In Conversation With the GEO of University of Michigan
A Panel With Jessica Wise & Nyles Pollonais
Article & Video by Nyles Pollonais
On Thursday April 6th, 2023, The Graduate Employees’ Organization [GEO] of the University of Michigan sat down with Jessica Wise, the CEO and Editor in Chief of Audacity Magazine and Events, and Nyles A. Pollonais, graduate of the University of Michigan School of Education to discuss the strike presently taking the campus by storm.
The GEO Contract Committee Chair, Amir Fleischmann, highlighted a few key demands from GEO’s broader platform:
A living wage for all!
Additional supports for those who need it, such as parents, international grad workers, and disabled grad workers
An unarmed, emergency response program.
Transitional funding for survivors of harassment
Accessible and affordable gender affirming care
While the current challenge to the old policies and practices is not an unusual occurrence due to the fact that the GEO bargains with the University in a cycle that takes place every three years, what was new was their strategy. Their “open bargaining” approach emphasizes the role of members and the public in bargaining. Every session has been open to members, and over 1,000 members have attended at least one session, with hundreds having attended multiple sessions. As GEO Vice President Ember McCoy explained, “We have had, so far, two sessions which have been open to the public…” She went on to emphasize the point that it took eight weeks for this approach to be recognized and approved by the University.
This new technique encourages faculty, staff, and most importantly, undergraduate students, the opportunity to see, hear, and interpret the University’s responses in real time. Adding to the interview, Undergraduate Media Spokesperson, Mahnoor Irman, mentioned “their working conditions are our learning conditions,” illustrating the idea that these negotiations have the potential to impact everyone on campus. Mahnoor has elaborated in detail on why she feels it's necessary for undergraduates to join this fight in an op-ed published in The Michigan Daily.
The fight is ongoing in the midst of finals and current events, but even more so since the GEO’s 2020 demand for “A Safe and Just Pandemic Response for All.” Alejo Stark, member of the Abolition Caucus, highlighted one of the continued demands that the organization has held since 2020: the importance of funding an alternative to the police presence on campus, specifically an unarmed non-police emergency response program. He followed this point with anecdotes describing the 2014 police-killing of Aura Rosser, a Black woman living in Ann Arbor who was murdered within seconds of the police entering her residence, and an international graduate student’s family’s encounter with the University of Michigan’s police. Alejo defined the energy on campus as “tremendous” and suggested that the University’s locking of their administration building during one of the demonstrations last month was symbolic of them being “afraid of their [The GEO’s] struggle.”
We were sure to take their mental health into account and ask how they were managing the stress of the time during the interview. Solidarity, purpose, and vision seemed to keep them grounded as they smiled when they reflected on the turn out of the students, staff, community members, and allies alike. We wished them the best in their fight and hoped that even if they weren’t able to get everything, that at least, they’d be allowed the living wage.
Amir closed out the interview: “We’re not coming out here with any illusions. I don’t think we’re expecting to get every single thing we want and indeed we have made some concessions at the table where the University has been interested in actually solving problems […] but, when it comes to the living wage, it’s going to be very difficult for us to agree to a contract that doesn’t meet our needs…”
Watch the entire interview to learn more.
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