Lecturer Bargaining Update: Bargaining Recap for 3/26/2021
“Come for the Bargaining But Stay For The Caucus Room”
Attending bargaining, and participating in the caucus room, is an educational experience beyond just understanding the language of the contract itself. The conversations that happen in caucus and Lunch with LEO help us articulate the spirit of our collective action as well as building our sense of community and cohesion amongst all lecturers. You can learn a lot about the benefits of our existing contract as we fight to get an even better one. Also when hearing from colleagues in other academic units, and on different campuses, it becomes clear the complexity and diversity of our members’ needs. It’s important to show up not just for our own self-interest but also for the needs of our coworkers.
Altogether 98 lectures attended bargaining throughout the day on Friday, which is only slightly below our average of 114. Though many folks might be experiencing Zoom fatigue these days, we have had the greatest turn out for this bargaining campaign than any other in the history of LEO. We need to keep it up! Another vital way to put pressure on Admin is to educate our students and other allies using our Power Building Toolkit (under the Actions tab) as well as encouraging them to attend our next Community Open Bargaining Day on April 16th.
We will also have in-person actions next week! Join the Contract Action Team (CAT) at socially-distanced in-person actions on each campus at the start of April, where you can pick up custom-made LEO masks and yard signs. Attend whichever event is most convenient for you.
Dearborn: Monday, April 5, 11:00am
Flint: Tuesday, April 6, 12:30pm
Ann Arbor: Saturday, April 10, 1:00pm
Please let us know you are coming at this RSVP link.
Let us know if you’d like to join/help CAT: ashlee@leounion.org
At The Bargaining Table
The morning began with counters from Admin on MoU 2 (“Full-Time Opportunities for Lecturers”), MoU 7 (the bridge between L1/L2 to L3/L4), and their Felony Disclosure proposal. They rejected our language on MoU 2. Then they rejected our inclusion of “range of instruction” as a factor in promotion from L1/L2 to L3/L4 in MoU 7, even though “range of instruction” is part of the hiring language for L3’ & L4’s. Lastly, they returned to their original language on the Felony Disclosure.
After an hour-long caucus session, our Bargaining Team delivered our first Salary counter-proposal, which signaled our commitment to parity, longevity, and central funds going to Dearborn and Flint. We kept all of our languages the same with this exception: we offered to drop the annual raise for year one on the condition that the full-time salary rate for all lecturers hired prior to Fall 21 would increase the amount as the minimums. This increase to the minimums translates to a $9,000 increase for all lectures in Ann Arbor and a $19,000 increase for all lecturers in Dearborn & Flint. Removing the additional annual increase of 3% will amount to a $3.6 million dollar decrease from our starting salary proposal. We expect to get a counter-proposal from Admin this coming Friday, April 2nd, and hope they make a similar, significant movement from their side.
By the afternoon we were able to put together 6 member testimonials in response to Admin’s rejection of our language for MoU 7 about the importance of “range of instruction” when considering whether or not a Lecturer I/II should be reclassified as a Lecturer III/IV.
Discussions in caucus and on Slack led to these members sharing their stories: Erik Marshall & Aurora Harris from the Dearborn campus and Nora Krinitsky, Hannah Ensor, Leigh Stuckey, & Sascha Crasnow from the Ann Arbor campus.
Fan art of Aurora Harris, Dearborn Lecturer who gave her testimony at both the Board of Regents Mtg and Friday’s Bargaining, drawn by member AndyT.
We also gave our counter-proposal on MoU 10, DEI Related Initiatives for Lecturers, which includes an increase of Inclusive Teaching Professional Development fund and an Annual Lecturer Excellence in Inclusive Teaching Award. After deliberation in our respective caucuses, we were able to come to a tentative agreement by the end of the day! That now puts us up to 3 TA’s out of 34 total proposals. Although we are celebrating this important victory in our contract fight, now is the time for some serious movement on the other issues that are most important to members. On our side we’ve made a significant commitment to the negotiating process including movement on benefits and professional development funds, in addition to the most recent salary counter, amounting to $7 million dollars less than our original proposals. The majority of the proposals are still in their court.