U of M lecturers to vote on tentative contract deal

Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan – Photo by Jon King

Voting begins this week on a tentative contract agreement with lecturers at all three University of Michigan campuses.

The proposed four-year deal, reached on Friday, averts a strike by the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO) that could have upended final grades for students. The union, which represents about 1,800 non-tenure-track faculty across the university’s three campuses, voted earlier in the week to authorize a strike.

According to a release, the new contract will include base salary increases of 8%, 6%, 6% and 5%, respectively, over the next four years for lecturers on the Ann Arbor campus, while lecturers at the UM-Flint and UM-Dearborn campuses will receive 3% base salary increases in each of the contract’s four years. 

P.F. Potvin, a lecturer on the Dearborn campus, was among those on the picket line Friday morning, hours before the tentative deal was announced. He told the Michigan Advance that the main issue that had been preventing a deal was equity on what they were paid at the various campuses.

“It’s not a question about whether or not different campuses have the money. It’s about the allocation of the money,” he said. “When we’ve seen the bloat in administration, we’ve seen the bloat in these new positions created. There’s funds that are there. We’ve seen the bloat in expansion of facilities and other on campus developments, but we haven’t seen the investment going to where it really matters and where what brings in the tuition dollars, and that’s the people teaching the classes.”

University of Michigan-Flint | Susan J. Demas

In addition to the 3% base salary increases, lecturers on the Dearborn and Flint campuses will also will receive additional lump sum payments of 3% in the first year and 2% in the second year, prorated in cases of less than full-time work, as well as a non-prorated $1,000 lump sum payment in the final year of the contract. They will also have the option of reopening salary negotiations in the contract’s third year if the total number of student credit hours at their campus has increased by at least 10% over the first two years of the contract.

Further details of the tentative agreement will be released after LEO conducts a ratification vote over the next two weeks. 

“We are pleased to reach an agreement that recognizes the essential contributions of lecturers across all three campuses and provides fair compensation over the next four years,” said Ellen Grachek, director of academic labor relations and chief negotiator for the university. “We appreciate the hard work of both bargaining teams.”

Bargaining on a new contract began in October, with union leaders saying they held off on a strike as long as the negotiations remained productive. 

“We are very happy with the raises we were able to secure for our Ann Arbor members,” said Kirsten Herold, LEO president. “We made the very difficult decision to accept lower raises for the Flint and Dearborn campuses, but we will continue to advocate for more support for our two regional campuses. All in all, we are proud of the hard work of our bargaining team and all the improvements we were able to gain.”

In addition to salary increases, the tentative agreement also includes a shared commitment to increase diversity in lecturer hiring, provides greater opportunity for lecturers to serve as principal investigators for grants and requires units to improve documentation of performance concerns.

The post U of M lecturers to vote on tentative contract deal appeared first on Michigan Advance.