After months of contract negotiations between the University of Michigan and the Graduate Employees’ Organization, members of GEO commenced a strike against the University on March 29. The strike intensified the conflict between the University and GEO in their bargaining process.
Disputes over the definition of a living wage continued to cause rifts in bargaining sessions, even as both sides point to the same metric for calculating living wage: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator. Additionally, GEO and the University disagree about the scope of GEO’s bargaining power and what falls under their area of concern as a labor union.
The Michigan Daily has fact-checked claims made by both the University and GEO to clarify the demands made in their contract negotiations.
Living Wage
Both GEO and the University have referred to MIT’s living wage calculator as a means of determining an appropriate wage for graduate students employed by the University. According to MIT, the calculator provides an estimation for the cost of living in a particular geographic area based on average expenses.
GEO: According to the demands outlined in GEO’s platform, a living wage for graduate student workers would be $38,537. Meeting this demand would constitute a raise of approximately 60% to the current salary for Graduate Student Instructors and Graduate Student Staff Assistants, which is $24,055. According to GEO, a raise of this significance would bring relief to many...
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