NEWS
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
This just in:"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Come support the Lecturer Employee Organization in its struggle to win
their first union contract
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Rally at the Flemming building from 12:45 to 1:10 this Thursday (next to the cube)
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The informational pickets will be up around campus from 10:00 to 4:00. If you cannot make it, please stop and show your support at their picket lines (note: this is not a work stoppage, so they are NOT asking at this point that we do not cross).
*The University of Michigan employs over 1,400 lecturers, all them teachers employed to educate and engage us, the undergraduate community. Unlike tenure-track faculty, lecturers have no job security and receive no healthcare or benefits during semesters or summers that they don't teach.
*Lecturers are paid a fraction of what full professors earn, wages that put many of at or below the poverty line. The average "real" wage (that is, salary after adjusting for the rising cost of living) of UM Lecturers has been virtually stagnant - rising only 1% per year - over the last ten years. Some individual units have seen real wages rise much faster than average; this implies that in some units, real wages have actually fallen over this period.
By comparison, Michigan public high school teachers with a Ph.D. are often paid more than a lecturer at the University.
*The gap between tenured faculty and lecturers has widened to the point that it is interfering with the daily life of many lecturers, making it difficult for them to invest as much attention, concern and resources in teaching as they could otherwise.
*The Lecturers have challenged the University to stop treating teachers as second class employees and demonstrate a commitment to undergraduate education.
*The Lectuer's union has asked the undergraduate to join them in demanding fair treatment from the administration. "
Posted by Rob at 11:34 AM
