EMUtalk.org

Slight update #2: Here’s a link to the Annarbor.com wrap-up article, one that I don’t think is quite right, but….

A slight update: I’ve cut and pasted EMU-AAUP President Susan Moeller’s email to faculty below after the “read more” part. Note that the two links in her email take you to PDF files.

A few last thoughts on the tentative agreement that the EMU-AAUP negotiated with the administration:

• The feeling/vibe I had from the negotiating team and the crowd in general in Roosevelt this afternoon was more of “relief” than it was of a feeling of “victory” or even of “happiness.”  I suspect it got pretty brutal in the last throws of the negotiation process.  In any event, I think that the negotiating team calculated– correctly, in my view– that this was as good as they were going to get and to go on strike again would get the faculty very little more than this agreement.  So, as Kenny Rogers reminds us, one needs to know when to hold ‘em, and when to fold ‘em.
• And this is also part of the two year deal, no doubt.  I have to assume the union is feeling like the shorter term on the contract will help them in the next round of negotiations; I have no idea if that is right or not.
• It was interesting to me how long this stupid idea about tying faculty pay raises to rises in enrollment apparently stayed on the table.  According to what we heard at the meeting today, that was an issue of negotiation until 9:30 this morning, and it was also the “brain child” of Board of Regent member Jim Stapleton.  Jeesh.  Anyway, I think that was a “line in the sand issue” for the union– rightfully so– and the administration gave up on the idea.  And I suspect that the administrators negotiating at the table also knew it was a stupid idea.
• I am disappointed that the pay raise for full professors after 10 years was taken off the table, though.  I don’t know exactly what the details were with that and maybe it was something too complicated to work out for this contract, but I really REALLY wish there could be a deal here.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again:  it is too easy to get tenure and promotion at EMU (at least it is in my department), and there ought to be some sort of reward/motivation for people who get promoted to full professor to keep active in terms of scholarship, service, and innovation in teaching.  In any event, this is an issue that might actually motivate me to participate in the Bargaining Council for 2011.
• By the end/middle of the meeting today, the villains here were the Board of Regents.  Supposedly, there were all sorts of threats from them and in-fighting amongst them, and there was a lot of energy at this meeting for political action and organizing to educate folks about the problem of the Board, but I have to say, I am a bit of a skeptic that anything will come of that.
• If there is an effort to make something happen with a political action committee or some other charge to educate people about what’s happening with the board, I’m happy to contribute this space or my expertise with making a space like this work for this yet to be formed group.
• Speaking of which:  EMUTalk.org came up a couple of time over this process in ways I thought were kind of interesting.  One of my friends/colleagues tied to the negotiating process wasn’t happy with something I posted earlier; someone who has been involved in union stuff/Faculty senate stuff around here for a long time complimented me today on what I’ve been posting; and someone mentioned EMUTalk.org in a comment/question at the meeting today in a way I’m nut sure was favorable or not.

  Well, look:  the thing about EMUTalk is I want and encourage people associated with and interested in EMU to participate.  That includes everyone and anyone: faculty, students, staff, administrators, alumni, people in the community, whoever.  So if you read something here that you don’t like and/don’t agree with, why not go ahead and comment on it? As long as it falls within the realm of “The Rules,” I will happily allow it and encourage it.

  And better yet, why not apply to be a writer on EMUTalk so you can write original posts and start conversations on your own?  Just write me at emutalk@gmail.com

  One of my colleagues (who is not yet tenured) expressed some interest in becoming an EMUTalk writer, but was worried about it.  Be assured that while I need to know who is writing original posts, there is no reason why you can’t write under a pseudonym.  And has clearly been the case many times over the years, you can comment on posts anonymously and/or with a pseudonym, too.

Continue reading Last thoughts on not striking/the latest contract

And I know that everyone is pretty happy that it’s a meeting to talk about terms instead of a meeting to talk about striking.  A pretty good crowd; here’s hoping the terms are decent enough.  Much more after the break.

Continue reading At the EMU-AAUP meeting

From Susan Moeller:

We have a tentative agreement.  Please come to the meeting to hear the details.  The rally and informational has been canceled for this afternoon.

Congratulations to the negotiating team – please come and thank them.  They have worked so hard.

Wow, go figure!  I’ll still be blogging from the meeting about [...]

I don’t know if this is good news or no news, but I noticed this morning that there has been no update from the EMU-AAUP and the update on the EMU web site says:

Monday, August 30

As of 9 p.m., negotiations remain under way. Further details will be provided when available.

By the [...]

…. and then I’m going to turn off the computer and/or go to bed:  Susan Moeller sent around an interestingly short message tonight:

Unfortunately, today’s negotiations have been distressing.  At several points, we thought we were on the road to an agreement, but nothing has materialized.  We are meeting again tomorrow morning, and hopefully [...]

Nothing really new, but this is the latest on Annarbor.com, “Eastern Michigan University, professors still ‘far apart’ on new contract.”

Basically, if you read EMU update for negotiations yesterday (here) versus Susan Moeller’s latest email (which I include below), it looks like the negotiations are moving in baby-steps.  It sounds like there has been some progress in various insurance plans, and I guess that might help for some folks, or it might cloudy the issue as to how much the new insurance will really cost.

It sounds like the administration is moving a little bit on the flat-raise to compensate for insurance (the EMU web site says it was $300 yesterday, and Moeller’s email said it was $500 tonight), but it’s still not enough.  Probably.  The tricky thing for both sides with the insurance talk is there are so many variables.  For example, take this from the end of Moeller’s email:

… this increase in costs could result in some faculty having trouble making mortgage or rent payments.  While on average the administration is asking for a $1650 increase in payments from the faculty for health care, for families this is much higher.  Could you afford  having over 5% of your salary going to pay for health care premiums next year alone and unexpectedly at that?  No one can.

That $1650 figure is probably a bit of a moving target because I can imagine a pretty big disparity in how much people are paying for insurance– a single person versus a family of six, for example.  And of course the extent to which someone is paying over 5% of their salary for health care premiums depends on how much money someone is making since we don’t have some sort of sliding scale on payments– that is, people who make more money do not pay more for insurance.

Still, it would represent a pay cut, and that would be bad.

I was also struck by this sentence in Moeller’s email:  “Today’s news is that after working all weekend, while we have  agreement on a few health care items, the principle of giving the faculty raises of MORE than 0% this coming year,1% next year,and 1% in two years, is NOT one with which the administration agrees.”  It’s almost like the pay raise (or not!) for faculty is tied to this 0/0/0% marketing campaign.  Weird.

And the idea that it’s still (potentially) tied to enrollment and appropriation increases is also just screwy.

Well, the parties are getting closer, and tomorrow (and Tuesday) are new days.  I assume we won’t get close enough, though.  My department is scheduled to have a “retreat” on September 2, and I see that as unlikely….

The whole letter from Moeller after the break:

Continue reading Dueling negotiation updates

From Freep.com:  “Ferris faculty to discuss latest contract offer.” Apparently, faculty there have been working without a contract for 13 months, not exactly a solution I’d want to see here, though something I seriously doubt would happen if we agreed to continue working.  The article closes with this:

Negotiations between Eastern Michigan University faculty [...]