UM Regents Support Rights of RAs to Organize
In a move that one regent called unprecedented, the University of Michigan board of regents voted at their May 19, 2011 meeting to support the rights of graduate student research assistants to determine for themselves whether to organize and be represented by a labor union.
UM president Mary Sue Coleman spoke out against the resolution, as did regents Andrea Fischer Newman and Andrew Richner, who both voted against it. Both regents expressed dismay that they’d only received notice of the resolution shortly before the meeting.
Coleman read an extensive statement before the vote, telling regents that she feels passionate about the issue personally, and is deeply concerned about it on an institutional level. She sees research assistants as students, not employees. This … [Full Story]