When the regents of the University of Michigan voted to permit graduate student researchers (GSRAs) to unionize early this year, opposition to the decision made for unlikely allies.
University President Mary Sue Coleman, often a supporter of union rights and liberal causes, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan-based free market think tank, found themselves on the same side of the issue. Now, a third player has sided with Coleman and Mackinac: the university’s deans.
In a letter to Provost Philip Hanlon, the deans echoed concerns raised by Coleman and the Mackinac Center: specifically, that GSRAs are students, rather than employees, and unionization could harm the important relationship between professors and graduate students.
The Michigan Employee Relations Council sided with the Mackinac Center in a recent ruling that denied unionization to GSRAs. But the Graduate Employees Organization–a union that represents other U-M graduate students–may appeal the ruling.
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