UM non-tenure track union underway
Organization begins for fall negotiations
Vanessa Ferguson
Issue date: 7/23/03 Section: News
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Efforts to form a unit within the Lecturers' Employee Organization, which is affiliated with the Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel, AFT, AFL-CIO, began in mid-2002 and a formal vote was passed in April of this year.
Right now non-tenure track faculty and the administration on all the campuses are getting ready for negotiations this fall. This follows an April vote that took place when the non-tenure track faculty decided to be represented by the union.
Currently, the faculty members are working on drafting a constitution and the university is gathering members for a bargaining team. There is approximately 1400 faculty in the bargaining unit on the three UM campuses.
Jim Anderson, who is a lecturer for the English department and is the UM-Flint Campus Organizing Chair, said, "Contract priorities include wages, job security, benefits. Of course, the order and emphasis varies from person to person. I hear the word 'respect' mentioned a lot, too."
Since the unit affects all of the UM campuses the negotiations are being handled in several different ways.
According to Provost Renate McLaughlin, "Several issues will be negotiated for the entire system, and others will be specific to each campus. At this point no one knows the details."
Under the current system the university has complete discretion as to whether or not a non-tenure track faculty member will return each semester. The union will help to provide job security for these faculty members.
Anderson said, "The University has been able to tell adjuncts that they may or may not have a job next semester, depending on enrollment. The adjuncts find out after the semester starts if they still have an appointment and for how many sections."
Membership into the union is voluntarily, however, Anderson said that non-tenure track faculty who choose not to pay union dues would still have to pay an agency fee since they will benefit from any contract negotiations. This also means that they will not have voting rights in the union.
Overall, Anderson stressed that the most key to the union's success would be based on its members involvement not on their dues. He said, "LEO is a union organized by its members, for its members. Its success will depend on the actions of its members. Not just on their dues money. On their actions."