The Lecturers’ Employee Organization has reached a tentative agreement with the University of Michigan’s administration on a new four-year contract.
The new contract includes base salary increases of 8%, 6%, 6% and 5% over the next four years, respectively, for lecturers on the Ann Arbor campus.
At UM-Flint and UM-Dearborn, lecturers will receive 3% base salary increases in each of the contract’s four years. They also will receive additional lump sum payments of 3% in the first year and 2% in the second year — both prorated cases of less than full-time work — as well as a $1,000 lump sum payment, not prorated, in the final year of the contract.
Lecturers at UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint also have the option of reopening salary negotiations in the contract’s third year if the total number of student credit hours at their campus has increased by at least 10% over the first two years of the contract.
Further details of the agreement reached April 26 will be released after LEO conducts a ratification vote over the next two weeks. The union represents about 1,800 non-tenure-track faculty across the university’s three campuses.
(UPDATE: The Lecturers’ Employee Organization reported May 10 that members ratified the new contract by a vote of 689-28, with seven abstentions.)
“We are pleased to reach an agreement that recognizes the essential contributions of lecturers across all three campuses and provides fair compensation over the next four years,” said Ellen Grachek, director of academic labor relations and chief negotiator for the university. “We appreciate the hard work of both bargaining teams.”
The tentative agreement comes three days after LEO members authorized union leadership to call a strike. The union’s leaders held off doing so while productive negotiations continued. LEO and the university administration have been bargaining since October.
“We are very happy with the raises we were able to secure for our Ann Arbor members,” said Kirsten Herold, LEO president. “We made the very difficult decision to accept lower raises for the Flint and Dearborn campuses, but we will continue to advocate for more support for our two regional campuses. All in all, we are proud of the hard work of our bargaining team and all the improvements we were able to gain.”
In addition to salary increases, the tentative agreement also provides greater opportunity for lecturers to serve as principal investigators for grants, includes a shared commitment to increase diversity in lecturer hiring, and requires units to improve documentation of performance concerns.
