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The Michigan Employment Relations Commission has denied a petition from the Graduate Employees' Organization of the University of Michigan, which represents graduate student instructors, to also be able to represent graduate research assistants. The commission found that the work of the research assistants directly advances their own educational career interests in ways that make their relationship with the university primarily one of being students, not employees. The GEO is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.
Brandon Valentine, a graduate student and co-chair of GEO's Communications Committee, issued this statement: "We are not surprised that a board full of Governor [Rick] Synder's appointees would go out of their way to attack the rights of working people. This unnecessary ruling by MERC serves no other purpose than to insert the politics of an unelected body into higher education. GEO stands by the fact that GSRAs are employees of the university and deserve to have their collective bargaining rights recognized."
