Our May 13th session centered around powerful member testimony about salary from two of our members, Terese Murphy (Librarian, Clements) and Zia Davidian (Librarian, Flint). We are grateful to both of them for bravely and honestly sharing the impacts of low and inequitable salaries and illustrating how important this issue is for our bargaining unit. We continue to show movement on our salary article while adhering to our principle of equity, and have converted our equity table into narrative prose to achieve this goal. We were glad to have reached a TA on package 4 (Management Rights; Union Rights; Scope of Agreement), which means that there are just 5 outstanding articles left on the table. Click through to read all the details.

Our May 6th session saw more progress and movement in the right direction, which is encouraging. We reached a momentous TA on Package 6, a 6-article package that includes the right to Grievance & Arbitration, which we have been fighting for since the beginning of negotiations. The package also included some movement from admin in the Conflict of Interest/Conflict of Commitment article. Click through to read all the details.

Our April 29th session demonstrated admin’s reverence for the status quo. They seem to like the way everything is currently done—including underpaying LACs across the board—and are resistant to changes that relate to salary, promotion, and professional development. However, we didn’t form a union to accept the status quo. We’re here to advocate for meaningful changes that will impact our working conditions. We presented counters on Salary and Professional Development articles, and we proudly delivered our petition signed by an overwhelming majority of members in support of our bargaining platform. Click through to read all the details.

Our April 22nd session was notable because we finally received counters on our Salary and Professional Development proposals. These “first counters ” were rather disappointing, and demonstrate that administration hasn’t fully heard our demand for equity. Click through to read all the details.

Our April 15th session featured packages galore, and a high score for the number of TAs in one day. While we continue to make progress on reaching TAs, there are still many significant issues on the table. Click through to read all the details.

Our April 8th session was a 2-TA Day! It is hopefully also the last time that we have to talk about bathrooms in this recap, because we were able to reach a Tentative Agreement on Workspaces Health & Safety with a new MOU on Bathrooms! Click through to read all the details.

Our April 1st session (no fooling) was largely centered on big packages. Administration has been passing us a series of ever-larger packages, this time bundling 7 articles together. Click through to read all the details.

Our March 25th session began with eloquent and emotional testimony on the topic of promotion. We sincerely thank members Emily Newberry (Librarian, Flint Thompson Library), Jayne Ptolemy (Curator, Clements) and Grace VanderVliet (Curator, UMMA) as well as Bargaining Team member Dave Choberka for sharing their (often frustrating and problematic) experiences with promotion and advocating for an equitable and, transparent promotion process for all LACs. Appreciation also to the many LEO-GLAM members who attended to express their support and solidarity for your colleagues. We were also happy to reach a Tentative Agreement on the Term of Agreement article, which lays out a 3-year term for the contract. Click through to read all the details.

Our March 18th session saw us making progress on a number of articles passing back and forth as counters. You may note that some of these have morphed from their original forms–for instance, our initial proposal on Non-Discrimination and Harassment, where we continue to hold our position, has been split into two separate articles. This is also the case for the Promotion article, which we proudly passed today.  Click through to read the details.

Our March 11th session marked our return to bargaining after a 2-week hiatus during Spring Break. The bargaining committee used this time to begin work on counters to the proposals on our side of the table (to follow along, see our Proposal Tracker), 3 of which we passed today. We were glad to TA the Vacation Pay article. Additionally, we passed a new proposal on Posting, Hiring & Notification, which should be the last new proposal (and this time we really mean that). Click through to read the details.

Our February 18th session marked a milestone, as we met our ground rules deadline to pass all proposals across the table for the first time. Bargaining Team member Dave Choberka took the lead in presenting our Salary proposal, which is grounded in the principle of equity. The presentation included a number of visualizations of how our proposal would increase equity across campuses and units, including a one-time equity adjustment in year one and annual increases in years 2 and 3 of the contract, as well as standardized increases upon promotion. Click through to read the details.

Our February 11th session was full of counters, and another Tentative Agreement–this time on Academic Rights & Responsibilities. We’re quite proud of this article, which affirms that LACs are faculty, and that we fulfill important educational, research, and service roles within the University. It also clarifies that all LACs are eligible to serve as Principal Investigators on sponsored projects.  Click through to read the details.