EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Graduate Employees Union at Michigan State University held a rally in front of the Hannah Administration Building on Thursday, May 2nd to demand a reasonable response on their contract proposals for wage increases. Despite receiving economic proposals on February 18th and on Thursday, April 18th, the representatives from the university finally offered their counter-proposal that functionally reflects a cut to current salary increases contractually guaranteed in our soon-to-expire contract while barely raising the current minimum. These “raises” will leave graduate assistants trailing annual cost of living increases in the Ingham County area
Graduate assistants making the minimum stipend at MSU trail other Big 10 schools, and make less than ¾ of a living wage for the area, with many students meeting the federal classification of “severely rent burdened”. While negotiations have made progress on non-economic issues , when GEU proposed increases in minimum stipend they were met with suggestions to apply for federal housing assistance programs and these ineffective “raises”.
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