LEOunion.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

University of Michigan Lecturers Rally to Protest Contract Violation

Contact: Joe Walls, LEO Communications Committee Chair

(734) 763-4610 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO), the union for non-tenure-track faculty at the University of Michigan, will stage a rally in the Fleming Administration Building plaza (Maynard at Jefferson) on Thursday, April 2nd at 12:15 pm to protest the Administration’s failure to fulfill their collective bargaining agreement with LEO.

The current agreement between the University and LEO stipulates that “full-time salary rates shall increase by the average annual percent increase, excluding retention, promotion, and equity increases, for tenured and tenure-track faculty of the respective arts and sciences college at each campus.” In the 2008-09 academic year, the average increase for the tenure-track faculty was 4.1%, while the increase for Lecturers was a flat 2%.

The rally will feature performances by FUBAR, a local rock band with LEO Lecturer Randy Tessier on lead guitar, and by local magicians and jugglers who will imitate the University’s handling of their budget. Speakers from LEO will be joined by representatives from local labor unions as well as members of the University of Michigan community.

Lecturers teach more undergraduate contact hours than any other group on campus, and both the total number of Lecturers and percentage of instruction they provide to undergraduates are increasing. Yet while undergraduate tuition rates continue to increase dramatically, Lecturers’ salaries on average do not even keep pace with inflation.

Lecturers are disappointed by the University’s behavior. Elizabeth Axelson, an Ann Arbor Lecturer IV who was a member of the LEO bargaining team during the last contract negotiation, said, “Lecturers on the Ann Arbor campus accepted the University’s terms believing that our fortunes should parallel the tenure-track faculty’s, sharing in both good economic times and bad. To see the University administration manipulate salary funds as they have mocks our good faith and calls theirs into question.”

The Lecturers’ position has support from other campus constituencies. J. Lotus Seeley, a Ph.D. student in Women’s Studies and Sociology, said, “As an educational institution the University has a responsibility to model transparency in their financial management and respect in their dealings with employees. Otherwise, students get the message that the University’s administrators are not to be trusted.”

According to Aria Everts, an alumna of the University of Michigan, “Right now is when the State of Michigan needs to prioritize higher education. And now is when U-M administrators must remember the majority - students and lecturers - who make up this institution. Setting fair wages and tuition rates shows a basic level of understanding that the financial crisis is affecting us all.”

LEO is a local affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, AFL-CIO. LEO represents approximately 1400 lecturers on the three University of Michigan campuses (Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint). Background information about LEO may be obtained from www.leounion.org.

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