LEOunion.org

The Lecturers' Employee Organization and the University of Michigan administration have signed an agreement to settle the union's annual raise grievance for lecturers on the Ann Arbor campus.

LEO had contended that lecturers in Ann Arbor should have received more than the 2% raise that was awarded to them in September 2008.  Under the terms of the settlement, eligible lecturers will receive an additional 1.5% raise, retroactive to September 1, 2008.

A copy of the settlement is available here as a pdf file.

LEO thanks all of those who stood with the union's membership during this dispute!

FROM AFT-MICHIGAN:

East Lansing, MI.  Non-Tenure-Track faculty at Michigan State University voted by a two-to-one margin today for union representation, giving themselves the right to negotiate job security, salary, and other conditions of employment with the university administration. 

The vote, 240 in favor,  113 against, certifies the Union of Nontenure-track Faculty (UNTF) as a collective bargaining agent affiliated with AFT Michigan, AFL-CIO.  Eligible to vote were approximately 600 part-time and full-time nontenure-track faculty on the university's East Lansing Campus.  Ballots were mailed May 6 and counted today by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC).

Employed on year-to-year contracts, many faculty members supported unionization because of poor job security.  "Having increased security allows us to invest more in the university—and the students," Said Stephen Thomas, who teaches Biology on the East Lansing campus. 

Other cited more general issues.  "What matters most to me is having a voice," said Naoko Wake, a visiting assistant professor in the Lyman Briggs college  "Now we will be real citizens of the university community."

The campaign is part of a national trend of nontenure-track organizing. Recent successful campaigns in Michigan have taken place at the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Henry Ford Community College.  Next month, part-time faculty at Western Michigan University will also vote for union representation.