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DETROIT --Adjunct lecturers at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with the Eastern Michigan University Federation of Teachers (EMUFT), an affiliate of AFT Michigan, AFL-CIO. AFT Michigan is the state’s largest higher education union.
By greater than a 5 to 1 margin, lecturers voted in support of the union. The 560 adjunct lecturers teach over a third of all first-year classes at EMU, a comprehensive public institution serving nearly 23,000 students in Ypslianti, Michigan.
“I’m euphoric and pleased that this has happened,” said Karen Soebbing, an employee of the EMU for over 25 years and the president-elect of EMUFT. “I am also proud to be part of the team that was able to accomplish this historic victory. It’s time to recognize and respect the teachers who have a direct impact on our students. I look forward to moving beyond the election and working for a fair contract for all lecturers at EMU.”
“We want to be integrated in the intellectual life of our departments and the campus community, and we deserve a place at the table when it comes to the conditions of our employment,” said Matthew Ides, a fourth-year history lecturer. “We hope to work with the administration, staff, and students to make EMU an institution that puts education first; a place that values lecturers' labor as integral to sustaining quality higher education.”
With this win, the EMU lecturers join the growing ranks of nontenure-track employee unions in Michigan; lecturers at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, Wayne State University and Henry Ford Community College have organized in recent years. On those campuses, instructors bargained for and secured improved job security, better wages, and increased benefits. EMUFT's election victory bodes well for current nontenure-track faculty union campaigns at Ferris State University and Central Michigan University.
The American Federation of Teachers currently counts among its membership more than 45,000 nontenure track faculty in more than 100 local unions nationwide.
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