Lecturers at the University of Michigan are being urged by their union leaders to sign a tentative contract reached with administrators following a months-long process called “long and often difficult” by a union bargaining leader.

Jim Anderson, chair of the LEO bargaining committee and an English lecturer on the U-M Flint campus, urged the group's 1,445 non-tenure-track instructors to ratify the contract in an e-mail.

“LEO’s economic goal in these negotiations was to avert for its members the kind of setbacks in total compensation being suffered by many workers in our communities,” Anderson wrote. “Our institution is financially healthy. It does not need to balance its budget on the backs of some of its lowest paid employees.”

Among the tentative agreement’s highlights:

• LEO members will pay higher health insurance premiums and co-pays over the course of the contract.
• Sick pay and long-term disability will be expanded to include lecturers with at least two years of service.
• All full-time salary rates will receive a $500 yearly bump as of Sept. 1, 2012.
• Minimum lecturer salaries will increase by $1,300 over the life of the agreement.
• Lecturers hired after Sept. 1, 2012 will work a year before participating in the basic retirement plan.
• There are no changes to promotional raises, but lecturers who pass certain reviews will receive 7 percent raises.

Lecturers make up 30 percent of the faculty in Ann Arbor. Not counted in that mix are about 1,800 graduate student instructors. LEO members make up to 50 percent of the faculty in Dearborn and Flint, where there are fewer graduate programs and student instructors.

The LEO wanted to boost the bottom salary of its Ann Arbor lecturers to around $40,000, which is comparable to the starting salary for a new Ann Arbor Public Schools teacher with a master's degree. Dearborn and Flint's starting lecturer salaries would compare to the public school teacher salaries in those communities.

But the tentative contract didn't achieve that goal.

“While this ‘base salary adjustment’ is far less than the equity raises that LEO sought in this contract and will no doubt continue to seek in future contracts, it can be viewed as compensation for the COSHB (Committee on Sustainable Health Benefits) health insurance premium increases,” Anderson wrote.

Jeffery Frumkin, associate provost and senior director of academic human resources, said in a written statement: “The agreement provides a fair salary and continues the university’s commitment to provide increasing stability for lecturers."

Bargaining began in January.

Union officials said the bargaining process was sullied at the start when an 18-year lecturer of the English department received a poor review from her supervisors while serving on the negotiation team. She was told her contract wasn't being renewed, and the union filed a grievance.

Union officials say they signed the tentative contract immediately after U-M agreed to give the lecturer a one-year administrative appointment in the university's career services center.

"It was not a part of the labor negotiations on the contract, but the grievance has been resolved," university spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.

Juliana Keeping is a higher education reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter