We’ve had a busy start to the Winter semester. What follows are some brief updates on current issues. For more information and ways to get involved on these or any other issues, see the contact information at the bottom of this email, or stop by the Union office during weekly union office hours (Mondays 5-6pm and Tuesdays 12:30-1:30pm).
Part-time Lecturer Pay Schedule
Click here to read Lisa Laverty's comments to the Board of Regent's regarding the pay schedule.
EMUFT members continue working to address the problem of late first of the semester pay dates for part-time lecturers. Our actions in the Fall semester – a “no-pay day” information event, a pay-day celebration, and speaking at both of the Fall EMU Regents meetings –resulted in the EMU administration agreeing to meet with EMUFT representatives to discuss the issue. However, EMU’s November proposal to throw out the entire part-time lecturer contract (not set to expire until August, 2017) as a condition of possibly addressing this issue, was deeply concerning. In a series of membership meetings in November, EMUFT members voted not to pursue this path. Instead, EMUFT has proposed to work with EMU to jointly craft a “Memorandum of Understanding” on this issue. MOUs are agreements between two parties to resolve a specific issue; they do not require blanket re-negotiation of an entire, existing contract.
This semester, EMUFT members spoke at the February 5th Board of Regents meeting on the pay issue, explaining what it means to them not to be paid on time. EMUFT also held a very successful action on February 11 and 12, collecting Valentine’s Day cards for EMU administrators, asking for some “love” in the form of an on-time paycheck. We collected nearly 600 valentines, which were delivered to EMU Human Resources Director David Turner, EMU Regents Beagan, Stapleton, Krumm, and Fitzsimmons, and interim President Don Loppnow on Friday, February 12.
With the departure of interim President and Provost, Kim Schatzel, EMUFT will meet with EMU’s newest interim Provost, Rhonda Longworth, on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 to discuss this issue again. I am hopeful that our actions, coupled with the change in EMU leadership, will provide an opening for renewed discussion and movement toward a solution. However, changes in policy will require continued member engagement on this issue. Look for more updates and opportunities to get involved in the near future.
Full-time Lecturer Bargaining Update:
The collective bargaining agreement for Full-time Lecturers expires this August. Full-time Lecturers have been filling in bargaining surveys to help identify key issues and areas of concern. If you haven’t had a chance to return your survey yet, you can still do so! Download the bargaining survey from our EMUFT webpage, here: http://emuft.mi.aft.org/ Completed surveys can be emailed or dropped off to the union office in 110 King Hall.
There are many opportunities for everyone – part-time and full-time to support bargaining a strong contract. If you can help out or you’d like to learn more, please contact Lisa Laverty at EMUFTpresident@gmail.com Bargaining works best when we’re all working together.
Grievance Update:
EMUFT successfully settled an arbitration on offer letters for Part-time Lecturers. Starting in Fall 2016, EMU will return to issuing standard offer letters in a savable and printable format such as a Word doc or pdf, describing the terms and conditions of the work in question to all Part-time Lecturers (Full-time Lecturers were receiving these offer letters already). “FLAC” will no longer double as an offer-letter provision system, and will, instead, only serve an internal payroll function. This is an important victory for EMUFT members. Offer letters will once again provide a permanent, detailed, and hopefully more timely, notice of appointments for upcoming semesters.
EMUFT recently won an arbitration in the Political Science department related to work assignments for Part-time Lecturers. The PTL collective bargaining agreement requires departments to notify existing PTLs when new work becomes available and to make “every reasonable effort to hire from within the Bargaining Unit prior to hiring from outside the Bargaining Unit.” A neutral arbitrator found that EMU did not do this in Fall, 2014, and awarded the grievance to the union. This victory strengthens the job security provision of the collective bargaining agreement for all Part-time lecturers, because it reinforces that EMU must follow the posting and hiring provisions in the contract.
New grievances were recently filed in the College of Technology, where some departments have been trying to apply arbitrary and non-contractual “caps” to the workload of long-time Part-time Lecturers. The PTL collective bargaining agreement does not include any such “caps” and EMUFT believes workload restrictions cannot be arbitrarily invented by individual department heads.
The current collective bargaining agreements can be accessed here: http://www.emich.edu/ahr/documents_menu/fcontracts.php
EMU has a new president
EMU’s Board of Regents made a surprise announcement on Friday afternoon that Dr. Jim Smith will serve as EMU’s next president. Dr. Smith’s term as president will begin on July 1, 2016; until that time, interim President Don Loppnow will continue in that role.
Although EMUFT, along with many other campus unions and constituent groups, holds deep concerns over the secretive and non-transparent nature of the closed presidential selection process, we nonetheless welcome Dr. Smith and his family to campus and we look forward to working with him in the near future.