University of Michigan graduate students will not have to pay dues to a public employee union, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) said yesterday, despite efforts by the University Regents board to help the Graduate Employees Organization organize them.
MERC was responding to a motion filed by the conservative Mackinac Center Legal Defense Foundation on behalf of graduate research assistant Melinda Day, who opposed the unionization effort. Mackinac’s argument was based on a 1981 MERC ruling that the Michigan graduate students are not public employees.
MCLF issued a statement on the MERC decision:
Although MERC agreed with Mackinac on this issue, the commission upheld the union’s contention that Mackinac lacked standing to play a role in this issue. But who does? If MERC had ruled the other way, who would function as the employer in this case to oppose the unionization? The faculty? The governor?
Incidentally, MERCs decision affirms University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman’s opposition to the union drive, which she voiced to the Regents, explaining ““I do not see research assistants as our employees but as our students . . . When I was a graduate student, I did not see myself as working for the university and I did not see my faculty mentor as my employer. Far from it.”
No word yet on whether the union will appeal, but with a Republican governor and legislature, they might not find much support in alternative channels.
