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FAQ's

This page provides factual information and answers to frequently asked questions about the status of negotiations between the University of Michigan and the Graduate Employees’ Organization for the May 2023 through May 2026 collective bargaining agreement.

Key issues regarding the GEO strike.

University negotiators are guided by core principles and are committed to bargaining in good faith. Updates on the progression of the negotiations can be found on the GEO Updates From Current Bargaining Session web page.

Setting the record straight on GEO’s claims about contract bargaining

Claim: The university is not bargaining on certain proposals submitted by GEO, and therefore, is not bargaining in good faith.
Fact: The union has submitted over 50 proposals, some of which are unrelated to GSIs’ and GSSAs’ wages, hours, and working conditions. Some of the issues GEO raises, though important, are not related to the employment of its members and, therefore, are not appropriate subjects for negotiation between GEO and the university. Moreover, U-M will not bargain with GEO on issues that would affect groups such as students or other employees that GEO does not represent.

Claim: The deadline to reach a new collective bargaining agreement was March 1, 2023.
Fact: GEO’s current contract is effective until May 3, 2023. U-M is committed to working with the union to reach an agreement as soon as possible. The university has proposed additional measures to ensure a contract can be reached, which include additional bargaining sessions and enlisting a neutral state-appointed mediator to assist both U-M and GEO.

Frequently Asked Questions regarding GEO’s strike

What are the expectations for Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) and Graduate Student Staff Assistants (GSSAs) while U-M and GEO continue working toward a resolution on a new collective bargaining agreement?

GSIs and GSSAs are an integral part of the university community and contribute in many ways, including to the education of undergraduate students. It is crucial that they fulfill all of their instructional responsibilities this academic year. These responsibilities include, but are not limited to, creating a syllabus and Canvas site for every course, teaching scheduled classes, grading student work, and submitting grades on time.

While it is customary to accommodate short-term changes in course content and delivery methods due to unanticipated factors such as instructors’ illness or excused absences, instructors are expected to make every effort to deliver instruction to students in a manner and schedule as described in the published course description, syllabus, and class schedule.
What is U-M doing to ensure the continuity of instruction in the event of a GEO work stoppage during the Fall 2023 term?

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 students place in educators and in their reliance on the institution to deliver on its educational mission.

Given this context, deans and university leadership have established guidelines to undertake a number of administrative actions if GSIs and GSSAs choose not to fulfill their responsibilities this fall.
What specific actions will the university take in the event of a work stoppage?
The university will undertake the following administrative actions:

Require GSIs and GSSAs appointed for the fall term to complete weekly online forms attesting that they have completed their work duties, as was expected in April 2023 and during the Spring/Summer terms.

Decline to pay stipends to GSIs who do not fulfill their job duties.

Make GSIs who engage in a work stoppage 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. The person hired or assigned to cover the GSI’s course will not be subject to displacement during the semester.

Remove GSIs engaged in the work stoppage from the system as a course instructor and remove their course access to the Canvas site(s).

GSIs and GSSAs who claim medical leave for the duration of a strike will be required to provide verifiable, written proof from their health care provider of the reason(s) enumerated in Article XIII of the UM|GEO Agreement to substantiate their need to use paid sick time.

Article XIII, Section A of the UM|GEO Agreement provides that a GSI or GSSA is eligible for medical leave pay: [W]hen unable to meet employment obligations because of personal illness, injury, medical appointment, medical procedure, or other disabling medical condition, or because of the illness, injury, medical appointment, medical procedure, or other disabling medical condition of a family member or Other Qualified Adult as that term is defined in Article XI.A.

Medical information submitted through this process will be reviewed only by Human Resources personnel only to determine whether paid medical leave is appropriate.

Information will not be shared with other parties or used for any other purpose.

HR will inform the individual, and impacted unit, of the status of the claim.
Why is the university taking these actions?

The University of Michigan must meet its fundamental institutional responsibility to ensure that students receive the education they have been promised and for which they have worked so diligently. That is what students and families expect, and that is what they will receive.
Is it true that members of GEO are not allowed to work additional jobs?

GSIs and GSSAs are not prohibited from working other jobs because of their GSI or GSSA appointments. Graduate Programs may place work limits on graduate students enrolled in those programs, depending on their academic and programmatic requirements.
Why can’t the university utilize the endowment to pay graduate students more?

Endowment funds are typically restricted by the donor agreement. Such funds can be used only for the specific purpose for which the endowment was established. The endowment is actually a collection of more than 12,400 separate endowments, most of which have been donated to provide support for specific purposes such as scholarships, educational programs or professorships. To ensure continuing support for future generations, the funds themselves are not spent but invested so that part of the annual distribution can provide a steady flow of dollars each year.

The university’s endowment distribution rate helps to insulate the endowment from anticipated market volatility that includes lower investment returns and higher inflation. It also ensures continued, steady support of university operations during uncertain economic times – including funding for student scholarships, faculty salaries and academic programs.

The annual distribution from the endowment exceeds the state appropriation (the amount U-M receives in public dollars from the state) and has steadily increased each year since 1998, even those years when the market experienced a downturn. Without this support, tuition would be about $6,000 higher each year.

While U-M’s endowment is the tenth largest among all universities in the country, according to data compiled by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund, it also serves one of the largest universities and health systems in the country. On a per-student basis, the university’s endowment ranks 86th, lower than many private school peers.
Given the university ran a budget surplus last year, why can’t that extra money be used to pay graduate students more?

A one-time budget surplus is not the sustainable source of funding that would be needed to pay for the recurring costs associated with an increase in base wages for thousands of employees.

Those increased wages are an annual cost that would need to be covered by the university’s General Fund. General Fund money comes primarily from student tuition and fees.
Why has the university chosen to express the pay of GSIs and GSSAs as an hourly wage?

In its rationale for why its members are entitled to a 60% pay increase, the Graduate Employees’ Organization has pointed to a living wage calculation for Ann Arbor provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The online tool expresses the living wage – in this case, $18.67 for a single individual in a household with no children living in Ann Arbor – as an hourly rate. The assumption, according to MIT, is that the person earning this rate of pay is working full-time, or 2080 hours per year.

The living wage, therefore, expressed as an annual salary would be about $38,834 ($18.67 x 2080 hours = $38,833.60). This annual salary for a person working full-time is what the union is demanding to be paid – a 60% increase in wages would provide them with a near equivalent annual income.

The issue is that GSIs and GSSAs are part-time workers who only work 8 months of the year. In other words, they demand a full-time salary for part-time work.

In an effort to better express how wages for GEO members compare to the living wage for Ann Arbor as described in the MIT calculator, the decision was made to express pay for GSIs and GSSAs as an equivalent hourly wage when it made sense to do so.

The equivalent hourly wage is based on the assumption that an employee works every week at the high end (20 hours) of the 0.50 employment fraction (see page 44 of the contract), which is the most common employment fraction for GSIs and GSSAs. This represents the lowest hourly rate for someone consistently working at the 16.5-20 average weekly hours expected for that employment fraction.
How is that hourly wage calculated?

The total pay for the academic year (8 months) at a 0.50 fraction is $24,050.

To calculate the hourly wage, first determine how many hours the employee is expected to work:

(2080 total hours in a full-time work year) x (⅔ year) x (½ of the hours in a work week) = 693.33 hours

Hourly wage = $24,050 / 693.33 hours = $34.69 per hour

Another method to calculate the hourly wage can be found in the union contract (see page 47).
Why isn’t the 12-Month Funding Model for Rackham Ph.D. Students included in negotiations for the next GEO contract?

The collective bargaining agreement with GEO covers only graduate student instructor (GSI) and graduate student staff assistant (GSSA) appointments. GSRA appointments and fellowships fall outside of the collective bargaining agreement. A doctoral student on the Ann Arbor campus is guaranteed five years of funding, in the form of either a GSI/GSSA appointment, a GSRA appointment or a fellowship. Which appointment they receive is chosen by the academic unit. The decision to grant summer funding is an academic one, much like the initial academic appointment, where funding can be provided in one of the four ways outlined above. Some Ph.D. students with guaranteed funding never hold a GSI or GSSA appointment and are not covered by the collective bargaining agreement during any time in their program.

For more information, please refer to the “Rationale” section of the FAQ: 12-Month Funding Model for Rackham Ph.D. Students webpage.
What is fact-finding?

Fact-finding is a formal hearing that can be requested by parties involved in labor negotiations. It is a process followed when bargaining and mediation have failed to result in a final agreement. The purpose of the hearing is to permit the parties to present facts and witnesses in support of their positions for the status of negotiations. A neutral fact finder from the Michigan Employee Relations Commission is appointed to conduct the hearing and provide an objective evaluation of the parties’ bargaining positions. Since strikes are prohibited in the public sector, fact finding is the final impasse resolution procedure available to public sector employees, including GSIs and GSSAs at U-M.
Why did the university petition for a fact-finding hearing?

The university filed a petition to the state to initiate the fact-finding process in an effort to resolve its ongoing contractual dispute with the GEO. After six months of negotiations, the union’s unwillingness to compromise on several major proposals, its unwillingness to remove issues not relevant to the contract from the bargaining table, and its ongoing resistance to meeting frequently for bargaining sessions, the university believes that fact-finding is the next step to help the parties come to a resolution and agreement. Updates on negotiations can be found on the Academic Human Resources website.
What is the process of fact finding?

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission will receive the university’s petition and will appoint a fact finder who will conduct the hearing relating to all of the facts in dispute. The hearing is public, unless otherwise directed by the fact finder, and allows both parties to present facts and witnesses in support of their positions. The fact finder will issue a written recommendation on the contract provisions in dispute. While the recommendations are non-binding, parties often return to negotiations after fact finding and are frequently able to resolve differences. The process can take several months.
Will negotiations continue during the fact finding process?

Negotiations can continue during the process of fact-finding. The university plans to continue to offer an open ended schedule to bargain in-person, for full-day sessions.
What is a strike authorization vote?

Answer: A strike authorization is a vote by which the union’s membership decides to strike. On March 24, the union authorized a strike despite forward movement on discussions of key issues at recent negotiations sessions. On March 29, GEO decided to strike.
Is GEO’s strike legal?

Answer: No. It is a violation of state law for any public employee to strike. In addition, GSIs and GSSAs are part of a bargaining unit covered by a valid collective-bargaining agreement that remains in effect until May 3, 2023. That agreement includes a contractual provision that GEO will not strike while the contract is in effect. By striking, GEO would be asking its members to withhold their instruction from students, in breach of Article III of their current labor contract, which remains in effect through May 3. Both the university and GEO are legally obligated to abide by the terms of the contract signed by both parties. To be clear: this is a provision GEO itself embraced and legally affirmed in that contract. Therefore, the university may be forced to pursue relief in court to remedy GEO’s breach of contract in the event of a strike.
What is U-M's position on the strike?

Answer: The university is saddened and disappointed that GEO has decided to take action that will create undue harm to our campus community when we still have many weeks left to negotiate before the union’s current contract expires. The university remains committed to bargaining in good faith to achieve a successor contract with GEO. A strike is not necessary and the university continues to make every effort to keep bargaining moving forward, which includes additional meeting times and a neutral state-appointed mediator.
How long is the work stoppage expected to continue?

Answer: Because GEO made the decision to strike, we are not able to determine the duration of the work stoppage. However, the university will continue to negotiate with GEO’s bargaining team to reach an agreement on contract terms and seek resolution to the strike as soon as possible.
How will U-M mitigate the effect on undergraduate students?

Answer: One of the university’s highest responsibilities - and core to the principles that have guided our negotiations - is to ensure continuity of education for our students. We take that responsibility very seriously. If the union does strike, the university does not intend to cancel classes because of a strike. The university’s school, college, and department leaders have planned for substitute instructors, alternative assignments, and other means for delivering instruction in the event of a strike.
Will employees who participate in a strike be paid during the strike?

Answer: Not if the employees are striking during the time when they are scheduled to perform their employment duties. Employees who strike are by definition not working, and are therefore not eligible to receive regular pay. GEO members who are performing their job duties as regularly scheduled will receive their regular pay. While the university will not pay striking members for hours they do not work, striking members will see no change in their tuition waivers and health benefits.
How will GSI/GSSAs who do not strike be paid?

Answer: In the event that GEO does strike, all bargaining unit members will receive a weekly email for the duration of the strike in which they will be asked to complete a survey to verify that they are working, in order to ensure pay is continued for those who continue to work. If they attest that they did not work, or if they do not complete the survey, they will not receive pay for that time period. Due to U-M’s pay schedule, the attestation requirement becomes effective April 2, with the first weekly reporting survey distributed to all GEO members on April 9.

Below is the language that will be included in the email and on the information request:

You have received this request for information because you currently hold a GSI or GSSA appointment. The Graduate Employees’ Organization, the labor organization that represents GSIs and GSSAs, is currently engaged in a strike contrary to Michigan law and Article III of the current collective bargaining agreement, which remains in effect until May 3, 2023. In order for the university to ensure that all employees are properly paid for work they have performed, the following information is required.

The following serves as your attestation that you have either performed or not performed your assigned duties as a GSI or GSSA for the week stated. If you have performed your assigned duties, you will be paid in the typical manner. However, you will not be paid for any weeks that you have not performed your duties.

If you fail to complete this attestation survey by Tuesday at 11:59pm each week, your next paycheck will reflect that duties were not performed and your pay will be reduced accordingly, unless you provide proof that you in fact engaged in your employment duties for the University during the pay period in question.

Bargaining unit members will be required to answer the following question:

I attest that I did perform work or job duties I was scheduled/required to perform as a GSI or GSSA (e.g., teach classes, grade student assignments, hold office hours) during the week of (insert dates).
Is the University of Michigan withholding pay from GEO members?

Any GEO employee who is working will be paid for their time worked. Those who choose not to work (strike) will not be paid.
With GEO on strike, how is the university determining which members are working and which members are withholding their labor?

The university is requiring Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) and Graduate Student Staff Assistants (GSSAs) to complete a brief weekly online form confirming their hours worked during the previous week.
What happens if a GEO member who worked fails to complete an attestation form?

They can still be paid, although their pay may be delayed. GEO members should refer back to recent emails from the university for further information.

Academic Human Resources