Lecturer Bargaining Update: Bargaining Recap for 6/11/21
More than half of the proposals have Tentative Agreements (TA’s) but many of the proposals still on the table have been some of the most contentious in this 6-month process.
The high point of the day was the tentative agreement on our workload package of MOU 2 (Full-Time Opportunities) and MOU 7 (Title Bridge between I/II to III/IV). MOU 7 now includes a “range of instructional expertise” as an explicit factor in decisions to make a LI/II into a LIII/IV in accordance with the existing language in Article XI.
Again we communicated our appreciation of management’s agreement to increase the professional development cap to $1500 per lecturer per academic year. Additionally, we countered by coming down 10% on the funds per campus bringing it to $180,000 for Ann Arbor and $45,000 for Dearborn and Flint. We preserved the Appendix and the requirement for the committee to review applications at least 5 times per year.
Fan art of Bargaining Team member Jimmy Brancho (Lecturer, Sweetland Center for Writing, Ann Arbor campus) who was one of several working on the Workload proposals that were TA’ed last week!
Fan art by AndyT (Lecturer, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor campus).
After much deliberation by the Bargaining Committee, we presented a Salary counter that reduced our proposal by $2 million. This movement on our part was to demonstrate our dedication to bargaining in good faith. We stressed our commitment to “moral minimums” and parity across the campuses.
We returned to the previous minimums in our proposal. 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.
We made our movement in the annuals. While lecturers hired before 9/1/21 will still receive a pay increase equivalent to the increase to the minimums listed above for all three years. We shifted the raises to 1.5% in Year 2, and 2.5% in Year 3.
Everything else stayed the same, including corrective payments for lecs on the 12-month pay cycle for July and August paychecks (beginning July 2011), $2100 for long serving lecs after their 13th year, and $15,000,000 each to the Dearborn and Flint campuses for long-term viability.
Admin returned with a packaged counter of Salary and Childcare that afternoon that they calculated had increased by roughly half a million dollars from their last proposal.
Minimums: No change. No increase to the minimums over three years in Ann Arbor. In Dearborn and Flint, the LI mins change as follows: Year 1, no increase; Year 2, $42,000 (or +1K); Year 3, $44,000(+2K).
Annual Raises: They returned to the percentage increases instead of the flat rates proposed in their last counter. They’re proposing 2% in Year 1, 2.5% in Year 2, and 3.5% in Year 3 across the three campuses, with Flint and Dearborn tied to the tenure-track if they get higher raises.
The rest of their salary proposal is unchanged including no funds for the long-term viability of Dearborn and Flint, $1500 for long serving lecs after 19 years, and no retroactive pay for the wage theft of lecs on the 12-month pay schedule.
Child Care: They’re still denying the proposal for a committee of multiple employee groups on childcare but they’ve agreed to meet in special conference to provide “a better understanding of the steps that have been taken toward increasing access to childcare within the university and sharing ideas for how to increase access in the future.” The conference will include 4 representatives from the Union and 4 from the Employer.
Felony Disclosure, Childcare, Teaching Professor, and Salary are the remaining sticking points with management.
It is possible that we will settle the contract this week. The Regents will vote on next year’s budget at their meeting this Thursday, June 17. They have felt the pressure from LEO members and allies in the past six months, and we hope that they agree to a budget that addresses our needs.