Get to know your Staff Organizer!

What is your name?

Michael Marchman

What pronouns do you use?

He/Him/His

Where are you from?

Iowa

What is your level of education?

Got 3/4 of way through PhD before deciding to change course. My MA and dissertation work were in the fields of Economic and Cultural Geography, specifically Labor Geography. I did research with/on taxi drivers working in the tourism industry on the Eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

What is your educational background (e.g., degree, subject, school)?

I have an MA in Geography from the University of Iowa (where I was Campus Chief Steward of COGS (Campaign to Organize Graduate Students), United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), Local 896. I was ABD in Geography at the University of Kentucky before deciding to leave academia to focus, instead, on union organizing.

What has your career focused on?

I’m deep into the world academic labor organizing

What job(s) do you have now or have had in the past?

I’m the GTFF’s Staff Organizer. My job is to help the GTFF achieve the goals of the membership and to make the GTFF the strongest, most badass grad union in the country.

How many years have you been a member of GTFF?

2 (since 2016)

What roles have you held within GTFF?

Staff

What is your favorite aspect of GTFF?

The amazing members who have and continue to volunteer countless hours to build GE power at UO and who have won an outstanding contract and built a strong, vibrant, democratic union.

What are your goals for GTFF for the coming year?

My goals are your goals – a kick-ass contract and 90% membership.

What else do you feel is important for GTFF members to know about you?

I am a proud former member of a graduate employee union and have experienced graduate employee life at both a unionized university (UIowa) and a non-unionized university (UKentucky). The difference is night-and-day. I’ve also worked as an adjunct professor in the US and the Netherlands. I’m deeply committed to democratic unionism and the struggle to make a better world.

Studs the cat and the Class Struggle