Bargaining for the Common Good Survey Report

Dear Lecturers,

Thank you to everyone who filled out LEO’s Bargaining for the Common Good Survey! 85 Lecturers from 46 different units (26 Ann Arbor units, 9 Dearborn, and 11 Flint) responded. Later this week we will be sending out a Benefits survey that focuses mainly on medical leaves and retirement. 

We have kept all of our surveys open, so if you did not have the chance to fill out the previous surveys, you still can: Workload, Reviews, Professional Development and BCG. The report of the Bargaining for the Common Good Survey is below. 

The winner of the $50 Kroger gift card is Netta Berlin from Classical Studies in Ann Arbor!
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Very strong majorities of those who filled out the survey supported these issues and agreed the University should be taking proactive actions. In the comments there were a small number of Lecturers who voiced strong concerns with a Bargaining for the Common Good approach, as well as a couple who disagreed on specific issues. Of those who disagreed with the BCG approach, some respondents expressed “either/or” concerns that raising these BCG issues would distract from our focus on wages, benefits, and/or job security issues — or even that these core member issues could be “traded off” for BCG issues.

We take responsibility for not being clearer that we would strongly intend a BCG approach to be part of our strategy to build our power to win better wages, benefits, and overall working conditions. The overwhelming experience from unions who have engaged in a BCG approach is that they have won better wages, benefits, and other working conditions improvements while also winning important victories for other members of the community. All bargaining progress is a result of building enough power to convince the employer that it will cost them less to agree to our fair demands than it will to engage in a long, protracted fight.  LEO's SPACE Committee only advocates for a BCG approach as part of a strategy to build power for the next round of bargaining.