Here’s what the majority of my union wants to walk out over:
https://www.geo3550.org/news/
one of the deans of my university just sent an email encouraging faculty to SCAB
claiming some kind of concern for undergrads when really that concern is only for the undergrad as a student-consumer, not prioritizing health and safety and wellness at this campus
fuck the university fuck deans fuck admin and UP THE STRIKE
University of Michigan graduate student strike
University of Michigan graduate student strike
If you'd like to show your solidarity with UM graduate students, sign up for a virtual picket shift here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHHSjmiVOxfdZcxJZxmq3b6Zd2PVe5AlTMyagHEQZxoJM9Wg/viewform
thankz
The University of Michigan twitter account retweeted a "happy labor day" graphic
and then 20 minutes later retweeted the UM public affairs account that included the anti-strike statement (link here: https://twitter.com/UMPublicAffairs/status/1303054069200809985 )
Here's a link to the LEO* union's statement on the grad student strike:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NYQXJ1oHI1OUkTp6e4OFmgdNCkvezIjJBYRiEGV_68Q/edit
*lecturer's union
solidarity!
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 1
This is an illegal strike. There is a no-strike clause in our contract that only allows us to “walk out” while we’re negotiating a new contract. There could be massive repercussions but we need all of higher ed, all union labor, to have their eyes on our strike. Only with pressure from grad students, faculty, undergrads, and people outside of the University of Michigan will the administration listen to any of our demands.
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 1
We’re striking for universal remote work for ALL workers, not just grad students, a universal $2500 emergency grant for all grad students, lifting restrictions on childcare subsidies, and defunding campus cops by 50%. These are incredible demands and as one of the oldest grad student unions, it’s our responsibility to push the most radical demands and really bring thjs university to its knees.
Up the strike!
Down with admin!
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 2
Please fill out this form to auto send a letter in support of the GEO strike:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/strikeforsafecampus
If you’re an academic or connected to a university, please consider making a public statement of support of GEO 3550 and our fight for a safe and just campus!
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 2
the university is still telling students to scab by going to classes, and this being the University of Michigan (p conservative despite what some people think), those students are eating it up. There are a handful of undergrads who support us but they are in the minority.
There’s a lesson to be learned from this, and it’s that no grad student organizer should write off undergrad support (something I’ve seen union leadership do in the past...)
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 2
anyways, please support me and my union. We’re fighting for a lot and we need to remind the state of Michigan, the university, and academia how powerful one of the oldest graduate student unions can be
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 2
Campus police at UM Ann Arbor were only armed in the 1990s, and were armed because Ann Arbor city police were reluctant to crack down on anti-racist student protestors
This says SO MUCH about what the actual role of campus pigs are. Safety my ass.
https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/midaily/mdp.39015071754852/708
@ocrbot
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 2
Holy shit, residential advisors (who are literally working in the dorms that are soon to be infected with COVID) are also going on strike
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/campus-life/resident-advisers-announce-strike
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 2
There’s a solidarity fund, accessible here:
https://www.geo3550.org/join-us/contribute/
Please kick some money our way, because we’re trying to cover the lost wages for all the construction workers who refused to cross our picket line. This will require tons of support. Please boost and share!
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 3
oof
been too busy to update everyone
but we were made an offer, it was shitty and insulting! so we turned it the fuck down and kept on striking. meanwhile, solidarity from undergrads and faculty grows
https://www.geo3550.org/2020/09/10/geo-membership-votes-to-reject-offer-continue-work-stoppage/
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 4
trade unions respecting the picket lines today too
Dining service workers organized a work stoppage for today
undergrads who are residential advisors joining us in their own strike and coming to our picket lines
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 4
Faculty at the University of Michigan have been circulating and signing this letter this morning:
Over 200 signatures and counting! Faculty solidarity means so much!
University of Michigan Graduate Workers Are on Strike
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/09/university-michigan-graduate-workers-strike
"GEO is insisting that 'safety' and 'security' aren’t two separate subjects. Take, for example, the university’s police force’s name: the Division of Public Safety and Security. GEO is insisting that such security forces do not make us safe. And the COVID demands speak to a different vision of safety, where the health of the community is not subordinated to the university’s bottom line."
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 6
i mean we're still going to strike tho
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 7
We voted to extend the strike https://www.geo3550.org/2020/09/13/strike-extension/
So here we are! Still going. Overwhelmed, a little bit. Buoyed by the shows of solidarity from people outside of UM's campus. Heartened by how people are being so quickly radicalized. Shocked that such a strike is being pulled off through the frantic work making up for a lack of years of coalition building.
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 7
Op-Ed: GEO strike gains momentum despite smears from ‘U’ administration
bit.ly/3hsECzi
"Overwhelmingly, the University’s response has mischaracterized GEO’s decision to strike, our demands and prior steps GEO had taken to avoid the strike. The rhetoric used in both internal and external coverage of the protests, rallies and work stoppage has sought to paint the University administrators as victims who have been working tirelessly with unreasonable graduate students."
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 7
Oh, the president of the university is pursuing legal action against the union
way to NOT convince us that you're all about $$$ sir!
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 8
We're still out here
I;m sorry to link to Twitter, but there has been a COVID outbreak in the school of dance because of the lack of protocols, testing, and infrastructure to prevent it:
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 8
I’m so tired, I’m so worn out, I’m irritated about this injunction and I’m sick of this administration
But
I’m delighted and heartened by how this is radicalizing so many people, by the strength of the solidarity between people and the donations we’ve received and the fervent support from people outside of this university
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 9
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/columns/op-ed-policing-public-health-issue
"Institutions of higher education can reduce the harmful effects of policing by critically examining existing contracts with local police departments, actively pursuing alternatives and modeling the type of transformative change that is required through the management and funding of their own campus safety programs."
The Michigan Daily has been an incredible source for op-eds and for news on the strike (don't bother with M-live)
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 9
Pres. Schlissel keeps on dismissing the anti-policing demands of the strike, this time saying there's no "community input'
Here's a letter, supported by prominent abolitionist organizations and collectives in Washtenaw County, explaining how defunding campus cops actually benefits the entire city of Ann Arbor
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-geos-abolitionist-strike-and-safety-for-all
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 9
Oh look we're in Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/09/16/unrest-and-strikes-hit-university-michigan
The strike is over. We folded under threat of the injunction and a possible civil suit, even though we made next to no progress on our demands.
Fear of repression outweighed any meaningful progress that was made. How humiliating.
"Even as GEO seriously fought for and continually affirmed the importance of the anti-policing demands, and indeed the importance of an abolitionist strike, membership began to act in ways that mirrored the dynamics of the very entities they were seeking to abolish."
Six Reflections on an Abolitionist Strike at the University of Michigan
covid at the university of Michigan
I’m a few days late but here’s GEO’s statement on a 14-day stay in place order mandated not by the university but by the Washtenaw County Public Health department: https://www.geo3550.org/2020/10/20/geo-covid-19-caucus-statement-on-stay-in-place-order-issued-20-october-2020/
My students have to shelter in place for 14 days but they can still go to class, go get food, and football games are still on
At every turn, every angle, UM prioritizes money over health and safety ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ fuck this place.
covid at the university of Michigan
Please note that 60% of the COVID-19 cases in Washtenaw County are students at the University of Michigan, and that UM testing services are so poorly put together that students went to the county testing sites instead — choking out residents of the county and causing a drain on local resources
Note that UM has a $12 billion endowment that they have not touched and refuse to use except for construction projects.
Again, I hate it here.
@jasminee I’m sorry. But you still made your demands public and got people to pay attention to them. It’s never a complete loss.
@jasminee Thank you for fighting.
@jasminee I am so sorry to hear this. I was really hoping that the grad students and RAs would prevail.
@parsonsj AFAIK the RAs are still fighting, and they need much more support and love right now.
UM GEO 3550 Strike Day 9
@jasminee echoing "don't bother with M-Live" -- that org has gutted journalism in Michigan
Why we must support GEO: The historical power of strikes at the University
by Brittany Bowman
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/opinion/why-we-must-support-geo-historical-power-strikes-university
From the initial GEO strike in 1975 to the Black Action Movement to the current GEO strike of 2020, here's a great summary of why strikes work at the University of Michigan