Category: Blog

Fellow staff, Since our last update in December, many more staff in Student & Instructional Services have become members of our union, University Staff United. With the support of a majority of our colleagues, we now expect to move forward to official recognition in the coming weeks. That recognition will give us the legal right to bargain…

This Monday, we gathered together to discuss their working conditions and how their wages impact them. In our pre-event survey, we heard from over 150 staff about their experiences living on the low wages paid to highly qualified people, like us, here at the University of Michigan. One USU Member shared that “Between my student…

Colleagues, You may have heard that University leadership is considering serious cuts to funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs for the upcoming year. As staff, we know just how alarming that suggestion should be. “Programs” aren’t abstract: we’re the ones working day in and day out to support all of our most vulnerable…

Last week, ITS leadership announced that remote workers would be required to return to a two-day-a-week in-person schedule in the coming months. This is an example of what happens when you aren’t unionized: management makes decisions without your input that impact your working conditions and home life. Join USU members and fellow ITS staff for…

We, the organizing committee of University Staff United, believe in the right of all U-M staff to exercise their constitutional right to free speech. We stand in solidarity with staff who face wrongful termination or punitive measures taken as a direct and improper response to protected speech.

We, the organizing committee members of University Staff United – Local 284, affirm and will protect all U-M employees’ right to speak on how political and managerial actions of Management and the Board of Regents have impacted their jobs to their peers in U-M, at comparable institutions and career fields, and to media outlets without…

As we, the staff, who run commencement are incredibly aware: there is tightened security and additional, undemocratically adopted policy overshadowing the events so many of us work to make possible. USU members* Anne Elias and Rita Lee drafted an open letter responding to a request from management for volunteers to manage protesters, and sent it…