By Fighting Words Staff
Members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) at the University of Michigan have gone on strike for improved working conditions and better pay.
On Monday, April 3, the GEO and its community supporters held a picket line outside the University of Michigan Detroit Center on Woodward Avenue near Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Midtown.
According to a leaflet being passed out at the picket line: “GEO is the labor union representing 2,000 graduate student workers at U-M. We are teachers, researchers and mentors providing thousands of hours of instruction for the University. Our teaching generates $200 million in profit for U-M.
“Grad school should be possible for everyone–not just those who have access to family wealth. To make that happen we need a baseline living wage of $38.500, while also providing additional support to groups of workers such as parents and international students, whose costs of living can be higher.
“We’re also fighting for a safer campus by proposing a transitional funding program for survivors of harassment and calling for U-M to fund a community-based non-violent police alternative, separate from DPSS.”
To learn about GEO and to find ways to support them, please visit geo3550.org.
Be the first to comment