A FAIR CONTRACT for EMU LECTURERS!

After more than five months of negotiations, Eastern Michigan University part-time lecturers (EMUFT) still do not have a contract for the upcoming academic year. The lack of progress is due to the hard bargaining of the EMU administration.

The administration is demanding concessions from the EMUFT, including
• a 17% pay cut for new lecturers, slashing their rate of pay from $1200 to $1000 per credit hour;
• little to no job security for part-time lecturers;
• a requirement that part-time lecturers pay back unemployment benefits received over the summer;
• an effective wage freeze for current part-time lecturers.

The administration’s offer is unacceptable for the following reasons:
• Combined, these measures would seriously undermine the material conditions of part-time lecturers, many of whom teach full time but earn a fraction of the salary paid to tenured/tenure-track faculty and full-time lecturers.
• The proposed pay cut belies EMU’s expressed commitment to “Education First.” If a quality education for EMU students is truly the administration’s highest priority, the rate of pay and working conditions offered to instructors should be sufficient to recruit and retain the most qualified and talented individuals.
• Public institutions, especially universities, have a responsibility to citizens and communities to pay good wages; they should not participate in the corporate “race to the bottom” that has eroded the security of working families in the United States and many other nations around the world.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, demand that the EMU administration negotiate a fair contract with EMUFT that provides part-time lecturers a living wage and job security.