Op/Ed: We Are Getting Tired of Asking Nicely

Our members have opinions about labor issues! Our Op/Ed series gives a voice to these. In this installment, several LEO lecturer members (listed below) share their perspective on the state of bargaining with administration and why they feel tired and frustrated.

Andrew “AndyT” Thompson, Ann Arbor

Jill Darling, Dearborn

Nora Krinitsky, Ann Arbor

Jennifer Miller, Flint

Bobby Madamanchi, Ann Arbor

Shelley Manis, Ann Arbor

S. Robert Toth, Flint

Cindee Giffen, Ann Arbor

SIX MONTHS OF BARGAINING & U-M ADMIN STILL DOESN’T GET IT

LEO lecturers ARE faculty and are deserving of professional respect and dignity!

LEO Members hold banners and use a megaphone in front of President Schlissel’s house on the Ann Arbor campus.

Admin’s counter proposals to LEO’s very reasonable demands blatantly show how little regard Admin has for lecturer faculty who work hard for our students. Many Admin counter proposals consistently strike out LEO language intended to create parity and nurture the dignity & respect that all U-M employees deserve. Although we have made some gains with Tentative Agreements (TAs) on a number of Articles and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) toward a stronger LEO contract, we are exhausted by Admin’s continued striking out of our proposed language and the message that sends about how little lecturers are valued on the U-M campuses. For example:

Governance: although a few lecturers on each campus have voting rights and a say in their program and departmental decision-making, Admin’s repeated striking out of our proposal language shows that they don’t think most lecturers should be allowed that kind of voice on our campuses.

Professional Development: although both sides have agreed to increase the PD funding cap to $1500, which can be accessed through multiple applications each year, Admin continues to strike out our proposed substantial increases to fund these changes, and to strike our proposed inclusion of an appendix, which would clarify what lecturers across all campuses can use the funds for.

Felony Disclosure: Admin continues to strike language affirming LEO’s commitment to protecting lecturers’ due process rights and right to the presumption of innocence. They have also repeatedly struck out limitations on this overly broad and discriminatory policy. 

Teaching Professor: We’ve come a long way from three years ago when Admin wouldn’t even consider the title of Teaching Professor for our highly qualified lecturers. But still Admin refuses to acknowledge the professional work that ALL lecturers do by striking our language on automatic use of this title for long-serving lecturers who have shown teaching excellence and had successful reviews of their work. LEO has moved to ensure that some lecturers will be able to apply for the title, while Admin continues to strike language that would allow use of the title as a necessary recruitment tool in the College of Engineering in Ann Arbor.

Salary: Admin keeps claiming to have made “big moves” with their proposal, which in reality amounts to very little in terms of real increases for current lecturers, and does very little to raise minimum starting salaries to respectable levels. They strike our language and lecture us about daring to ask for too much. Admin’s current proposal would raise Flint and Dearborn starting mins to 44k at the end of the 3-year contract and wouldn’t raise the Ann Arbor mins above the current 51k at all; the proposal includes small annual increases for current lecturers. 

Currently, median lecturer salaries are: 

• $45,500 in Dearborn

• $46,500 in Flint

• $63,000 in Ann Arbor

And the current starting minimums are: 

• $41k in Dearborn and Flint 

• $51k in Ann Arbor

Our proposals work toward eventual parity in starting salaries, but we will still have a ways to go to ever achieve median salary parity for long-serving lecturers. Admin’s meager proposals would only perpetuate disparities across the three campuses and their very-long-term nod toward real salary parity would never really be reached before many of us retire from teaching. 

Admin also continues to strike our language about leapfrogging, anti-leapfrogging raises for current lecturers, and more. In fact, their counter-proposals given at the table on 6/23 almost entirely strike out our last counters and do the minimal possible to appear as movement on their end. The message is clear: Admin doesn’t think lecturers deserve professional respect for the work that we do or that we deserve basic dignity as employees on the front lines of student success. We already know that President Schlissel is afraid that investing in Flint and Dearborn might threaten the “excellence” of the Ann Arbor campus, and he seems to think that Flint and Dearborn students don’t work as hard or are not as deserving as Ann Arbor students. But by fighting for pay parity for lecturers, and demanding that U-M central administration provide sustainable funding to the Flint and Dearborn campuses--to support increased lecturer salaries and student success initiatives--LEO is working to STRIKE OUT the classist and racist assumptions that Flint and Dearborn students are not as good as Ann Arbor students, that Flint and Dearborn lecturers are not as good as Ann Arbor lecturers, that the Flint and Dearborn campuses are not vital parts of the entirety of the University of Michigan. 

To be clear, LEO has compromised and revised our bargaining proposals dramatically from where we began in January. Admin has done little financially and they have truly disrespected us with proposal language that often belittles the work we do and the enormous impact we have on students. The University of Michigan works because LEOs do, and Admin needs to start respecting and acknowledging the importance of our work.

Now is the time for action. We are focusing on strengthening our collective power by speaking with as many lecturers as we can and continuing to build up our ally support. And we are calling on all LEO members and our allies to work together on a strategy for winning a good contract for members and one that will benefit our campus communities.

Keep up on potential actions and ways to get involved at www.leo2021.org/actions.

The LEO Communications Committee is looking for more Member Perspectives on Bargaining. If you have an idea for a blog post to share your perspective, please send a note to communications@leounion.org