Making Change through a Union

Guest Opinion

By Carrie Grishaber | Feb. 8, 2025

We’ve been busy here at Michigan State University Extension. Which, honestly, is really saying something, because we are a notably ambitious and industrious group of workers. We are often described as the “hidden gem” of MSU.

In reality, we are the most accessible arm of MSU, as we have boots on the ground in all 83 counties in Michigan. From Kalkaska to Kalamazoo, and Houghton to Hillsdale, we work every day to improve lives in Michigan with food safety, parenting, working with entrepreneurs, conserving the Great Lakes, and more. The uniting thread among our many varied positions is that we all bring the resources of the university to all the people of our state.

As MSU Extension employees, we serve hard-working Michiganders who are no strangers to uncertain financial futures and changing times. Our state, after all, is built on the backbone of labor that keeps our country running. Michiganders are the ones who pull iron ore from the earth and turn it into powerful engines. We honor and recognize that hardworking heritage.

In this spirit, we are honoring our own labor and organizing as a union. As a unit, we represent the core of Michigan: We are strong, we are persevering, and we are galvanized to action. We know best what we need to do our jobs, and we are proud to share that in a meaningful way. We support our union because of our desire to advocate for what will allow our families to thrive and for us to continue our important work in the great State of Michigan.

I myself am a finance and homeownership educator. On a daily basis, I teach our community members how to cultivate strong financial futures for themselves and their families.

I offer courses on preparing for homeownership knowing that colleagues are delaying the same dreams in order to work at MSU Extension. I empower my community to navigate money challenges while my coworkers are making the weighty decision to leave their meaningful positions behind in search of firmer financial footing. This is why I support our union.

Fostering a resilient future with ensured rights not only strengthens the lives of MSU Extension staff, who are counted among those aforementioned hard-working Michiganders, but creates a steadfast example for our community. We seek to be confident in our futures so that we can make others confident in theirs. We unite in order to protect what drew us to MSU Extension and make it sustainable for ourselves and those who follow after us.

It is evident what benefits our union will have for our colleagues and the Michiganders we serve, but we remain in consideration of MSU’s stated value of equity. The excellent Office of Culture, Access, and Belonging at MSU does not shy away from any opportunity to enhance equity in our work, and neither should we.

Labor unions promote wage-setting practices that are less susceptible to implicit bias. I, for one, certainly look forward to our union solidifying MSU’s commitment to inclusion in this manner.

As with all community-based workers, our impact is most purposeful and significant when we are able to dig deep and remain in our roles for extended periods. We succeed because we build trust and relationships over time. The guaranteed protections of our union will help make this possible for many of us.

By forming our union, we are pulling up a long-deserved chair to the table that manages the resources and controls the pocketbook. MSU has more than twice as much money as it had in 2022, but it is choosing not to spend that money on MSU Extension.

Forming our union will give us the ability to negotiate with the administrators making that choice and make sure more of that money goes into the extension program as a whole.

You, reading this from the comfort of your home, have more in common with us than you may think. We are fulfilling the desire that is in all of us to improve our circumstances. We see a place where we can make beautiful, radiant, actual change and are putting in the hard work to get there.

In the sludgy, gray onslaught of hard-to-swallow news, let this be a beam of positivity. Keep an eye on us—we’re making this change possible.

Carrie Grishaber is a Finance & Homeownership Educator and HUD Certified Housing Counselor with Michigan State University Extension. For more information on MSU Extension United go to theuntf.org/extension.