CMU reaches tentative agreement with Faculty Association
Central Michigan University announced last week that it has reached a tentative five-year agreement with the university's Faculty Association (FA).
However, FA President Amanda Garrison said there is a lot more work to be done.
The next action will be on Tuesday when the FA Board of Directors meets to go over what has been changed in the agreement and discuss it, according to Garrison.
“We haven't signed or agreed to anything; we have tentatively agreed to a contract,” Garrison said. “We have to take the draft of this idea back to the membership. So I think that's really the way we're thinking about next steps: our eyes are on (the members), and how do we take the best care of them?”
The tentative agreement comes after the 2019-24 agreement between the two parties ended on June 30.
Garrison said the tentative agreement was only one of the first steps to approving the official contract.
The board has four options that will decide what the next steps are for both the university and the association. The options include rejecting the agreement or making a positive, negative, or neutral recommendation to the membership, Garrison said.
If the FA board decides to pass it on to the membership, the tentative agreement will be sent out to the members. They will decide whether to ratify it through a confidential vote.
“If they vote down, we'll have a direction we have to go, and if they say yes, then we’ll have a direction we get to go,” Garrison said.
The dedication to getting a fair deal was highlighted at the recent Board of Trustees meeting on June 25. Seventy members of the association came out to say “good morning” to the trustees and make their presence known.
“We don't want to be contentious right now because there's not necessarily, at this moment, anything to fight about,” Garrison said in an interview at the demonstration. “But we need to be seen so that the importance of the faculty, the way that we serve this university can be demonstrated in the numbers of people that turn up, when they're not getting paid to be here.
“We want to show them that even in these spaces where the campus might be less populated with students, faculty are still here. Just because you don't see us, doesn't mean we're not working.”
During the negotiation process, there were a few areas where the FA felt they needed to be supported more by the university, including pay.
In a press release, the FA claimed that while they were receiving raises from the university, they actually endured a 15% pay cut due to inflation rates.
“Despite recognizing the financial constraints due to a significant decrease in student enrollment — the faculty remain committed to reaching an agreement that includes reasonable and fair wage increases,” the press release states.
Garrison said the contract between the association and the university is essential because it leads to more protections for faculty.
She said while they have some work to do, progress has been made through negotiations.
“I think as far as our side went, we were ready,” Garrison said. “We had support that we needed so that they could get information quickly if (the bargaining team) needed it to go back to the table with CMU. I think they did great.”
Garrison said this process has been something the Faculty Association has been preparing for, for over a year.
“I think we're getting some stuff done earlier than we thought we were going to get it done,” Garrison said. “A lot of folks said this is kind of early for something like this. No, I don’t think it's a bit too early. We've been prepping the bargain for the last year and a half, so we want to be ready.”
CMU Board of Trustees Chair Todd Regis showed his support for all faculty and staff.
“We appreciate everybody that works in every one of these buildings and works on this campus,” Regis said. “No matter who you are -- whether you're cleaning the rooms after everybody leaves, or you're there leading the room at the beginning, or you’re the person helping make sure there's money for each and every program we have -- we appreciate everybody. ”
President Bob Davies said he understands the importance of the faculty to the university and is appreciative of all their efforts in and out of the classroom.
“They're here and we appreciate them,” Davies said. “The faculty are an important part of the institution. They’re valuable to everything that we do, same with staff. It's a community coming together to support the students. The faculty here at CMU are a tremendous bunch.”
The university would not comment further on any of the contract negotiations until the contract has been ratified by the association.
