EMU Faculty Votes Overwhelmingly to Authorize Strike Due to Administration’s Failure to Bargain

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EMU Faculty Votes Overwhelmingly to Authorize Strike Due to Administration’s Failure to Bargain
Job Action on EMU Campus to Begin Wednesday, Sept. 7
EMU-AAUP Negotiating Team Will Continue Talks

“We will not be in our classrooms tomorrow, our negotiating team will be at the bargaining table”

YPSILANTI, Michigan – At a union meeting tonight, members of the Eastern Michigan University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (EMU-AAUP) voted 91 percent in favor of authorizing a strike by more than 500 tenured and tenure track faculty.

The strike action, which will begin tomorrow morning on Wednesday September 7th, is due to the EMU Administration’s repeated failure to bargain in good faith and reach common ground on a new labor agreement.

“Our message to EMU students, parents and alumni is simple: EMU faculty are standing up for you and for quality education,” said Matt Kirkpatrick, associate professor of English language and literature at EMU and chair of the EMU-AAUP negotiating team. “But the EMU Administration has let you down, raising their own salaries while trying to reduce our compensation, and repeatedly failing to bargain in good faith.”

In advance of tonight’s strike authorization vote, the EMU-AAUP negotiating team invited the EMU Administration to continue negotiating on Monday and Tuesday but received no response. A bargaining session with state mediators is scheduled for tomorrow morning, Wednesday September 7th and EMU-AAUP negotiators will attend with the goal of reaching a fair agreement as soon as possible.

During negotiations, EMU administrators have cancelled some meetings and delayed others, while taking days to respond to EMU-AAUP bargaining proposals despite an expiring contract and the deadline of a strike authorization vote.

Administrators have inaccurately described their proposal to reduce compensation for many faculty with massive increases in health care costs as a pay “increase”. They have also demanded that faculty accept a health care plan that is more costly and onerous that the insurance coverage agreed to and currently in effect for members of other campus bargaining units.

“It’s truly unfortunate that the EMU Administration’s failure at the bargaining table will cause delay and disruption for our students,” said Mohamed El-Sayed, professor of engineering at EMU and president of EMU-AAUP. “We will not be in our classrooms tomorrow, but our negotiating team will be at the bargaining table. We’re looking for solutions that support our students and set the stage for quality education at EMU for the long term.”

In an effort to find common ground, EMU-AAUP members have been working the past week without a contract. The previous agreement covering more than 500 tenured and tenure track faculty at EMU expired at midnight on Wednesday, August 31.