Michigan State University Extension employees will now be protected by a union after a successful vote this week.
Both bargaining units involved in the vote approved of the decision with a resounding "yes", with one at 74% and the other at 80%. After certification from the state, employees will officially be members of the Union of Nontenure Track Faculty.
Kalamazoo MSU Extension employee Jeremy Jubenville told WCMU this is something the Extension has been working towards since 2022.
"There are things that we that we've been asking for in our workplace; Conditions and compensation packages that we've asked for for decades," said Jubenville. "And those have been the ones that administration has been most resistant to changing. So we feel we need to see it at a table in order to make those changes."
MSU Extension works directly with each county in Michigan for multiple different facets such as natural resources, agriculture, healthcare, and is the back office for the state's 4-H programs.
"I'm looking forward to sitting down at the table with administrators at that at Michigan State and working together to find like mutually beneficial for all of us," Jubenville said. "I'm looking forward to a more stable future for a lot of workers here at Michigan State."
Stathis Pauls works with the Extension in Detroit. He said unionizing gives employees protections for their positions and benefits they didn't have before.
"We love what we do. You know we do it for our communities. We do it for the passion that we feel for our various specialties and we want to continue serving the great folks of Michigan and I think the best way for us to do that is some reassurance," Pauls said.
