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After Working Seven Months under Old Contract, Eastern Michigan University AAUP and EMU Administration have a Tentative Deal; Faculty to Vote on Agreement April 20

(YPSILANTI)—After seven months of Eastern Michigan University faculty working under their old contract, after sometimes contentious negotiations and a twelve day strike in September, the Eastern Michigan University faculty has reached a tentative contract agreement with the administration. The agreement was reached in a bargaining session this afternoon.

“We are extremely pleased,” said Howard Bunsis, president of the Eastern Michigan University chapter of the American Association of University professors, the union representing EMU’s faculty. “We have been working to get our members a fair contract for quite some time and we are happy that we are able to present them an agreement that includes reasonable compensation increases comparable with other universities.”

Salary increases and health insurance premiums had been major sticking points in the negotiation process. An independent fact-finder was commissioned to study each side’s contract proposal, and issue what he believed to be a fair settlement. In order to serve the university’s and students’ best interests, EMU professors urged the administration to agree with them to accept the fact finder’s report before it was released, and offered the same agreement after the report was released early last week. Last Friday, the EMU administration finally agreed with faculty that the independent fact finders report was a fair compromise, and EMU and its professors agreed to accept all of the fact finder’s recommendations. The faculty union is grateful to the hard work of independent fact finder, Benjamin Kerner.

The fact finding report recommended that the administration should meet professors’ proposed salary increases of 3.50%, 4.06%, 3.75% and 3.88% over the next four years. Faculty will also receive an additional 1% contribution to their retirement plans, with the 1% increase spread out over the last three years of the contract. The report also recommended that the administration’s proposal of implementing a premium for professors on health insurance premiums should be accepted. The premiums would cost professors on average about $1,000, depending on their individual health plan. The administration and faculty agreed to these terms in principle on Friday.

However, one remaining issue kept the two sides from reaching an agreement Friday—the administration’s proposal to cease providing domestic partner benefits. EMU has provided faculty with domestic partner benefits since 1998, but the administration is now unsure of the legality of those benefits in light of a recent court of appeals decision. EMU faculty believes there may be a way to legally maintain those benefits. For now, the two sides have agreed to create a task force to study the issue and determine the legality of providing these benefits

Bunsis expressed hope that these benefits could be preserved. “While we are glad to have the opportunity to continue exploring this issue with EMU administration, we are worried that the administration did not display the commitment to these benefits that we believe is warranted. We hope that through the work of task force, we can persuade the administration to realize how critical these benefits are to our entire university community.” Those currently receiving domestic partner benefits will continue receiving them through the end of 2007.

Although this tentative agreement has been reached, faculty will vote whether or not to accept this contract on Friday, April 20. EMU’s Board of Regents will also need to vote to ratify the agreement.

Overall, Bunsis said he was glad to have a tentative agreement and that the negotiation process looks to be nearing the end. Said Bunsis, “We have been working for a very long time, and a lot of people have worked extremely hard to get where we are today. I am very proud of the strength and solidarity of our members.

Throughout this process, EMU professors bargained in good faith and put EMU’s students first—that’s why we were able to reach this compromise.”