In its ongoing struggle to win job security and better pay, the Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO) at the University of Michigan held a one-day strike on April 8. The union held the job action on all three campuses of the university, effectively shutting down five university buildings and bringing work on construction projects to a halt.

LEO, affiliated with the Michigan Federation of Teachers & School-Related Personnel/AFT, comprises 1,400 nontenure-track faculty at the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses of the University of Michigan. The lecturers voted for union representation in April 2003 and have been negotiating for their first contract since August.  In February, the union had a mass rally to spark progress in negotiations. This job action marks an escalation in union activism.

About 300 LEO members began picketing at dawn, shortly after the administration missed a deadline the union had set to agree on adequate compensation and job security language. Pickets lasted until 4:30 p.m., culminating in a rally at the administration building at the Ann Arbor campus.

LEO president Bonnie Halloran said the day was a "great success" and that LEO received strong support from other unions at the university and in the area.  About 300 members of the Graduate Employees Organization/AFT agreed not to cross the picket lines, as did many tenured faculty.  Undergraduates helped out by leading chants and drumming.  Other AFT affiliates from Henry Ford Community College and from local school districts showed their support for LEO members, as did members of other unions.  UAW members picketed in Flint and Dearborn, and a refusal to cross the picket line by the building trades union stopped two campus construction projects for the day.  Halloran said that officers from the state AFL-CIO were also in attendance.

"The strike was a very enlightening experience," said Halloran.  "Most of our members have no union experience from before.  There was a great sense of solidarity and support."

While LEO and the administration have agreed to 18 contract articles, management has given little in the way of the big issues the lecturers want addressed: pay equity with other teachers in the Michigan public education system.  A part-time lecturer at the University of Michigan-Dearborn's College of Arts, Sciences and Letters currently earns an annualized full-time salary rate of $19,600, compared to the $39,500 earned by starting high school teachers in Ann Arbor. [Brian Dolber, Bonnie Halloran, Barbara McKenna]

[April 14, 2004]