GEU's strike platform could spark MSU action

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Making a stand takes guts. And for a group that’s been playing nice, it’s difficult to say whether MSU’s Graduate Employees Union has what it takes.

As negotiations between the university and the GEU continue, union members are planning possible “job actions” and a “strike platform” in case the two parties can’t produce a contract by the end of the semester. Although the contract officially expires May 15, union members are bumping the deadline to April 28, the first day of finals.

The reason for this is pretty obvious — not only does moving the deadline allow union members time to mull over a contract draft, but it gives them an edge in negotiations. If there is no new contract by exam time, or if few or none of the union’s demands — including better pay and parking, more health-care benefits and domestic partner benefits — are met, they have time to act when it would make the most impact.

Some options being discussed — though nothing has been decided — include refusing to proctor exams or picketing graduation ceremonies in May.

If the union really wants to get its point across, members should show how vital they really are to the university. University of Michigan’s Graduate Employees Organization, for example, staged a two-day walk-out and picketed earlier this week, which had university and union negotiators scrambling to make concessions.

MSU teaching assistants refusing to proctor exams with about 45,000 people in East Lansing to see or hear about it makes a bigger impression than walking out during the summer session, which might have been their only option if the deadline wasn’t moved. It also would delay grades and diplomas being sent, and many students might have to hold off on making next semester’s course schedule until the final grades are in.

Granted, this would be a pain for most undergraduates. For anyone who doesn’t know about the union’s plight, they will soon find out. In the meantime, the university probably will be forced to handle a large amount of complaints.

Picketing graduation, however, seems like a bizarre, potentially backfiring option. Graduation has little to do with graduate student employees. It might appear as though the union is punishing students, who might otherwise sympathize with and support the union, for working hard and enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime experience with families and friends. That’s just disrespectful. Anyone looking in on the situation will most likely miss what the union is trying to do. Union members would probably suffer just as much embarrassment as the university.

But if the union is desperate and prepared to go down with the ship, that’s still an option.

Graduate student employees deserve to have most of their demands fulfilled and should be allowed whatever the university can spare. But if the union is indeed looking to up the ante, and possibly inconvenience a lot of people, it should be done in the most effective way possible.

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