YPSILANTI, Mich. – Members of the Eastern Michigan University American Association of University Professors (AAUP) voted 96% in favor of ratifying a new four-year labor agreement which includes significant gains in salary, retirement, and protections for health care coverage.
Voting began following a Tuesday (Sept. 20) union meeting, and it ended Friday.
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“Our negotiating team listened closely to our members throughout this process,” said Matt Kirkpatrick, associate professor of English language and literature at EMU and chair of the EMU-AAUP negotiating team. “Our goal was to bring back an agreement to address concerns we heard about supporting our students, fair compensation, and creating a foundation for continued quality education at EMU. I think the results of this ratification vote show that we achieved our goal.”
The agreement covered more than 500 tenured and tenure track faculty at EMU was reached after a three-day strike on the EMU campus in early September. Agreement also includes pay raises of $4,000 in base pay or 4% in the first of the agreement and a 3.25% base pay increase in the second and third-year agreement.
The new deal also provides that EMU faculty will receive the same healthcare options as administrators and other groups on campus with healthcare premiums based on an 80/20 cost-sharing model.
“It was really impressive to see our members stick together and all the tremendous support we received from students and the campus community,” said Mohamed El-Sayed, professor of engineering at EMU and president of EMU-AAUP. “Our focus now is working together with our students and the administration so that everyone has access to the great education they deserve here at EMU.”
