Striking U-M grad instructors face threat by school of being replaced for fall

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (FOX 2) - The University of Michigan Graduate Employee's Organization strike continues - this, as the school is threatening to replace their positions this fall.

The graduate student instructors have been on strike since last March 29, and if they continue to strike will be subject to replacement for the entire semester, the school said.

"Completely unsurprised," said Bailey Sullivan, of the Solidarity & Political Action Committee. "The university doesn’t believe that we create additional value."

Despite ongoing negotiations, the two sides still haven't come to an agreement.

"It doesn’t see that we work over 40 hours a week, that we deserve a living wage, that we are deserving of affordability and dignity," Sullivan said.

But as negotiators continue, the university says it can’t have grad workers not on the job.

U of M Provost Laurie McCauley said in an email: "When instructors choose not to fulfill their teaching responsibilities, it disrupts students’ education, damages the quality of instruction, and can cause other harm. This is a serious breach of the trust that our students place in us as educators and in their reliance on the institution to deliver on our educational mission."

Grad workers say it is impossible for them to be replaced.

"At the end of (last) semester they were unable to get additional instructors in the classroom in time during the course of this strike," Sullivan said. "They’re unable to do so now, with only about three weeks left before the beginning of the semester."

Last week the university’s latest proposal to the union fell through after union members said they had insufficient time to discuss the offer, which would have provided grad workers on the Ann Arbor campus with 20% in total raises over the next three years…along with a $1,000 bonus this fall.

"On Thursday, August 10, we have a general membership meeting where members will vote to pass back a counter-proposal to the university and we hope the university takes it seriously," she said.

The fall semester begins August 28th and union workers say they will not give up their fight for a fair contract.

"The university has made it clear that it only really cares about rubber stamping students' education," she said. "It doesn’t care about the quality of instruction enough in order to pay its teachers a living wage."