Graduate Employees Organization (University of Michigan)

The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) is the legally certified collective bargaining agent for the graduate student teaching and staff assistants (GSAs) at the University of Michigan. These GSAs concurrently pursue graduate degrees and teach undergraduates at the University of Michigan. As GEO tee-shirts note, they are "Workers, Teachers, Students." As the bargaining agent for GSAs, GEO has negotiated and sustained a series of contracts improving the conditions of employment since 1975. From the vantage point of GEO, this task was made considerably more difficult by an intransigent university administration, adverse Michigan Employment Relations Council (MERC) decisions, the 30% annual turnover of membership within GEO, and the burnout of unpaid officers. But GEO has endured and at present is the oldest, continually-functioning union of graduate student employees in the country. This longevity is owed to the periodic infusion of new blood, leaders newly committed to "carry it on" in the GEO tradition, and to the continued guidance and support of GEO's affiliates, the Michigan Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.

After an unsuccessful attempt in 1971, GSAs were able to organize a union over the course of the 1973-74 academic year. This union, GEO, was sanctioned by a MERC certification election in April 1974. GEO then began the arduous process of reaching a contract settlement with the university. The first contract was ratified in March 1975 after a five week-strike by GEO. The second contract was tentatively agreed to in November 1976, but the university refused to sign it until GEO dropped pending grievances. GEO filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) suit against the university; the university countered that the ULP did not apply since GSAs were students, not teachers. This began a series of suits and appeals which ended with a 1981 MERC decision that teaching and staff assistants were employees, but research assistants (who had been part of GEO) were students. In November 1981, the 1976 contract was finally signed by both parties and ratified by the members.

The MERC decision of 1981 marked a watershed for GEO. No longer could the university profitably argue that GEO had no legal right to exist. The university changed the tenor of its bargaining, turning to maximizing productivity in relation to GSA costs. GEO continued to bargain for a fair wage, elimination of tuition for GSAs, control of class size, paid training for teaching assistants, and stronger language on affirmative action. These issues determined the nature of the negotiations and contracts of 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1987. While the bargaining was tense, the confrontations which marked the process in the 1970s were largely absent; only in 1987 did a strike seem possible.

Over the course of its history, GEO has prided itself on being a truly democratic union. Its constitution provides that any substantive decision has to be approved by a vote of the members. At times this has made for delay and difficulty in transacting union business, but the leaders regard this as a fair trade off. Originally the day-to-day business of GEO was carried out by the executive committee while the stewards council saw to the organizing and outreach functions of the union. In the early 1980s, the administration of GEO was reorganized to include more voices in guiding the union. At this time, a ten-member steering committee was formed to supplant the executive committee. The day-to-day running of the union has fallen to paid office staffers, drawn from the ranks of GSAs. Although not officially disbanded, the stewards council was dissolved, and met only at times of crisis. The council was reinstated in October of 1991 and continues to operate in much the same way as before the disbanding.

From the guide to the Graduate Employees Organization (University of Michigan)records, 1970-2003, 1975-2000, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)