LEOunion.org

Big Rapids, MI—Nontenure-track faculty at Ferris State University will conduct a “grade-in” at the university president’s office today to publicize their precarious employment status, low pay, and lack of health care. Hired on a semester-by-semester basis, many of them will lose their jobs next week. Ineligible for unemployment, they will be without an income during the upcoming holidays. Many teaching full-time at the university do not have health insurance.

The event follows an emergency membership meeting of the year-old Ferris Nontenure-Track Faculty Organization (FNTFO). At the meeting, the membership voted to “authorize FNTFO leadership to take job action up to and including stoppage of work starting Dec. 7 until the FNTFO/FSU contract is settled.”

FNTFO and FSU have been negotiating a contract for nearly a year. A state-appointed mediator has attended the bargaining sessions for several months, but little progress has been made on three key issues including job security, health benefits and pay rates.

Many of the faculty members who will be losing their jobs have worked at Ferris for decades, but according to the university are only “temporary” employees who are hired and fired each semester. After nearly a month without pay, most faculty members hope Ferris will rehire them Jan. 9, but there are no guarantees of future employment.

It was this uncertainty and lack of security in their job status that prompted the faculty members to vote to form a union in the Summer of 2010.