The Republican-led Michigan House has approved a bill aimed at blocking unionization efforts by graduate student research assistants at public universities.
The measure was approved Thursday by a 62-45, mostly party line vote. The House hasn't yet taken a procedural "immediate effect" vote or returned the bill to the Senate, which approved the bill last month. But the measure soon could be headed to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
The legislation specifies that graduate student research assistants would not be considered public employees as related to collective bargaining rights.
The measure comes as University of Michigan graduate student research assistants attempt to unionize.
That case is pending before an administrative judge after the Michigan Employment Relations Commission last year reaffirmed a 1981 decision that bars research assistants from banding together.
A spokeswoman says Governor Snyder is ‘inclined’ to sign the bill into law. If he signs it, the case before the Michigan Employment Relations Commission would be moot.
University of Michigan Graduate Employees Union president Sam Montgomery had a request for Governor Snyder.
“We ask that when the bill reaches the governor’s desk that he leaves this decision in the hands of the commission which is designed to make those decisions," said Montgomery.
A majority of the U of M Regents support letting the graduate research assistants form a union. But University president Mary Sue Coleman and many U of M professors oppose it.
University professors who support the bill say allowing their research assistants to form a union would undermine their mentor-relationship.
