Who Are We?
The Graduate Employees Union is a labor union representing more than 1,300 Teaching Assistants working in over 70 departments at Michigan State University.
Teaching Assistants are graduate students who work between 10 and 30 hours weekly teaching, grading, and advising MSU undergraduate and graduate students. As TA’s we provide a personal connection for many MSU students. TAs at MSU teach more than 1/3 of the classes and perform more than 2/3 of the grading for MSU students. The GEU connects campus, reaching across academic/disciplinary/geographical/personal backgrounds. We provide community for graduate employees.
Our Key Bargaining Issues for 2008
Health Care- Health insurance is expensive and a big part of our budgets. The plan provided by MSU is cost prohibitive for insuring dependents and spouses.
Wages- Pay increases that keep up with inflation and housing cost increases. We need pay that helps us cover basic expenses.
Working Conditions- We need teacher training in specific disciplines. Math TAs should be trained in the best way to teach mathematics. We also require access to clean, safe, office space to meet with our students.
