6/10/22 LEO-GLAM Bargaining Recap

First off, a huge thanks to everyone who showed up for the walk-out on Thursday—in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Flint, and online. We made a strong showing away from the table, which gives us the confidence to hold our position at the table. 

Salary

We put forward a salary counter that continues to demonstrate our commitment to improving salaries for our members across all three campuses. At this stage in the game, we believe we have reached a shared understanding with university administration on the overall structure of the salary article, and we hope to spend our remaining time at the table talking about dollar amounts.

Professional Development

We have not yet reached agreement on the activities professional development funds may be used for, and are troubled by administration’s unwillingness to acknowledge that $700 is insufficient. We maintained our position that professional association fees should be included and will continue to fight for adequate funding.  

University administration requested a mediator from MERC, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, and we have been assigned Richard Ziegler. We had a productive and informative conversation with Richard, and we were pleased to hear his assessment that our progress to date has been impressive, especially given that it is a first contract. 

If you want to see better salaries and more support for professional development, we need you to keep showing up for bargaining and be ready for further contract actions!

We will once again add a special bargaining session mid-week, which is scheduled for Wednesday June 15th from 3-5pm, using the regular links. Members are also encouraged to register for our upcoming General Membership Meeting, June 23rd at noon. 

We look forward to seeing you at bargaining on Wednesday and again on Friday!