Bargaining update Jan 29, 2010
Another productive day of bargaining, although serious fissures are beginning to emerge. We were happy to move into our new digs at the School of Social Work where you will find us every Friday until mid March where we bargain for a couple of weeks in Flint and Dearborn. We presented proposals on International Lecturers, Performance Evaluation and Special Case Appointments. They gave us their proposals on the No Strike clause and Special Case Appointments. Once again, we had a good group of LEO folks in attendance, from LSA, Engineering, RC, Nursing, Art and Design, and Social Work. And we had a presentation about the Flint budget.
On the positive side, they seemed open to some of our proposals, in particular making Senior Lecturers an actual title and appointing more of them, and also letting spring-summer teaching count as time towards major review (in specific cases). They also agree that requiring a major review every three years in perpetuity is not a productive use of anyone's time, but for now they seem to be leaning more towards longer appointment periods, rather than moving towards an open-ended appointment.
On a more ominous note, they have now given us three proposals generated in direct response to thing we have done as a Union in the past (and in one case, in response to things done by members of another Union.). They really don't like it when we talk to students about our issues, so they want unilateral power to various sanctions (like suspending the collection of dues and access to the U's email system) even if it is the actions just by a few members. They don't want any LEO members to come out to support a LEO grievance, and they want the unilateral right to start recent graduate programs (hiring new PhDs over existing lecturers) in whatever department they choose - because once we said no to one department for a few weeks. As one team member said, "they just don't want us to act like a Union."
As always, any LEO member is welcome to attend bargaining at any time, whether for 45 minutes or all day. We are in the education center in the School of Social Work, ground floor, bear right as you enter the building.
In subsequent issues of LEO Letters, I will be discussing some of our proposals in more detail. And as always you can visit the website or the LEO blog or facebook or twitter. LEO enters the 21st century!!
Best, Kirsten Herold
LEO VP
Monday, February 1, 2010
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The union's proposals have been ambitious; one could wish for more focus, but at least underlying it all is a vision of helping the people in the bargaining unit. No one can blame a union for trying to do that. But most of the administration's proposals seem like petty paybacks. The one exception is the proposal to limit printed contract copies. That seems harmless -- unless the idea is, the fewer contracts, the fewer the grievances.
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