After over six weeks, there appears to be no end in sight for the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) strike at the University of Michigan (UM).
The GEO launched the strike on March 29 after beginning to pressure the university for a “living wage” in November 2022. Graduate student workers at UM currently earn $35 per hour in addition to nearly $13,000 in tuition remittance per semester for in-state students and over $26,000 per semester for out-of-state students.
By contrast, the average hourly wage in Ann Arbor is $28 per hour according to Zip Recruiter. The university also notes that the MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates $18.67 per hour is a living wage in the city.
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UM has proposed an agreement to raise the GEO hourly wage to $39 by the third year of the contract, but the GEO is insisting that the hourly wage be raised to $58 by 2026, which is 210% over the living wage in the area. The average college graduate in the United States earns $20 per hour, according to Zip Recruiter.
A variety of other proposed changes are listed in the 2022-2023 GEO Bargaining Platform including, the establishment of a “community-led unarmed emergency response team,” eliminating copays for mental healthcare and dental screenings, and providing “as much parental leave as faculty” to graduate student workers. The university has not assented to any of these terms.
Campus Reform has covered several...
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