Solidarity, militancy lead to win for professors

After five days on strike, the 600-member chapter of the American Association of University Professors at Oakland University agreed to a tentative settlement on Sept. 10. OU has approximately 18,000 enrolled undergraduate and graduate students and is located about 25 miles north of Detroit.

Photo: Andre Martin

Because of the AAUP’s steadfast resistance to horrendous concessions, bolstered by massive labor, community and student support, the union was able to reach a tentative agreement that rejects the majority of the worst administrative proposals.

“We’re marching to protect the quality of our students’ education and the value of their degrees. It’s a mistake to think that professors are motivated only by money; we have gone into the profession because we love to teach and we love to learn. We merely want to create an environment that will provide the next generation with a first-rate education,” wrote Kathleen Pfeiffer, OU associate professor of English, in a letter to local media Sept. 10.

The tentative three-year contract agreement includes a limit on the use of nontenure/part-time faculty, protection of faculty members’ intellectual property, and options for two health care plans. Professors will receive no pay raises this year, 1 percent in the second year and 3 percent in the third year, and give up two days of pay. Originally the administration wanted no pay raises and wanted to dock the professors’ pay for the days they were on strike.

In regard to one of the main strike issues, the union kept its right to faculty governance, which contractually binds the administration to adhere to the union’s input for the curriculum, how classes are taught and other educational matters.

There will be union meetings to discuss the tentative agreement over the next two weeks and then a vote by members will take place.

Solidarity Forever!

Until the Sept. 3 strike began, the union and the OU administration had been bargaining since May. The administration was intent on forcing through no pay raises, gutting the faculty governance process, increasing the number of nontenure/part-time faculty and increasing health care costs among other concessions and grave precedents.

The administration thought that because of the economic depression in Michigan they could count on the students and the public to attack the union. They miscalculated. The great majority of students—Black, Latino/a, Asian and white—are in solidarity with their professors. Other poor and working people were happy to see their fellow workers standing up to their bosses instead of meekly taking concessions without a fight.

Students in particular were the decisive reason why the union was able to hold on—and why, by the third day of the strike, the administration sought an injunction from the courts to force the union back to work. The administration knew they were losing badly on the picket line and in the public eye. While students had just been hammered by a 9 percent tuition increase, reports surfaced that the administration is sitting on millions in “surplus” funds and that the university president had just received a $100,000 raise, increasing his salary to $350,000. Because of the public support for the AAUP, when the union and the administration went to court, a judge ordered the two sides to bargain round-the-clock until an agreement was reached instead of issuing an immediate injunction.

Students were on the picket lines at all entrances to the university and came out in the hundreds at two rallies. At one rally, in a rain downpour, they sang “Solidarity Forever” while marching around the administration building. They also made support T-shirts and distributed leaflets, started Facebook pages in support of their professors and much more.

The union also received strong and widespread support from labor and the community. The Teamsters refused to cross the picket lines.

At a support rally on campus on Sept. 8 Bonnie Halloran, president of the Lecturers Employee Organization-American Federation of Teachers, said: “We are 1,500 nontenured lecturers at the University of Michigan campuses at Dearborn, Ann Arbor and Flint. We are in full solidarity.” Other AFT locals such as the Union of Part-Time Faculty, the Graduate Employee Organizing Committee, AAUP at Wayne State University and the Adjunct Faculty Organization at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn helped support the strike on the picket line and elsewhere. The AFT also provided national support.

The union also received critical support from other OU unions that have been working without a contract for months. The AAUP intends to support its sisters and brothers in their contract fights as well.

Bryan G. Pfeifer is the staff organizer with the UPTF-AFT at Wayne State University in Detroit.