U-M GEO Strike Continues as Judge Rules Against Administration

U-M GEO picket at the Detroit Center on April 6, 2023. | Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe, Pan-African Newswire

U-M GEO picket line outside the Detroit Center on April 6, 2023

U-M GEO strikers and their allies on April 6, 2023

U-M GEO strikers and their supporters outside the Detroit Center on April 6, 2023. | Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe, Pan-African Newswire

By Fighting Words Staff

A strike by the University of Michigan (U-M) Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) won another victory on April 11 when a Washtenaw County Judge ruled that the administration had no right to suspend the strike through a court ordered injunction.

GEO is demanding a raise amid the rising cost of living in Ann Arbor and other cities where campuses are located.

On April 6, there was another picket line outside the U-M Detroit Center on Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit. Striking employees and numerous supporters marched and chanted slogans demanding that the University of Michigan negotiate in good faith with its Graduate workers.

Reports from the administration say that the strike is delaying the grading of exams and other course materials due to the fact that the GEO employees carry out a substantial portion of the work which allows departments to function.

Members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition whose offices are located in Midtown have joined the GEO picket lines since the beginning of the strike.

For more information on the GEO strike go to their website at the following link: Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) – GEO represents graduate student instructors (GSIs) and graduate student staff assistants (GSSAs) at the University of Michigan. (geo3550.org)