The Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS) temporarily suspended negotiations between the University of Minnesota and its Graduate Labor Union (GLU) on Oct. 11, following over a year of negotiation.

The University filed a petition with BMS to determine whether graduate and professional fellows and trainees are part of the Graduate Assistant Bargaining Unit. GLU maintains these groups are part of the Graduate Assistant Bargaining Unit, while the University maintains they are not.

The day after the University filed its petition, BMS issued a Maintenance of Status Quo order that suspended negotiations until a determination is made, according to University spokesperson Jake Ricker in an email to the Minnesota Daily. Suspension of negotiation is required when such an order is issued while the BMS reviews the petition.

Ricker said mediation will resume once BMS completes its review and issues a decision.

“The University looks forward to resolving this issue and resuming mediation,” Ricker said in the email.

Graduate fellows are graduate students who conduct research and teach at the University. They are not considered employees of the University and therefore do not have many of the protections University employees have.

The contract would have applied to students who fall under the Minnesota Public Employment Labor Relations Act (PELRA). PELRA allows for the unionization of university student workers and for graduate fellows to be part of collective bargaining units or unions. 

Sam Boland, a member of GLU’s bargaining committee, said the University’s interpretation of the law does not change anything because they do not consider graduate fellows to be public employees.

According to an update on the Office of Human Resources website, the University maintains fellowships are non-service awards to graduate students, as fellows do not work assigned hours or under University direction.

Boland said the University’s decision to file the BMS petition on Oct. 10 caught the committee off guard since they have been negotiating for over a year now. The parties have been negotiating for a contract that would raise wages, lower student fees and guarantee better workplace protections for graduate students.

“We did not want to stop bargaining,” Boland said. “So we proposed that we would enter into a joint agreement with the University to suspend negotiations over fellows and let this legal process carry out, then let us continue negotiating over everything else.”

During a bargaining session on Oct. 10, GLU members believed they and the University would issue a joint petition to BMS, Boland said. He said that an hour after the session ended, the University filed its petition without notifying GLU bargaining committee members or the BMS mediator.

“We were just really caught off guard because we were led to believe that they wanted to continue negotiating and sign this joint agreement with us,” Boland said. “They didn’t even have the courage to tell us to our face that they were just going to shut everything down, so it was definitely a feeling of betrayal.”

Since the petition and subsequent order to investigate whether fellows should be part of the bargaining unit was filed, GLU members are no longer legally allowed to hold any bargaining sessions, Boland said.

“Our guess is that the University was getting really nervous,” Boland said. “They realized how dissatisfied members are, and kind of saw the writing on the wall that we were preparing for a strike.”

Graduate student Caleb Allen said part of his job is presenting his research at conferences, which is a way to gain recognition with others in his field and raise the prestige of his department.

Although Allen’s department, art history, was able to give him some aid for travel to an upcoming conference in Toronto, Allen still had to take on $1,000 of credit card debt in order to participate.

“We could have actually had a decent contract by now,” Allen said. “One where, ideally, I would be able to offset some of these conference costs without having to take on more credit card debt.”

Allen said since graduate students are still paying over $1,000 in fees, which is almost half a monthly paycheck, it is hard for them to feel valued by the University.  

“We’re pretty integral to the research process,” Allen said. “And yet, after a year of not bargaining in good faith with us, they can then turn around and file a petition that basically could end up suspending bargaining for even more months.”

International graduate student Chelsea Rodriguez said she came to the University hoping for a contract for graduate students. Now, she is not sure when that will happen.

“I have no idea when we’re going to be able to come to an agreement or a contract,” Rodriguez said. “It just means another semester of paying over $1,000 in fees. It can be really difficult as a financial situation having to put out that money again and again.”

Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately stated PELRA does not allow for graduate fellows to be part of collective bargaining units or unions.