They Probably Should Not Have Publicly Admitted That

The University of Michigan Graduate Students Instructors via their Union, are on strike.

A little problem is the strike is illegal.

Even worse, they admit on their union website that the strike is illegal:

Yes. UM is a public university, and it is unlawful for public sector employees to strike in Michigan. In addition, our contract has a “no-strike clause” specifying that we cannot strike. Striking would therefore be a breach of contract and the University could legally discipline or fire us. This was also the situation in our 2020 strike. The question is whether the University would retaliate against workers and the union rather than pay us a living wage. UM is highly unlikely to fire all of its GSIs and GSSAs because of how essential grad workers are to its day-to-day operations (see above). Striking is not a crime. Striking is a civil rather than a criminal offense.

Kinda problematic to publicly announce that you know what you are doing is illegal and a breach of your current contract.

But worry not, their defense seems to be:  They can't fire us all!

UM could legally fire striking workers, and will almost certainly threaten to do so. However, there are a variety of reasons why UM has never fired GSIs/GSSAs in previous GEO strikes (including the 2020 strike), and why no grad worker has lost their place at their university over the past decade of strikes. In addition, we would try to negotiate with the University for a non-retaliation agreement as part of any strike resolution. This is one reason why it is crucially important that we all stay on strike together to ensure all of our collective safety: Without enough strike power, we may not be capable of getting UM to sign a non-retaliation agreement at the end of the strike.

It's a cunning plan Cotton, let's see how it works out for them. The Air Traffic Controllers Union would like a word.

Then again, President Ono is no President Reagan, and we have pro-Union Democrats ensconced at every level of government from Ann Arbor up through the state (with Whitmer already publicly supporting the grad students in their illegal strike)  to the feds, so none of them will likely try to enforce the law against public sector strikes, so this tactic may indeed pay off.

Now the Graduate Student Instructors are indeed likely being underpaid, and they can thank their last union bargaining team for that one. 

The rest of their demands are impressive leftist pap - Their top demand: Defunding the Police on campus and exchanging them for unarmed security guards.  Verily, the Leftists have learned nothing and forgotten everything.   

Other demands include not allowing ICE on campus; Abortion rights for grad students - seriously have they forgotten the election results already?;  "Gender affirming care" - by reducing mental assessment of the person, not treating it as a mental illness,  and getting gender dysphoric people onto hormones faster - what could possibly go wrong with that?;  and more.

Most likely these demands will be dropped in return for money or some face-saving statement.

Should the GSIs be paid more? I'd say overall, yes.  

Should they be participating in an illegal strike that they know is illegal that is harming their fellow students and not the University, not to mention making idiotic demands?  No.