When graduate students at 

the 
University 
of 
Michigan 

decided to strike in September, 
state law was definitively not on 
their side. 

On the first day of the strike, 

the University filed an unfair 
labor practice complaint against 
the 
Graduate 
Employees’ 

Organization, 
the 
union 

representing more than 2,000 
graduate 
student 
instructors 

and 
graduate 
student 
staff 

assistants, and later followed up 
with a request for a preliminary 
injunction on Sept. 14. 

Members 
of 
GEO 
went 

on strike in protest of the 
University’s fall reopening plan 
and called for more COVID-

19 protections and the right to 
work remotely for all graduate 
student instructors. They also 
demanded the diversion of funds 
from the Division of Public 
Safety and Security, a request 
the University did not grant. 

GEO 
reluctantly 
accepted 

the University’s proposal to end 
the strike because of the legal 
pressure the union was facing. 

“In the face of our power, the 

University of Michigan decided 
to lean on a nearly hundred year 
old union-busting law to sue 
their own graduate students,” 
union leaders wrote in a Sept. 16 
press release. “ … The University 
poured their immense resources 
into legal fees instead of simply 
protecting our community by 
implementing reasonable steps 
toward a safe and just pandemic 
response for all.”

Striking is one tool unions 

have at their disposal to increase 
their power when bargaining 
with employers. However, in 
Michigan, it is illegal for most 
public employees to strike under 
the 1947 Public Employment 
Relations Act. 

This ban is one of several 

pieces of legislation and court 
rulings that have restrained 
the 
power 
of 
unions 
both 

in Michigan and across the 
country.

In 
December 
2012, 
the 

Republican-controlled Michigan 
legislature 
and 
Republican 

Gov. 
Rick 
Snyder 
passed 
a 

law 
cementing 
right-to-work 

legislation in Michigan. Under 
the new law, no employee could 
be required to be an official, dues-
paying member or to pay fees 
supporting the union’s collective 
bargaining. 

Unions are still required to 

represent nonmember employees, 
who continue benefiting from 
many union activities such as legal 
representation and negotiations 
with employers, often resulting in 
higher wages and better benefits. 

Amber McCann, a spokesperson 

for state Sen. Mike Shirkey, 
R-Clarklake, who supports right-
to-work legislation and voted for 
the Michigan bill in 2012, wrote 
in an email to The Michigan Daily 
that Shirkey believes workers 
should not be required to join or 
finance a union’s activities. 

“The driving force behind 

Senator 
Shirkey’s 
support 
of 

‘Freedom to Choose’ (aka RTW 
Legislation) was choice,” McCann 
wrote. “He believes unions have 
the ability to make their case for 
membership and workers have the 
ability to choose whether or not 
that membership is beneficial to 
them.”

According to Kate Andrias, 

professor at the University of 
Michigan Law School, who studies 
labor law, because this kind of 
legislation is labeled as right-to-
work, people often misunderstand 
its purpose, which she said is to 
weaken unions. 

“Right-to-work is not actually 

about a right-to-work — it doesn’t 
give anyone a job or protect 
anyone from being fired without 
cause,” Andrias said. “Rather, it 
is simply a tactic to defund and 
weaken unions. The effect of 
right-to-work laws is to weaken 
workers’ bargaining power at 
work and their influence in the 
political system.” 

The 2012 right-to-work law 

justifies 
the 
prohibition 
on 

strikes 
by 
public 
employees, 

claiming regardless of the merit 
of the controversy, they are an 
“economic waste” and that the 

state’s residents should always 
be “considered, respected and 
protected.”

Ian 
Robinson, 
president 

of 
the 
Lecturers’ 
Employee 

Organization, which represents 
non-tenure track faculty members, 
said the union lost approximately 
10 percent of revenue when they 
first felt the effects of new right-
to-work legislation. However, he 
added this is not where he thinks 
the union gets its power.

“Power doesn’t really come 

from money, at least not at the 
margins,” Robinson said. “I mean, 
you need a certain amount of 
money in a union to hire quality 
staff people to help support the 
volunteers that are really at the 
core of the union work in union 
power. If you don’t have a good 
volunteer base and a high level of 

The Washtenaw County Health 

Department issued a stay-in-place 
order for University of Michigan 
undergraduate students Tuesday 
to curb outbreaks of COVID-
19. It will take place effective 
immediately and last until Nov. 3 
at 7 a.m.

In a press release, Jimena 

Loveluck, 
Washtenaw 
County 

Health Officer, said they put the 
order in place because the situation 
has become “critical.” According 
to 
Loveluck, 
U-M-associated 

COVID-19 cases represent over 
60% of local cases.

“This order is necessary to 

reverse 
the 
current 
increase 

in cases,” Loveluck said. “We 
must continue to do what we 
can to minimize the impact on 
the broader community and to 
ensure we have the public health 
capacity to fully investigate cases 
and prevent additional spread of 
illness.”

Undergraduate students, both 

on and off-campus, must stay in 
their residence unless attending 
class, accessing dining services or 
carrying out approved work that 
cannot be done remotely. Students 
who wish to return to a primary 
residence may do so only if they 
have completed the University’s 
procedures for leaving campus 

safely.

Students 
not 
experiencing 

COVID-19 symptoms may still 
leave their residences for a variety 
of 
reasons, 
including 
voting, 

getting medication and going to 
medical appointments, attending 
class, 
participating 
in 
varsity 

sports, going to work if it cannot 
be done remotely or exercising in 
groups of no more than two people.

Under existing state orders, 

people must stay away from those 
not already in their household by 
at least six feet and wear a face 
covering when out in public or 
common areas. No visitors will 
be allowed in on or off-campus 
housing. The county emphasized 
there should be no in-person 
gatherings with people outside of 
people’s households.

According 
to 
the 
county’s 

press 
release, 
the 
University 

also will take further steps out 
of an “abundance of caution” 
to provide options for students 
and instructors such as moving 
more undergraduate courses to 
fully remote instruction for the 
remainder of the fall semester.

In a statement, Robert Ernst, 

executive director of University 
Health Service and associate vice 
president for Student Life, said 
the school was working in close 
coordination with the county.

Editor’s Note: The Michigan 

Daily has used several anonymous 
sources 
to 
report 
this 
story. 

As stated in the article, we are 
honoring our sources’ requests to 
be quoted anonymously due to fears 

of retaliation from their sorority 
houses or the greater fraternity and 
sorority life community, which is 
commonly referred to as Greek life. 

The 
Michigan 
Daily 
has 

uncovered 
a 
previously 

unreported cluster of COVID-
19 cases connected to fraternity 
and sorority life on campus 
after a party between members 
in two houses. The Daily has 

also 
obtained 
documentation 

that multiple fraternities in the 
Interfraternity Council conducted 
fall recruitment of freshmen — a 
violation of the IFC’s moratorium 
on fall rush for first-year students.

The Chi Omega sorority had 

a cluster of COVID-19 cases and 
went on lockdown after members 
of the sorority attended a joint 
party with Delta Chi, a disaffiliated 

University fraternity, according 
to four Panhellenic Association 
members. 

The Daily has obtained an email 

from University Health Service to 
Chi Omega residents about this 
cluster. The cluster is not publicly 
identified 
on 
the 
University 

dashboard. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 21, 2020

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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 4
©2020 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1

STATEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

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Follow The Daily 
on Instagram, 
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EMMA RUBERG & 
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily Staff Reporter & 
Managing News Editor 

CLAIRE HAO & 
JOHN GRIEVE 
Daily News Editor & 
Daily Staff Reporter

See CLUSTER, Page 3

COVID emerges in fraternity and 
sorority life as some chapters party

Cluster of cases identified near campus after a party between members of two 
houses while several fraternities recruit freshmen in violation of IFC’s moratorim 

Laws curbing union power limited graduate students’ 
options in strike, gave University of Michigan leverage

State legislation aided by US Supreme Court ruling, helped ‘U’ in dealing with Graduate Employees’ Organization in labor dispute

County releases 
two-week order 
telling students 
to stay-in-place

The announcement comes amid spiking 
COVID-19 cases in University community

See ORDER, Page 3

DESIGN COURTESY OF MAN LAM CHENG

See STRIKE, Page 2

EMMA STEIN
Daily News Editor 

