ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — University of Michigan officials are warning graduate workers that they could be replaced if they strike this fall.
"GSIs (Graduate Student Instructors) who engage in a work stoppage will be subject to replacement for the entire semester if the university hires or assigns another individual to perform their duties, or if the university restructures the course," wrote U-M Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Laurie McCauley in an email to graduate workers.
But unionized graduate workers with the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) have said that while the university had offered a 20-percent raise over a period of three years, there are still unresolved issues in the university's most recent offer, including what they say is unequal pay across the University of Michigan's campuses in Dearborn and Flint.
Bailey Sullivan is co-chair of the GEO's Solidarity and Political Action Committee.
"Just because by manner of your geographic location and the place where your program is located, you shouldn't be paid less. You're doing the same amount of work that is happening on the Ann Arbor campus. And right now, Dearborn and Flint GSIs make less than Ann Arbor GSIs," Sullivan told 7 Action News.
Union officials also believe that, in the event of a strike, the university will be unable to fill their positions.
"We don't believe that the university can replace our labor," said Sullivan. "They weren't able to replace it during the course of the strike. That's why they falsified grades."
Sullivan is referring to their strike earlier this year during which the union accused the university of having unqualified employees rubber-stamping grades for students.
U-M leaders deny the falsifying of grades and said they "asked deans to work with department chairs and faculty members to ensure all students received grades as soon as possible."
On Tuesday, U-M officials released a statement that included the following:
The Higher Learning Commission, an independent body that accredits the University of Michigan, has determined a complaint made regarding grading at the end of the 2023 winter term was “not indicative of substantive noncompliance” and warranted no further review.
Graduate workers are set to meet later this week to discuss the union's counter-proposal to the university as the clock winds down to the start of the fall semester.
"We're essential to the classroom," said Sullivan. "We're the people who students interact with, who they interface with. We're the people who give them their grades and the people who watch them learn, who watch them grow. And the university will have an impossible time starting the fall semester without us."
