Lecturer Bargaining Update: Bargaining Recap for 6/4/21
“State Reps and Members Agree Tri-Campus Equity is Crucial”
In the morning we presented our proposals on Diversity in Hiring (MOU 12) & Felony Disclosure with a continued commitment to fighting racial and class inequalities. LEO's counterproposal on Felony Disclosure mitigates the harms of this policy, provides enhanced protections for lecturers who report a charge or conviction, and establishes affirmative protections and resources for survivors of harm. No measures can completely alleviate the disparate impact this policy will have on groups targeted for criminalization, but LEO's counterproposal will provide avenues for redress as we continue to work with campus allies to eliminate this policy.
On Workload, admin offered counters on Workload Article XXVIII, MOU 2 (Full-time Opportunities for Lecs), and MOU 7 (Bridge Lec 1/2 - 3/4) and after receiving them we crafted a counter in caucus. The big win of the day was a TA on Article XXVIII where we’ve finally got management to agree that each School or College must publish current workload standards for each Lecturer title employed by that unit no later than January 1, 2022. MOU 2 and MOU 7 were presented back as a package. We reverted to the 2018 language on MOU 2 and countered on MOU 7 with explicit reference to the established definition of a LIII/IV in Article XI. We want to include “range of instructional expertise” as a reason, in addition to service and admin duties, to convert a LI/II position to a LIII/IV in a Special Conference.
The afternoon kicked off with Bob King’s presentation showing that the state constitution treats the University of Michigan as a single entity to support our arguments that central admin can and should allocate money to support the Dearborn and Flint campuses. This was followed by impassioned speeches from State Reps Yousef Rabhi (Ann Arbor) and Abdullah Hammoud (Dearborn) in support of campus equity for Dearborn and Flint and greater funding for higher education overall.
Next, Stamps School of Art & Design instructors AndyT Thompson and Patricia Beals presented their experiences with wage theft at UM as Admin continues to deny back pay to lecturers on the 12 month pay schedule for yearly wage increases.
Fan art of Patricia Beals, (Lecturer, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor campus) who gave her testimony at Friday’s Bargaining session.
Fan art by AndyT (Lecturer, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor campus).
Although management recognized our significant movement on felony disclosure, we ended our time at the table with management on a frustrating note. Once again they returned our Governance proposal completely struck out and returned to the original language on Spring/Summer Salaries, which grants management the right to alter summer pay.
As Kirsten pointed out: "Money is money no matter what time of year. Absence of money is absence of money no matter what time of year."
That frustration was channeled into a well-attended General Membership meeting where attendees were able to hear from the committees about the status of negotiations and share their contract priorities with each other and the leadership. A majority of those who spoke up emphasized the importance of tri-campus parity and issues of respect.