05/10/22 Union Elections Update, Union Activism

NEWS FROM YOUR UNION

• Congratulations to Deborah Ellis and Paul Beavers who will be continuing on as Vice President and Treasurer of AAUP-AFT! Make sure to cast your vote by May 15 in the run-off election between Simone Brennan and Angela Tiura for Member-at-Large. Search your inbox for an email from ballot@ballotsonline.com.

• The amended union bylaws passed, which will mean a number of adjustments for the union in the coming months. This fall, we’ll be holding a special election for two Member-at-Large seats. The updated bylaws can be read here.

• Elections for the Lecturer Steering Committee (LSC) and the Academic Staff Steering Committee (ASSC) will take place soon. LSC will be expanding to include all non-tenure track faculty. If you’re NTTF or Academic Staff, consider running for the leadership team in one of these groups.

• We are looking for eight Organizing Fellows to learn how to talk to people about joining the union. It is fun, and an opportunity to meet amazing people all over campus. There is a $2,500 stipend associated with this work. E-mail Mark Dilley (mdilley@aaupaft.org) for more info. The deadline for submitting an application is May 27.

• We would like to send union members to the 2022 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago, June 17–19. The Labor Notes Conference is the biggest gathering out there of grassroots union activists, worker center leaders, and all-around troublemakers. We expect to be able to cover the conference fee, train fare, hotel, and a meal allowance for up to 10 AAUP-AFT members. If you’d like to go, or need more information, email office@aaupaft.org.

• Reminder that if you have not yet applied for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) you absolutely should. Two more Wayne State faculty members have reported that all their student loans have been forgiven thanks to PSLF. To enroll, go here: https://app.meetsummer.org/onboard/aft or attend an upcoming AFT debt clinic: https://cvent.me/17XZka

UNION ACTIVISM

• Several members have been connecting with the Reproductive Rights Group of Michigan to protect Roe v. Wade. In March, we were part of a coalition of groups that co-sponsored a reproductive rights event on campus. The next march for reproductive rights in Detroit is this Saturday, May 14 at 1 pm leaving from the Theodore Levin Courthouse. More info on Saturday’s march can be found here. If you’d like to serve as a union representative to this new group’s meetings, please get in touch with daubert@aaupaft.org so we can coordinate.

• Yesterday, in coordination with other unions around the country, we sent an email to President Biden on behalf of our union requesting that he use executive action to end the student debt crisis. Read the letter here. If you’re interested in learning more about the movement to cancel student debt, join a strategy session with the Debt Collective on May 17.

• Last month union members collected many bags of clothing and boxes of canned goods and supplies for the W pantry. Academic Staff Steering Committee members Mershawn Gayden, Maya Calloway Richardson, Deb Gibson, and Paul Bishop stopped by the W Food Pantry and Wardrobe to drop off personal care packets and money they raised to support Wayne State students in need of food and clothing assistance.

ON CAMPUS

• WSU-GEARS asks that you complete their survey on hidden workload, faculty work experiences, and work/family/life issues at Wayne State University. The survey will close May 13. The purpose of this effort is to inform and assist in the adaptation and development of university resources regarding recruitment, retention, and promotion that are critical to our success as an institution. All responses are confidential, per the WSU Institutional Review Board (IRB). For more details on the GEARS survey please email WSU GEARS Co-PI, Dr. Lars Johnson.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Adjuncts across the country cobble together many jobs to make a living wage. Unions that represent them are gaining strength, and protests are becoming more frequent. See this recent Washington Post article: https://wapo.st/3OHQ9fE

06/25/20 Status of Negotiations

Dear Colleagues: 

The Union is continuing the Impact Bargaining that began in March with the Administration. The most recent issues relate to whether or not the Faculty and Academic Staff will make concessions in their salary and benefits, in response to the request to do so, voluntarily, by the University in the current COVID-19 crisis. As in any negotiation, each side wishes to make the best possible argument. The Administration is likely to try to keep the focus on the General Fund, as it has tried to do in meetings with the Academic Senate Budget Committee and in the Finance Subcommittee of the Restart Committee. The Administration has recognized that if there are concessions to be made by the Faculty and Academic Staff, they must seek the agreement of the Union.

The Administration’s position, based on presentations to the Academic Senate and others, has emphasized that there should be concessions by our members in order to avoid cuts in various units. The Administration has already sent instructions that units must submit plans as to how to absorb projected five and ten percent budget cuts. Doing this before we have a clear understanding of what the revenue will be for the coming year creates a climate, whether intended or not, that pressures our members to consider supporting individual or department level “voluntary” concessions in some form. It is contrary to the Collective Bargaining Agreement for individual administrators, individual Union members, or internal academic governance committees, to agree to “voluntary” changes in terms of employment of bargaining unit members. It is critical for all to understand that regardless of well-meaning intentions to help, or because of basic communitarian values on their part, it is the exclusive role of the Union to negotiate changes in wages, hours, or working conditions for the members of our bargaining unit.

The Union’s position in these discussions is based on several factors:

During the time that President M. Roy Wilson has been in office, the number of managerial administrators has grown from 453 to 539, a 19% increase. The number of tenured and tenure-track Faculty fell over that time from 1143 to 899, a 21% decline. The non-tenure-track Faculty (Clinicians and Lecturers, mostly) increased slightly from 713 in 2013, to 730 in 2018. Lecturers within this group increased from about 173 to 217. The question of how to cut administrative costs will have an important role in the discussions.

The increase in the ranks of full-time contingent Faculty has been accompanied by a significant decrease in job security for this same group through non-renewals, and limiting term renewals to single year appointments. One of the important items that will be on the discussion agenda will be securing greater job security for Clinicians and Lecturers.

The financial discussions will not be limited only to examining the General Fund for possible solutions, but will be conducted within the context of all of the assets of the University that might be brought to bear during this crisis period.

We are prioritizing our responses to proposals for concessions, if any, to limiting the long term effects on the incomes of our members. We are particularly concerned with protecting the salaries of those in our lower income levels.

Each side has named a team of representatives in these negotiations. The Administration team is led by Associate Provost for Academic Personnel, Boris Baltes. He is joined by Ms. Rebecca Cook, Interim Vice President for Finance, and Ms. Carolyn Hafner, Interim Vice President for Human Relations. The Union team is led by Ricardo Villarosa, Esq., Chief Negotiator. Professor Deborah Ellis, Union Vice President-Elect and Paul Beavers, Union Treasurer, Chair of the Academic Senate Budget Committee, and the Union’s representative on the Finance Subcommittee of the Restart Committee, complete the Union team. The first meeting is on Friday, June 26th.

We will provide periodic updates on the progress of the talks, and will be asking members to ratify whatever proposal is agreed upon by the two sides.

In solidarity,

Charlie Parrish, President

Ricardo Villarosa, Esq., Chief Negotiator

--

Charles J. Parrish

President, AAUP-AFT, Local 6075, WSU Chapter

Vice President-at-Large, AFT Michigan

President, AAUP Michigan Conference

Member-at-Large, National Council, AAUP

5057 Woodward Avenue, Suite 3301

Detroit, MI 48202

313.577.1750

06/23/20 The Administration Denies Grievance: Job Security for Contingent Full-Time Faculty Protects Tenure-Stream Working Conditions

Dear Colleagues:

In February 2020, all Lecturers and Senior Lecturers up for renewal appointments were issued notices of non-renewal by college administrators across campus. These notices were issued because Deans wanted to maximize their budget flexibility by putting Lecturers’ jobs on the line and as we explain below, were issued in bad faith. Lecturers make up 12% of all full-time faculty, and they are routinely used as pawns to leverage the changes Wayne State administrators want to see in academic programs and the workloads of tenured and tenure-track faculty. We’re asking that the administration treat Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, and all Clinical and Research faculty with the professionalism they deserve. We’re not raising the issue of contingent faculty to you just because we want your support for Lecturers and Clinical and Research faculty, but because the fate and material well-being of all Wayne State faculty are tied to the protections – or lack of protections – that these faculty have. Changing these conditions will require the actions and support of Tenured and Tenure-Track faculty.

The contingent status of Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Clinical faculty, and Research faculty is a threat to the working conditions of both tenured and non-tenure-track full-time faculty on this campus. The problem at Wayne State is similar to many institutions across the country: the increased use of contingent full-time faculty has come at the cost of an erosion of tenure-track positions, which allows administrators to maximize their power at the expense of shared governance. What this means in practice is that the administration is attempting to use contingent full-time faculty, including Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, and Clinical and Research professors, as pawns to undermine shared governance and force structural changes on departments and programs, whether or not faculty in those departments agree that the changes are necessary or beneficial to their core educational mission. 

We saw this happen in CLAS a couple of years ago when Lecturers were fired from one department to manipulate the tenured faculty in that department to teach higher enrolling courses. We see this happening now as CLAS is putting Lecturers’ jobs on the chopping block again with one-year contracts to force two departments to change course offerings and teaching practices. And earlier this month, the new Dean of the Medical School has proposed firing all Clinician-Educator faculty from their WSU positions in a move that would make them little more than staff physicians working for the University Physicians Group. Most of these academic physicians have been on faculty at WSU for many years and have dedicated their careers to improving the health of vulnerable populations living in Detroit. Our University’s research-intensive status depends in large part on the Medical School’s well being. What happens to these faculty will affect us all. Meanwhile, some WSU administrators have made statements telling Lecturers to go elsewhere if they want job security even while they manufacture the conditions of vulnerability. The actions and statements of administrators make it clear: Wayne State does not value contingent faculty. 

In the last year, the Lecturer Steering Committee (LSC) – which was formed in 2018 to advocate for the full-time Lecturer faculty who are a part of our AAUP-AFT, Local 6075 Union – took several steps to address the problems related to job security. First, we launched an online petition that gathered 1,000 signatures in just over one week. Second, we met privately with high-level members of the administration to discuss our concerns related to contingent full- time faculty. Third, we published an issue of the Newsbriefs, analyzing Lecturers at Wayne State. Fourth, we held a peaceful protest and rally to deliver our petition to President Wilson, only to be rebuffed by campus police in a cowardly refusal to face the faculty, staff, and students that constitute this University. Finally, and in response to Wayne State University administration’s bad faith use of notices of non-renewal to maximize their budget flexibility at the expense of Lecturers and Senior Lecturers, your Union filed a group grievance in March 2020. Our argument in the grievance was that the administration turned these notices of non-renewal into notices of conditional renewal in which faculty wouldn’t find out if they were being renewed until it was far too late to find alternative academic employment. The grievance has been denied by the administration (see attached). 

The only path forward now is to ensure all faculty have meaningful job security through contract negotiations. Without meaningful job security, the administration will continue to use contingent faculty in order to align all faculty as cogs in their machine. 

To our tenured colleagues: contingent faculty, like Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, and the School of Medicine Clinical Professors are canaries in the coal mine. The working conditions of tenure-stream faculty are going to get worse in terms of teaching assignments, teaching loads, and class sizes until all faculty have job security. Protecting contingent faculty by demanding that they have job and economic security is about protecting your own material interests! Thus, while Union leadership considers whether to pursue this case to arbitration, please remember that contract negotiations will take place this year, so let’s work together to make Wayne State a national leader in faculty rights! We will need your time, attention, and action to realize this goal.

Yours in Solidarity,

The Lecturer Steering Committee

AAUP-AFT, Local 6075

Wayne State University Chapter

Clay Walker, Chair

Christine Knapp, Vice Chair

05/21/20 Union's Response to "Serious Financial Distress"

Dear Colleagues:

Following is the response that both myself and Ricardo Villarosa sent this morning to President Wilson and the Board of Governor's regarding the University's "Serious Financial Distress" declaration:

*************************************************

Dear President Wilson and Board of Governors Members:

We understand that the Administration intends to ask the Board of Governors to invoke the following provision of our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which states (Article XII.4 p. 23):

“For a maximum of three (3) times during

the period of March 20, 2016 through

March 20, 2021, upon a vote of the

University’s Board of Governors that the

University is in “serious financial distress”

the University Administration may

prospectively void the contracted across-

the-board and selective salary adjustments

for the forthcoming contract year. The

Association shall have thirty (30) days to

submit this matter to binding arbitration.”

The Union is cognizant of a provision of the CBA, in the same Article, which states that (Article XII.A, p. 19):

“In the event of an Executive Order or a 

legislative reduction of the state appropriation,

at the University’s request, representatives of the

Association and representatives of the University

Administration to discuss the impact of this

reduction and possible solutions to the problem.”

It is the position of the Union that this provision of the CBA be followed before a declaration of “serious financial distress” should be invoked by the University. To our knowledge, the University has not yet received notice of a pending Executive Order, nor of a specific legislative reduction of our state appropriation. The Board of Governors should instruct the Administration to follow this provision of the CBA and not leapfrog directly to a declaration of “serious financial distress.” It is relevant that, at the present time, we do not have reliable knowledge of the revenue from the major funding sources for the University’s General Fund [Tuition (54%), State Appropriations (34%)], and those amounts will not be known until sometime later this summer. However, so far, projected enrollment figures for the Fall Semester suggest that they are holding steady, and we may find the degree of any “serious financial distress” may be mitigated by this, and such a declaration is premature at this point.

Nor do we have any indication of the Administration’s attempt to address the issue of administrative personnel costs beyond a limited adjustment to non-represented merit increases and a temporary diversion of high-level Administration salaries to a student aid fund. Significant reductions to administrative costs should be dealt with before the Faculty and Academic Staff are asked to make additional sacrifices to the ones they have already experienced in having to switch from face-to-face classes to online teaching in the middle of the Winter Semester, and the adjustments to having to adapt beyond the necessary work from home requirements. As the front lines of the core academic mission of the University, Faculty and Academic Staff initially made it possible for students to complete a Winter term by shifting to remote instruction and delivery of all academic and co-curricular support and engagement. They continue to contribute by preparing to meet the challenges of Spring, Summer, and Fall with all of the creativity and flexibility that are required to achieve a successful return to campus in whatever forms that entails.

We ask that the Board instruct the Administration to agree to begin talks with the Union after an Executive order or a reduction in our state appropriation takes place. These talks should be “to discuss the impact of this reduction and possible solutions to the problem.” Any further action related to the financial situation for the coming year should be deferred at this time pending further knowledge of the financial situation of the University. In addition, the sacrifices that have already been made by the Faculty and Academic Staff should be matched by the Administration before any request for further sacrifices be made to the Faculty and Academic Staff of the University.

I have attached this message as a memorandum, as well.

Sincerely,

Charles J. Parrish, President

Ricardo Villarosa, Chief Negotiator

AAUP-AFT, Local 6075

Wayne State University Chapter

--

Charles J. Parrish

President, AAUP-AFT, Local 6075, WSU Chapter

Vice President-at-Large, AFT Michigan

President, AAUP Michigan Conference

Member-at-Large, National Council, AAUP

5057 Woodward Avenue, Suite 3301

Detroit, MI 48202

313.577.1750

Feb 2020 Newsbriefs: WSU Lecturers