Support our sociology department GSIs

Dear Sociology Department community members,

As many of you know, GSIs in our sociology department were informed on April 25 2023 that their April paycheck has officially been withheld. These are our community members who have been standing up for a fair living wage for graduate workers and for better working and learning conditions at the University of Michigan, and they are now being put in a position of even more dire financial insecurity as retaliation from the university. Most .5 GSIs will be left with a paycheck of $67 on April 28th to cover an entire month of living costs (estimated at $3,208 for Ann Arbor with no dependents according to the MIT living wage calculator). This is one more step taken by this university administration to retaliate against graduate workers, instead of meaningfully engaging at the bargaining table to address our very real and well-researched needs.

In response, we (GEO stewards, strike team members, and allied graduate students in the department) are launching this solidarity fund to support our peers teaching in the sociology department who are having their paychecks withheld. This department solidarity fund will be used entirely to provide additional mutual aid support to GSIs in our department (eg. grocery store gift cards or food/rent support). This solidarity fund is intended to complement the needs-based general GEO Strike Fund (https://givebutter.com/GEOStrikeFund) – while we would like to be able to transfer cash to our GSIs, our department strike team is unable to process the likely required tax forms, and we encourage you to also donate to the GEO strike fund where these transfers are possible. Any remaining funds from the department solidarity fund exceeding the needs of our department GSIs will be donated back to the GEO general fund.

We encourage anyone who has the means to contribute to this department-level solidarity fund to support our community members. Our initial goal is to raise $5,400, which would cover a $100 grocery gift card for each of our teaching GSIs to support them in covering essential costs. We also encourage anyone with additional means to support the general needs-based general GEO Strike Fund (https://givebutter.com/GEOStrikeFund) open to all GSIs and GSSAs without pay across our campus community.

We stand in solidarity with our peers who are once again targeted by this university administration and with our allies who are taking active steps to support our efforts towards a conclusion of this strike that meets the needs of graduate workers in this university and our department.

In Solidarity,

Sociology Department Strike Team