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.