About us
LEO (Lecturers’ Employment Organization) is a democratic organization run by members, mostly volunteers; our leadership consists of lecturers and LACs elected by their colleagues. By standing together through collective bargaining and political action, we build the economic, professional, social, and political power we need to ensure that we are delivering the highest quality of education at the University of Michigan.
We remain committed to fighting for equity across all three campuses of this University, and for a future where there is no disparity between treatment of faculty or students in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, or Flint.
Our contract victories affirm our community’s respect for the teaching profession, and for education as the primary goal of this University. We aim to strengthen public and government support for universal access to high-quality public education at all levels.
Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions.
As a union, we seek to be part of a dynamic and democratic national labor movement, promoting local, national, and international labor solidarity. We believe in a movement that promotes democracy, equality, and justice in society at large, and that actively opposes discrimination.
Our Name
LEO (AFT Local 6244) stands for Lecturers’ Employment Organization, and is the union for non-tenure track faculty including Lecturers (Lecs) and Librarians, Archivists and Curators (LACs) on all three campuses of the University of Michigan (UM). The GLAM in LEO-GLAM stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums, which are the cultural heritage workplaces that are home to our LAC bargaining unit members; we use the hyphenated LEO-GLAM only when referring to the LAC bargaining unit, but not the overall union.
One Union, Two Contracts
Under the umbrella of LEO, there are two bargaining units, one for Lecturers, the other (LEO-GLAM) for LACs, with two separate contracts. While there is significant overlap in how LACs and Lecs contribute to the mission of the university and in the challenges that we face, our working conditions differ. Therefore, although we share a single union infrastructure, we believe that maintaining two separate contracts best serves the needs of our members at this time.
Our History
U-M lecturers began organizing conversations and the gathering of membership cards in 2001, and voted to unionize in 2003 in response to the incredibly poor job security, inconsistent health coverage, and exploitative salaries that were the norm for lecturers at the time. The first LEO CBA was ratified in 2004 following a successful strike. Since then, LEO lecturers have negotiated several more contracts, and authorized two additional strikes in 2008 and 2018.
U-M Librarians, Archivists and Curators (LACs) began organizing conversations in 2020, and voted to unionize under LEO (as LEO-GLAM) in 2021. The first LEO-GLAM CBA was ratified in 2022.
Lecturers and allies rallying in March 2018.
LEO members in front of the UM Big House (stadium).
