Central Michigan University graduate assistants (GAs) have voted 152-21 to be represented by the Graduate Student Union. The unit of 450 teaching and administrative assistants is affiliated with AFT Michigan and the AFT and the AFL-CIO. They teach, grade, tutor, and perform administrative duties on the university's Mt. Pleasant campus. 

By the time they cast their ballots on May 4th and 5th in an election supervised by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, the GAs had heard from many across the campus and the state, including legislators and the governor. In the end, the strength of the vote was a repudiation of the strong-arm tactics of the administration, which raised the heat in the final days of the organizing drive by sending a letter urging the GAs to vote no on the question of union representation.

In that April 21 letter, CMU interim dean of the College of Graduate Studies Roger Coles wrote to all CMU graduate assistants telling them that the university was opposed to the GAs having a union. The opposition, he wrote, is "based on the firm belief that a union of GAs is contrary not only to the best interests of our students, but also to the best interests of our University as well."

As it happened, the Michigan AFL-CIO was holding its biannual meeting the following day. Delegates were appalled to hear of CMU's interference, says AFT Michigan president David Hecker. "That message, coming from a taxpayer-subsidized university that gets the rest of its money from tuition paid by working class families, is abhorrent," says Hecker.

Twice during the day-long event, he says, delegates went to their phones and called the CMU provost's office to say, ‘if this is the position of CMU, we can't see sending our kids and grandkids there.'

Hecker says the president also was urged to retract the letter but refused.

Then, on April 30, the CMU grad assistants heard words of encouragement from the state capital. Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm wrote to urge the GAs to vote and expressed her view of the integral role unions play in the nation, state and on university campuses. "No one can make this decision for you and no one should be allowed to intimidate you as you exercise this fundamental right," she said.

The same day, members of both the Michigan Senate and House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittees sent a letter to thank the GAs "for all you do" and to "offer our support for your efforts to unionize." Alluding to their role in "determining state funding for Michigan's 15 public universities," they noted their belief that the AFT-affiliated graduate assistant unions at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University and Western Michigan University have enhanced "quality by working to not only improve pay and working conditions, but by giving graduate assistants a collective voice at the university."

In the end, however, it was how the grad assistants weighed in that counted. By voting for the union, they affirmed their right to negotiate health insurance, salary, tuition waivers, and other conditions of employment with the university administration. Overall, however, the central issue for the GSU was recognition: "We need a union to advocate for our rights" said Shelley Leininger a GA in Clinical Psychology and a member of the union's organizing committee. "A union will give us a voice at the university."