University of Michigan lecturers authorize a strike

University of Michigan lecturers authorize a strike 

My alma mater seems to be doing better on the basketball court than they are at the bargaining table.

According to POLITICO, unionized lecturers at the University of Michigan voted to authorize a strike today, with 80 percent voting in favor.
The vote does not require the lecturers to go on strike, but rather permits their union leaders to call a strike should negotiations, set to continue through next week, fail.

Management “can easily make this right by drawing on the money generated by our labor without having to raise tuition,” Shelley Manis, co-chair of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization in Ann Arbor, told reporters on a call today.

UM lecturers seek a 74 percent increase in the lecturer starting salary at the university’s Ann Arbor campus; a 98 percent increase at its Dearborn campus; and a 105 percent increase at the Flint campus. A university spokesperson told POLITICO Tuesday its bargaining team would reach a settlement before the current contract expires on April 20.

“We’ll continue our negotiations at the bargaining table,” said Rick Fitzgerald, the university’s assistant vice president for public affairs.
Lecturers teach one-third of the undergraduates on the Ann Arbor campus. A strike could disrupt classes in the last month of the university’s academic year.