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GEO Holds Press Conference To Continue Addressing Their Strike

University of Michigan

The striking Graduate Employees’ Organization held a press conference Wednesday morning after the University of Michigan asked a judge to require union members to return to work.  


Erin Markiewitz is the vice-president of the GEO and reiterated the union’s demands which include asymptomatic testing on campus and to cut the University of Michigan’s Police Department’s budget by 50% to focus more on COVID-19 response.  Markiewitz says it’s an insult that university administrators requested a temporary injunction against the union strike.

Erin Markiewitz: The University of Michigan’s decision to file an injunction against people fighting for a safe workplace is an insult to this great state’s history of labor unionism.

Other university employees also spoke out against how the university is handling COVID-19 testing on campus.  University officials say they’re testing about 3,000 faculty, staff, and students for COVID-19 a week, but those individuals are volunteering to get tested.  Currently, there is no mandatory testing taking place among the campus population.

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— Jorge Avellan is a reporter for 89.1 WEMU News. Contact him at 734.487.3363 or email him javellan@emich.edu

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