AFT Wins Landslide Victory at Univ. of Michigan; Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Vote for Union in Key Step Forward in Higher Ed Organizing

4/29/2003

From: Jaime Zapata of the American Federation of Teachers, 202-879-4458, e-mail: jzapata@aft.org

WASHINGTON, April 29 -- The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) today announced the results of a vote by nontenure-track faculty at the University of Michigan. The vote demonstrates overwhelming support for union representation by the Michigan-based Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO).

LEO is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel (MFT&SRP), and the AFL-CIO. The vote certifies the union as a collective bargaining agent and grants it the right to negotiate job security, salary and other conditions of employment on behalf of 1,300 part-time/full-time lecturers, adjunct faculty and visiting faculty at all three of the University of Michigan campuses.

"What matters most to me is respect," says UM-Flint lecturer Jim Anderson. "It is hardly a sign of respect to pay us what the university pays us. 'You can take it or leave it,' we are told. Well, this vote for the union gives us another choice."

As is the case with nontenure-track faculty members throughout the nation, the 1,300 University of Michigan employees teach nearly half the total undergraduate credit hours at the university, but are often hired on a semester-by-semester basis for a fraction of the salary and benefits of their tenured and tenure-track colleagues.

The vote followed a successful membership drive and more than two months of negotiations between LEO Organizing Committee members and university administrators on a definition of the bargaining unit. Ballots were mailed to faculty members on April 10 and counted today by the MERC.

"Many of us worry every year about getting reappointed," says Margaretha Sudarsih, who teaches at the Ann Arbor campus. "Without a union to represent us, it's hard-if not impossible-to make the university listen to our concerns."

Sheryl Edwards, who teaches political science at UM-Dearborn adds: "No longer will I feel invisible at the University; I really feel like I'm part of a community now. This is good for our morale as much as for any material gains we may achieve."

LEO is part of a growing number of locals within the AFT that represent nontenure-track faculty. In Michigan, MFT&SRP already represents lecturers at Eastern Michigan University. The AFT represents more than 46,000 nontenure-track higher education professionals in more than 100 local unions nationwide.

"This is an important victory for the union and for university faculty," says AFT President Sandra Feldman. "We are pleased to welcome our new University of Michigan members, and we will fight for the things that are important to them-including equity in salary, benefits and working conditions."

Ian Robinson, a lecturer in sociology and a member of the union organizing committee on the Ann Arbor campus points out that "organizing higher education workers into democratic unions is critical to the future of academic freedom, the future of education, and the fate of the American labor movement."

The result of the Michigan vote is an important step in a growing trend in higher education organizing. The AFT represents more than 120,000 college and university faculty members-more than any other union. In recent months, the AFT has successfully organized higher education employees at Eastern Oregon University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Cerritos College in California and the Research Employees at Kingsborough Community College in New York. AFT members who work in higher education-including tenured, adjunct and graduate instructors-continue to make up the union's fastest-growing sector.

The AFT represents more than 1.2 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel, higher education faculty, nurses, healthcare workers, and federal, state and local government employees.