(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/28/2023) A Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) bill ending the prohibition on graduate student research assistant (GSRA) unions passed the House Labor Committee this morning, but its Rep. Carrie A. Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor) counterpart, which also extended the provision to student athletes, did not move.
Irwin’s SB 185 gives graduate research assistants an employee designation and allows them to unionize, ending the prohibition at Michigan’s public universities that started when research assistants at the University of Michigan (U of M) began attempts to organize 10 years ago.
Lecturers, graduate student instructors and other professors already have the ability to organize, but March 2012 legislation passed during former Gov. Rick Snyder's administration specified that GSRAs were not public employees entitled to collective bargaining rights under Michigan's Public Employment Relations Act (PERA).
Irwin’s bill originally expanded PERA to include graduate student research assistants, independent contractors and student athletes.
However, after his bill received mixed reviews over the classification of college athletes, and the potential financial repercussions on universities, the Senator nixed the student athlete portion of his legislation.
But Rheingans pushed to keep student athletes in the package with her HB 4497, which received a June hearing.
She made the argument that these are students first, not athletes, and should be protected against exploitation and overwork.
Thursday, Rheingans sat in the House Labor Committee for the duration of the meeting, and told MIRS that while Irwin’s bill passed 7-3, the real news was that her bill was not taken up.
Irwin’s bill was supported by the Michigan Education Association and opposed by the Michigan Association of State Universities.
When asked if Rheingans expected her bill to also be voted on, Rheingans admitted that no, she didn’t, but “I’m still going to send out a statement.” However, a statement did not come.
In other news, the committee recommended Rep. Will Snyder (D-Muskegon)’s HB 4960 , which prohibits employers from asking about a job applicants’ expunged record, to the House Criminal Justice Committee.
The bill is one half of a Rep. Kristian C. Grant (D-Grand Rapids) package that also includes HB 4948 , prohibiting landlords from asking the same question.
