The University of Michigan will continue to hold classes as scheduled and take “appropriate lawful actions” to enable the university to continue meeting its educational mission if the Graduate Employees’ Organization chooses to strike.

In a message shared with the Ann Arbor campus community March 24, President Santa J. Ono and Provost Laurie McCauley said school, college and department leaders are planning for substitute instructors, alternative assignments and other means for delivering instruction if it is required, but added they hope to resolve remaining areas of disagreement with the union soon through “thoughtful and productive discussions at the bargaining table.”

“We remain confident that this is the best venue for achieving a fair and forward-looking contract agreement and ensuring the university and union members can do what they do best, by continuing to provide a world-class education,” Ono and McCauley wrote.

The message came less than 12 hours after GEO members voted to authorize a strike, empowering the union’s leadership to call a work stoppage at any time. The union represents about 2,300 graduate student instructors and graduate student staff assistants.

The university and the union have been negotiating a new contract since Nov. 17, 2022. The union’s current contract with the university – which includes a commitment to not strike – expires May 1.

GEO’s threat to strike is based on a number of issues the two parties have not yet resolved, from among more than 50 contract changes GEO has proposed since the beginning of bargaining.

Primary among them is the union’s compensation proposal, which demands that members receive a 60% wage increase in the first year of their contract, and additional increases in the second and third years. GEO proposed this raise in November and has not moved from that position despite three counteroffers from the university.

Under the university’s current compensation proposal, GEO members on the Ann Arbor campus would receive 11.5% in total raises over the next three years — 5%, 3.5%, 3% — and make roughly $38-$39 per hour by year three.

Other union demands include that the university fund a non-police urgent response program separate from the Division of Public Safety and Security and available throughout Washtenaw County, and bar federal agents from entering university property to execute certain search or arrest warrants.

University negotiators have argued that these issues, while important, are outside the scope of the union’s contract and it would be inappropriate for one bargaining unit to decide for the entire university community.

GEO members also have demanded that GSIs have unilateral authority to shift classes remotely for any health and safety reason, something the university sees as an overreach that would be “detrimental to the university’s core identity as a residential institution and its commitment to ensuring continuity of education for our undergraduate students.”

In an email response to the Record, GEO Contract Committee Chair Amir Fleischmann said union members are disappointed by the president and provost’s email.

“The overwhelming number of graduate workers who voted to authorize a strike should tell them that what they are offering us is not sufficient to meet our needs,” Fleischmann said.

“Not mentioned in their email were our proposals for a more accessible child-care subsidy, for co-pay-free mental health care, for transitional funding for survivors of harassment, or an emergency fund for international student workers — proposals AHR (Academic Human Resources) has roundly rejected.

“Their email includes misinformation about our public safety demands. We are not asking the university to refuse to fulfill warrants; we are asking U-M to join the numerous other universities who have Sanctuary Campus policies.”

It is unclear when or whether GEO leadership is planning to call a strike. State law prohibits public employees from striking.

In their email to the university community, Ono and McCauley wrote that a strike would prompt a number of university responses, including asking a court to find a breach of contract and order strikers back to work, stopping the deduction of union dues, filing unfair labor practice charges, and not paying striking GSIs and GSSAs for time they do not work.

Ono and McCauley wrote that they still believe any unresolved issues are best ironed out through thoughtful and productive discussions at the bargaining table.

“It is in the best interests of us all — faculty, students, staff and graduate employees — to provide a compensation and benefits package that is competitive with the best public universities in the country,” they wrote. “Doing so ensures we attract and retain the very best graduate student scholars in the world — and support their ability to thrive here.”

— James Iseler of The University Record contributed to this article.