Union of Teaching Faculty, university reach contract agreement
The Union of Teaching Faculty marches to its contract agreement on May 27.
Collective bargaining sessions between the Union of Teaching Faculty and Central Michigan University won't happen again until 2020.
The UTF started a new bargaining period July 1, and came to an agreement with the university on a five-year contract for several contract updates and changes. UTF President Amanda Garrison said the main goals of the organization, which consists of about 360 members, are job security, setting base salaries and a non-interruption clause for scholarly work. This year's bargaining went smoother than the first and only contract agreement in 2011, Garrison said.
"We created a bargaining unit and had a negotiation in the same year," she said. "It was really (emotionally) charged. This time there wasn't any yelling. Our team had a couple late nights, but the administration stayed the same number of hours. We didn't get everything we wanted, but neither did they."
Though an agreement was reached, Garrison said the contract is never balanced between the two bargaining parties.
"If you're a temporary employee it's not really an equal situation," she said. "There are always more cards being held by people who make the cards than the people who get the box. It's still important to acknowledge that everyone got cards from the same deck."
The UTF secured incremental raises and position title changes. Until the contract, there were two levels of temporary faculty, adjunct faculty and lecturers. When an employee works for four consecutive years, they have the possibility of promotion to Lecturer II.
As long as there are classes for the instructor to teach, they will be guaranteed a position for two years instead of one. The UTF introduced Lecturer III, which is an employee who has been working for 10 consecutive semesters.
"You are guaranteed three years at Lecturer III to start off," Garrison said. "After that, you can have up to four years secure contract, meaning only if there are classes to teach you'll be protected by this contract. Your work is protected for that amount of time."
The organization also secured a base salary increase for many adjuncts. After all salary adjustments have been made for an academic year, no employee will be paid less than $1,100 per credit hour, or a base salary less than $26,400.
"When you get a base salary increase, you move up to this place and they can't ever pay you less than that," Garrison said. "Having a union in place with a work contract that protects the work allows us to negotiate for those salary floors."
Getting promoted to a higher level of Lecturer also guarantees raises for those workers. A move from Lecturer I to Lecturer II will now result in a $500 increase to the employee's base salary. Someone who moves from Lecturer II to Lecturer III will receive a $1,500 raise. Once these amounts are given, they can never be lowered.
"Unions create union minimums, where all salaries start off where they're supposed to be. That's a big thing we've done here," said union organizer Whitney Dziurka. "Incremental raises and base salaries create fairer levels of compensation across campus."
Secure time off was also agreed upon so temporary employees aren't docked pay when they aren't teaching in a classroom. The UTF secured two personal days employees can use aside from sick time, funeral leave, military leave and others. Garrison said having a break is good for both students and instructors, as it is important for morale.
They also put in place a no-interruption clause which allows employees to take professional development opportunities without interrupting their contract for promotion. This was brought up because some instructors are working professionally in their field outside of academia.
Garrison highlighted that the contract is put in place to protect work, not individual people.
"If you have to negotiate with the boss, you have to be good with them," she said. "If they don't like you, there's nothing to protect you. We have to be protected by something stronger than the bond that's assumed to happen between the administration and ourselves. The union is what provides that."
