Eastern Michigan University, faculty union reach tentative agreement
Editor's note: This story has been updated with details of the contract.
Eastern Michigan University and its faculty union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract.
Officials from the union and the university confirmed the agreement.
The two-year contract gives faculty members a 1 percent raise in the first year, and a 2 percent raise in the second year of the contract. In addition, every faculty member will receive an $1,000 flat raise in the first year to help cover the increased health care costs.
In exchange, the union accepted the administration's health care plan, which increases the costs for faculty. A family would see the premium go up from $1,139 a year to $2,950, union officials said.
The agreement doesn't include a controversial measure that would have given faculty members pay increases based on enrollment and state aid to the university.
Both union officials and administrators said it wasn't a perfect resolution for either side.
The union will formally vote on the measure on Sept. 10. It will also need to be approved by the Board of Regents.
The two sides had been far apart in terms of possible pay increases and payment for health benefits as late as Sunday evening.
However, they met all day Monday and well into the night to negotiate.
David Jesse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.
Comments
Bogie
Wed, Sep 1, 2010 : 11:42 a.m.
Wow! No wonder we are having such hard times in this state! Everyone sounds defeated, and looking for something (or someone)to blame. It sounds to me, that the faculty received a reasonable agreement. Collective bargaining worked! Most people in the private sector, have seen stagnant wage increases, and steep healthcare increases. Everyone has to feel the pain. I miss my grandparents generation (the one,who lived through the depression). They seemed to pull together in bad times. That is not the case these days.
liekkio
Wed, Sep 1, 2010 : 9:52 a.m.
@ EyeHeartA2 You missed the point. The example illustrated the folly of the statement about private sector not being able to spend the money that isn't there. As to your question about the fate of such private entities, the answer is not encouraging. Enron was an outlier, a tip of the iceberg impossible to ignore any longer. Most of the time the management of a crooked company selects a scapegoat to blame for the problems. Then they promise to fix "accounting irregularities" and fire a bunch of peons to make the bottom line look better. After that business as usual.
Mikey2u
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 4:14 p.m.
Good. Now I can finish my Master's and get the heck out of Michigan.
Jay
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 4:05 p.m.
If they raise tuition ( which they will do next year) you had better call the board of regents and tell them to quit putting millions of dollars into football, Hold these appointed people responsible and accountable for irresponsible spending and stop blaming the people that actually teach us! Can anyone say 'race to the bottom?'. Does anyone even understand what impact that has?
liekkio
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 3:34 p.m.
@ Macabre Sunset: "What I'm saying is that in the private sector, you can't spend money you don't have" But of course you can. Obfuscate, fudge and forge, or in business PC-speak, "stretch the limits of accounting", "portray a favorable depiction of performance", "inflate the revenue". Remember Enron and its likes?
Steve Krause
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 2:53 p.m.
Macabre Sunset, there's no way that they're going to raise tuition this year-- unless there's a really big cut from the state, that is. The administration/BoR always knew that they were going to have to give the faculty something to balance out health insurance, and my guess is that they knew that when they went with this 0/0/0% thing. Now next year is a completely different story....
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 2:53 p.m.
What I'm saying is that in the private sector, you can't spend money you don't have. Public sector employees feel entitled to a certain standard of living, and those raises come from tax revenue. Now that tax revenue is actually declining, it's irresponsible for the administration to grant those increases. But they do, and they'll whine about Lansing "not caring" about education when the bills come due. The same scenario plays out in every public school district in the state. The money has to come from somewhere.
Lokalisierung
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 1:36 p.m.
"In the modern world, no one gets raises and health care costs a lot of money." So I guess this whole thing is taking taking place in the past or future then? I think this happens quite a bit actually, just not to people that post here.
Macabre Sunset
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 1:31 p.m.
That's how it used to work. In the modern world, no one gets raises and health care costs a lot of money. So say good-bye to the no-tuition-increase pledge.
Lokalisierung
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 1:08 p.m.
This is the way any negotiation works. Admin saying low/no raises, Union satiung high raises, meet in the middle. Get to a middle ground were no one is super happy, and you've done your job.
glimmertwin
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 12:38 p.m.
My sources told me that the city of Ypsi agreed to bulldoze all of Laforge and allow the University to expand student housing. No word if the students will have military escort to and from their dorms.