Lecturer Bargaining Update: Bargaining Recap for 5/14/21
We Moved on Money, Will Admin Move Too?
May 14th was our third Community Bargaining Day with almost 200 lecturers and allies in attendance! There were undergraduate students, GEO members, TT Faculty, other unionized employees as well as community, staff, & family members joining Lecturers to demonstrate our collective strength.
Lecturers & Allies hold up messages indicating what they’d like to see come out of this Bargaining campaign.
We started the day with our Computer MoU proposal, which we are hopeful is near agreement after some final wordsmithing. Next, we received their Workload proposals on Article XXVIII (Workload), MoU 7 (Title Bridge between I/II to III/IV), and MoU 2 (Full-time Opportunities). The Workload Subcommittee will be meeting this week, and we expect to have a counter next Friday.
We finally, finally, finally received a counter from Admin on Teaching Professor! The good news is that unlike the flat refusal of 2018, they have actually agreed that some lecs deserve this title. However, only Lecturers who’ve passed a Continuing Review (i.e. after a minimum 12 years of teaching) are eligible “to be considered” for the title change, no guarantee of the title. In a particularly Kafka-esque turn of phrase, “An unsuccessful determination of consideration for ‘Teaching Professor’ is not, in and of itself, a determination of an unsuccessful Continuing Review. Similarly, a successful Continuing Review is not, in and of itself, a successful determination for consideration of ‘Teaching Professor.’” So it is essentially an award, like Collegiate Lecturer, only without the money prize! And the title will need to be renewed every 7 years. Nor was there any movement on the need for some schools to use the title as a recruiting tool. Nevertheless, at least the door is open! The subcommittee will meet this week to work up a counter-proposal to present to the larger bargaining team.
Allies joined Lunch with LEO to hear an update on Bargaining to this point, as well as an update from our sibling union UPAMM(Physician Assistants) on how their first contract negotiations are going. Lecturers and allies then engaged in a “Phone Zap” to the administrators on all 3 campuses calling for a fair contract. We concluded lunch by writing down what folks would like to see coming out of the contract to hold up during the Salary presentation.
Nancy Kursman, Dearborn Lecturer IV, kicked off the salary presentation with her testimony about how far behind Dearborn and Flint Lecturer salaries are when compared not only to Ann Arbor but also peer institutions. Next Simone Sessolo prefaced our salary counter with some of the figures on the massive Dearborn and Flint layoffs in the last two years. Our counter-proposal was packaged with Child Care and demonstrated big movement on our part:
Minimums: Ann Arbor would increase each year by $3K, Flint & Dearborn by $6,333, such that in Year 3 of the contract all starting salaries will be $60K.
Raises: All Lecturers hired before 9/1/21 will receive a pay increase equivalent to the increase to the minimums listed above for all three years, with additional raises of 2.5% in Year 2, and 3.5% in Year 3.
Wage Theft: LII’s who’ve elected to get paid on a 12-month schedule will receive a corrective payment for any deficits in their July & August paychecks going back to 2011. The University’s current policy of raises only taking effect on Sept 1st, means that the 2 prepayments that LII’s on a 12 month payment schedule have been getting, an advance on the work they will be doing after the raises have taken effect, have been short-changed. This phenomenon dates back to when LEO first negotiated the 12 month pay schedule option during the 2010/11 bargaining campaign.
Altogether, these changes to our Salary proposal total a reduction in $5 million or so from our previous proposal. LEO has made significant movement on our demands, demonstrating our willingness to be reasonable and that we are bargaining in good faith. We look forward to a counter from Admin soon that also shows significant movement from their side.
The Child Care proposal that was packaged replaced the $2,940 subsidy with the inclusion of LEO on a committee to make recommendations to the Employer regarding ways to make childcare more affordable and accessible for all University employees. However, because we presented it as a package with the salary proposal, we can return to our original demand for $$ should they reject the salary proposal.
May 21, the usual Friday bargaining. We expect to receive a salary counter after our proposal. Most likely at 1 pm.
And join the Contract Action Team for an outdoor bargaining watch party on Wednesday, May 26th from 10 am-3pm in the Ingall's Mall canopy on the Ann Arbor Campus. Masks are required, and we encourage you to bring an outdoor blanket or folding chair if possible. RSVP at https://bit.ly/OutdoorBargainingRSVP. Please share the registration link with students, tenure-track colleagues, family, and friends.