Lecturer Bargaining Update: Bargaining Recap for 2/2/2024
Bargaining slowed somewhat this past Friday, back up on North Campus in Ann Arbor. While we made some good progress on a handful of items, the feeling in the room was one of mounting frustration as we wait for management to respond to key proposals they’ve had since we started bargaining in October. It’s well past time for us to get back a counter on our salary proposal, for example. And there are several substantive proposals currently in LEO's court that we can't or won't send back across to management until we know what’s on the table in terms of pay increases for the next contract period. If management doesn’t take action soon to continue some of these conversations, it will start to feel like they’re deliberately stalling!
The good news from today includes preparing tentative agreements for improvements to Article XI: Harassment (building protocols in the event that LEO members experience or are witness to harassing behavior), to Article XXVII: Posting, Hiring, and Notification, and (one we’re especially happy about) to Article XXVI: Faculty Support, where we’ve increased access to phones, voice messaging systems, and computers for all LEO members, and where the University has agreed to guarantee the use of private office space to anyone when they need it. We also sent across a counter on Article XLIII: Job Security, and we hope we’re nearing a tentative agreement on that one as well.
And because every bit of progress counts: We reached a tentative agreement on Article XL, which states that LEO and the University will share the costs of printing 350 copies of the new contract for distribution once it’s finished—but we still have a lot of work to do before we get there…
The bad news is that we had a small group/ sidebar on our appointments article. They walked back their change to the deadline for major reviews, which they agreed to keep at March 31. However, they are adamant that they need to push back the notification dates for classes until mid June for all (currently it is March 31 and April 30 for LIII/IVs and LI/IIs, respectively). These dates have been in our contract since 2004! Accepting admin’s proposal would mean that international lecturers, for example, would reach the end of the winter term and not know if they should pack up and return home, or have work for the following year. Other lecs would not know if they should renew their lease. We know of no other employee group who is treated with so little regard.
This week on Friday, February 9th, we will bargain In Palmer Commons in the Great Lakes South/Central Room, starting at 9am. RSVP to support your bargaining team!
Be sure to follow our proposals on LEO’s Public Proposal Tracker.
If you join bargaining on Zoom, make sure to change your profile picture and Zoom background.
Dues paying members have access to our Lecturer Slack Workspace where they can get live bargaining updates as well as participate in a myriad of different group conversations where questions get asked and answered and fun is had. Email your steward or LEO staff to join!
We’re only as strong as our collective efforts! Learn about and join one of LEO’s many committees.
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