fight a grueling battle against an administration that pulled out all the stops to keep the union out, notes AFT director of organizing Phil Kugler. The university posted extensive anti-union information on its Web site. It had deans call departmental meetings with graduate students to deliver messages of intimidation. The union was prepared, however. It had tapped into the strong labor community in the state and built support among many public groups. At one point, 27 legislators sent a letter to MSU's president, criticizing the university's use of state funds to try to restrict rights provided under state law--the right to unionize. Some representatives even joined a phone bank effort to get out the vote.

The win is "a great feeling," says Christopher Oliver, GEU president. "Everyone on the organizing team worked so hard, we had great community support and help from other unions and elected officials."

Kugler praised the efforts of those in the MFT &SRP who worked on this and other winning campaigns in recent months, especially president Rollie Hopgood, secretary-treasurer David Hecker and lead organizer Jon Curtiss. [Barbara McKenna]

April 25, 2001