LEO-GLAM Bargaining Recap for 4/16/2025
At our April 16th bargaining session, we held our final in-person bargaining session, this time at Pierpont Commons on the Ann Arbor campus, where we were joined by a healthy contingent of both LEO-GLAM members and community allies filling the seats of the bargaining room gallery. We also held a spirited lunchtime rally on The Grove featuring a “Price is Right” game show, ally speeches, and even an old union tune sung by the ACLC Labor Choir. We want to express ample appreciation and thanks to our open bargaining speakers representing the Ann Arbor campus community, including current students, staff and faculty members. We heartily appreciate and thank Anna Kirkland, Scott Larson, Nora Krinitsky, Tobias Haus, Elizabeth Zomeri, and SN Yeager for their testimony about the ways that LACs have impacted and supported them here at the University of Michigan. It was an exciting day, and we reached several important TA’s representing some big wins, but we also have some big decisions to make and will be holding a General Membership Meeting TOMORROW (Thursday, April 17th) at NOON to talk about next steps.
Late in the afternoon during our members-only bargaining session, we were able to reach tentative agreements on 5 articles! We’d like to highlight three of those. First, Article B: Artificial Intelligence, which included acknowledgement of LAC discretion about the use of AI tools to assist in their work, and prohibition against use of Employee image or likeness without written permission, and special conferences to discuss the impacts of AI each academic term. We believe that we are the first union at the University to have AI included in their contract. Second, Article XI: Appointments and Annual Reviews, in which the Employer accepted our proposed 8% cap on term appointments, and agreed to withdraw their request to uncap grant and donor funded term appointments in exchange for a carve out for both dual career hires and coverage of leaves longer than 12 weeks. This is a major win for our bargaining unit in that there continue to be limitations on the use of term appointments for appropriate reasons. Third, Article XXIII: Medical and Family Leaves (now renamed to “Maternity (Childbirth) and Parental Leave, Sick Leave, and Funeral Time”), in which we are now aligned to the Faculty SPG that will restore additional Extended Sick Leave to LACs with ten or more years of service. This was part of our platform and we are pleased to see this matter resolved in our favor.
The Employer presented us with a 4-year salary proposal that included zero increases to minimum salaries or promotion increases, no equity adjustments, and 3% annual increases each year. They have continued to include language about their right to withhold or decrease a LAC’s annual increase for performance reasons. The term of agreement and salary articles remain the last major items to be negotiated as we head into our extra bargaining session on Friday morning.
Highlights of the bargaining session included:
Passed all remaining articles across the table at least once today
Reached 5 tentative agreements including:
Article B: Artificial Intelligence
Article XXII: Conflict of Interest/Conflict of Commitment
Article XI: Appointments and Annual Reviews
Article XIX: Professional Development
Article XXIII: Maternity (Childbirth) and Parental Leave, Sick Leave, and Funeral Time [formerly titled “Medical and Family Leaves”]
Received a counter on Article XIII: Salary
We are extremely close to wrapping up our negotiations, but Salary is incredibly important to our membership and is still on the table. We invite all LEO-GLAM members to come to our GMM tomorrow at noon so that we can discuss the wins we have achieved at the table and the path forward. We will not be recording the GMM (as per our usual) and want to stress the importance of attending so that the Bargaining Team can hear from membership before our additional bargaining session from 9-12 on Friday morning.