This email was originally sent to faculty on February 26, 2026, and is archived here for reference. For updates on the 2025–2026 GEO negotiations, please visit the GEO bargaining updates page. To receive ongoing updates, you may also subscribe to the GEO negotiations newsletter.

Dear Colleagues,

The university and the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) entered labor negotiations on November 14, 2025, as specified in the terms of the current UM-GEO contract. I am writing to provide an update on negotiations, as I promised to do in my email to faculty about negotiations last October.

In short: bargaining is currently on a 28-day pause ordered by a state-appointed mediator, and this email explains the circumstances that led to that decision. The paragraphs below provide 1) essential context, 2) how bargaining logistics are central to the current status of negotiations, and 3) details about the 28-day pause.

Context

The University of Michigan is home to 18 labor unions representing employees across our campuses. In recent years, the number of unionized workers has continued to grow. We are committed to collective bargaining as a process that produces fruitful results; this is evident in the number of successfully bargained contracts currently in place.

We recognize the essential contributions of graduate student employees to our research, teaching, and broader intellectual community. We have bargained with GEO, which currently represents GSIs and GSSAs, since the union’s founding more than fifty years ago. Successive contracts have reflected our commitment to those employees’ welfare, including compensation, health coverage, and working conditions. That commitment remains, and it is the foundation of our approach to this round of negotiations.

To that end, the university has been providing weekly updates through a negotiations newsletter, to which anyone with a U-M email can subscribe. An archive of these updates is available for review on the University Human Resources website.

Bargaining Logistics Are Central to the Current Status of Negotiations

Negotiations are taking place under the supervision of a state-appointed mediator from the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC), which oversees public-sector labor relations in Michigan. The state mediator was engaged in November after GEO and the university were unable to reach an agreement about bargaining logistics despite four months of communication about the topic.

In this case, the term “bargaining logistics” refers to the parameters of the bargaining process itself, which would typically be of little interest to those outside negotiations. However, this is a central point of disagreement between the parties which could have a substantive impact on negotiations and thus merits explanation.

Norms about labor negotiations are largely matters of mutually agreed-upon procedural details, professional courtesy, and practices that both unions and management have found promote productive bargaining. For instance:

• Since both parties must sign tentative agreements on behalf of each entity, it is standard practice to have a designated chief negotiator and negotiating team, irrespective of who else may participate in the negotiations.
• It is typical to exchange information about who is on each party’s bargaining team before negotiations begin.
• Bargaining is done through representatives for each party in sessions limited to, at most, bargaining unit members, which may include some number of “open” sessions for bargaining unit members as well as others with a direct interest in the negotiations to attend en masse.

GEO has demanded that all bargaining sessions be conducted without designating representatives or limiting attendees to those affiliated with U-M. They have also demanded that sessions are open to 150 people in-person. The university does not find such a large group conducive to substantive negotiation. However, in an effort to bridge GEO’s demands, the university has repeatedly offered the following:

• Every negotiation session could include up to 50 in-person attendees, inclusive of the bargaining teams and GEO members. This size is in line with negotiation logistics used with other academic bargaining units.
• Unlimited number of bargaining unit member participants on Zoom, subject to Zoom capabilities. This is intended to support GEO’s desire for transparency with membership while limiting the size of those engaged directly.
• Each party identifies key members of their bargaining team and the positions they hold.

Through communication from July to November, GEO reiterated a desire to have the equivalent of “arena style bargaining,” including ground rules that substantially deviated from those agreed upon during negotiations in 2023. GEO’s position remained that they would not compromise on logistics. They also did not identify any of their representatives.

In an effort to begin negotiations on wages, hours, and working conditions, the university requested a neutral state-appointed mediator to move the process forward. Since then, the parties have not reached an agreement on logistics, which is a permissive subject of bargaining, but have been able to utilize the mediator to pass proposals – a process known as “shuttle bargaining.”

28-day Pause Ordered by State-appointed Mediator

The U-M negotiating team delivered 17 proposals to GEO on November 14, 2025, the first scheduled day of negotiations. Between November 14 and February 12, 2026, GEO did not respond to the university’s proposals or offer any of their own.

On February 12, the state mediator suspended bargaining for 28 days to allow tensions to de-escalate and to achieve conditions necessary for productive negotiations, as detailed in a public letter. The precipitating event for the mediator’s communication took place a few days earlier, when approximately 100 individuals led by GEO members converged on the university’s assigned caucus room in an effort to pressure the university’s bargaining team to accept their conditions for bargaining. She further noted that mediation using shuttle diplomacy remains a recognized and lawful method of bargaining in good faith, and that the university has the right to use this approach.

The mediator also observed that GEO has sought to expand participation in bargaining beyond members of the bargaining unit, including individuals who are not university employees, students, or hold any affiliation with the university. She emphasized that there is no legal duty to bargain with the broader community and that the presence of non-bargaining unit member participants raised concerns about both process integrity and personal safety.

The mediator has directed the parties to establish clear parameters for future bargaining sessions during the 28-day pause so that negotiations can resume in a constructive and orderly manner. The State Mediator will determine if it will be necessary to relocate bargaining/mediation sessions to the MERC offices in Detroit to meet these requirements. The university remains ready to return to bargaining under conditions that are conducive to reaching a successor contract.

GEO has the right to bargain for their best interests, and the university has an obligation, legally, academically, and ethically, to negotiate in good faith and forge a productive path forward. I hope that the current pause will allow the parties to align on process so that substantive bargaining can begin.

The University of Michigan is committed to fair bargaining, respect for the role of the state mediator and MERC, and maintaining an environment in which teaching, research, and learning can continue without disruption, which includes support for our GEO members.

Sincerely,
Laurie K. McCauley, DDS, MS, PhD
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
William K. and Mary Anne Najjar Professor