Photo courtesy of OU-AAUP Instgram (@aaupoakland)

On Sept. 25, the Oakland University American Association of University Professors (OU-AAUP) ratified the tentative agreement to renew the faculty contract for another 5 years. With 78% of the votes in favor and 22% opposing approval, the faculty union membership accepted the tentative agreement. 

After a tentative agreement was reached between OU-AAUP and the university’s bargaining team on Sept. 3, a day before classes began, the document awaited approval by the faculty union membership. 

The union held an informational meeting on Sept. 10 to review the details of what is to become the new faculty contract. Voting opened on Sept. 19 and a week later the union membership approved the ratification of the document. 

Amy Pollard, OU-AAUP executive director, broke down some of the major points in the ratified tentative agreement. 

Full-time faculty will get:

• A $1,500 one-time bonus and a 4% merit increase in year 1
• A $500,000 market adjustment and a 3% merit increase in year 2
• A $500,000 market adjustment and a 3% merit increase in year 3
• A 3% merit increase in year 4
• A 3% merit increase in year 5

“Part-time faculty salary increases are the same with the exception that their one-time bonus is $500 and they do not receive any market adjustments,” Pollard said. “There are increases to faculty travel and promotion raises as well.”

Pollard clarified that the tentative agreement did not include changes to retirement or health care benefits. Changes to limit shared governance like universal workload policy were not included either. 

“The agreement also includes increases for promotional raises and funds for faculty travel and research,” the OU bargaining team said in their negotiations updates. “It also doubles the retirement stipend for special lecturers.”

“When the [Board of Trustees (BoT)] approves the Tentative Agreement, it will go into effect immediately and be retroactive back to August 15,” Pollard said. This will take place on Oct. 18, the next BOT meeting of the semester.

Daniel Clark, professor and director of the Center for Public Humanities explained the significance of this year’s tentative agreement.

“I’ve been through a lot of contract negotiation seasons,” Clark said. “This round confirms past trends, faculty continue to fall further and further behind financially, and that’s especially true for newer faculty hires and colleagues in the middle stages of their careers.”

Clark explained that on 2009 the university’s policy attempted to gain more control of faculty research, lecture notes, and assignments — something similar to this year’s universal workload and fixed merit score policies.

“The most common thread over the years is that faculty members come out of contract negotiations feeling unappreciated,” Clark said. “Almost as if we were an impediment to the institution’s functioning, when we are the ones who do the most fundamental work of the university.”

Clark emphasized that to yield a higher support for future agreements form the union’s membership, the contract has to be more financially supportive of faculty.

“It seems pretty clear that to get a higher ratification vote, the tentative agreement has to be better, but I don’t see that in any way as the fault of the bargaining team,” Clark said. “We’re public employees, our leverage is limited…but administration priorities that consistently tip away from supporting faculty members make it very difficult for many colleagues to make ends meet and creates an environment of feeling unappreciated, mentioned earlier, which erodes any sense of common mission.”

“Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions,” OU-AAUP President Mike Latcha, said. “I’m glad the university and the bargaining team were able to come to an agreement so that I can get back in the classroom to deliver the excellent education Oakland students deserve.” For more information, visit the OU-AAUP bargaining diary.