Michigan Attorney General: Allowing research assistants to unionize would damage U-M

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Michigan Attorney General: Allowing research assistants to unionize would damage U-M
11:11 AM, Dec. 1, 2011
By David Jesse
Detroit Free Press Education Writer


Allowing University of Michigan graduate student research assistants to unionize would “significantly damage” U-M and harm all Michigan residents, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said in a brief filed this week to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

Schuette wants MERC to uphold a 1981 ruling that the GSRAs are students, not employees, and shouldn’t be allowed to form a union when the commission decides on the issue later this month.

The debate on whether 2,200 GSRAs should be allowed to hold an election to form a union has split U-M. Administrators, led by President Mary Sue Coleman, have been vocal in their belief the GSRAs are students, not employees. However, the Board of Regents voted earlier this year in a straight party vote that they are employees and should be allowed to unionize if they want.

-snip-

Schuette’s involvement continues a pattern of intervening in political and social-issue cases. For example, he has filed a brief supporting Julea Ward, a former Eastern Michigan University graduate counseling student who claims she was kicked out of the program when she sought to refer a gay client to another counselor, saying her religious beliefs wouldn’t allow her to counsel a gay person.


Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20111201/NEWS06/111201025/Michigan-Attorney-General-Allowing-research-assistants-unionize-would-damage-U-M?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

[Sabriel]

1. Yes, because it's been soooo damaging for the UW

Just look at the tragedy in Madison when the TAA formed.

Idiot.

(Speaking as a former TAA member.)

[KamaAina]

2. Wouldn't that name be pronounced "shitty"?

This is the same guy who supported a grad student at nearby Eastern Michigan after they gave her the boot for refusing to counsel a gay student. :eyes:

[SoapBox]

3. ...such bullshit.

[BlueIris]

4. Sure it would. And that really justifies using students as slave labor.

Asshat.