As 2024 WMU-AAUP negotiations kicked off last Thursday (June 13), Western faculty and allies gathered on campus to demonstrate their support for the WMU-AAUP Chapter negotiation team and for the process. Below are comments offered by the Chapter president and a few images from the event. If you were unable to attend, be sure to stop by Montague House to pick up posters, buttons, and other items. Remember, some of the terms negotiated by the WMU-AAUP will impact nearly every employee on campus!
Negotiation Kickoff Rally, Opening Remarks from WMU-AAUP President, Dr. Cathryn Bailey
Hello Colleagues and Allies,
I am so pleased to see here you here today, although I wish I felt more optimistic about what we should expect from the Western Michigan University Administration as these salary and healthcare benefits negotiations proceed. Unfortunately, I feel obligated to share with you my sense that this Administration is unlikely to agree to provide decent raises and affordable healthcare benefits unless we employees make it abundantly clear that we will accept nothing less. In short, no matter how compelling the WMU-AAUP’s arguments and evidence are, if this Administration continues to behave as it has been, then only our solidarity and stubborn determination will lead to the outcome that we need, and that our students deserve.
I’ll start out by making a few predictions about what probably WON’T motivate the Administration to do right by its employees. I’m inclined to begin this way because I know that we academics tend to be motivated by reason and evidence. Rational, evidence-based thinking is kind of our thing and it’s admirable that we believe so strongly in it. Unfortunately, one of my hardest won lessons in recent decades has been how little power reasons, evidence, and considerations of fair play have in many dealings with university administrators. With that said, here are some factors that probably WON’T be decisive during negotiations in the coming weeks.
⁃ First of all, the WMU Administration most likely WON’T do right by us and provide decent raises and benefits simply because it’s the ethical, or even merely sensible, thing to do. Certainly, there has been no indication from this Administration during the past few years that they have any qualms about the huge pay disparities between themselves and most other WMU employees. From what I can tell, this Administration is utterly committed to an ongoing reality in which they become increasingly wealthy—fed largely by our students’ tuition dollars —while any number of WMU employees are forced to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Again, this Administration doesn’t seem to think there’s anything objectionable about the gargantuan disparities between their salaries and ours, nor do they seem to appreciate that they could mitigate some of our criticism of them simply by offering fair raises. To the contrary, they have repeatedly held the line in various negotiations with employees, making lowball, insulting offers and stonewalling at the table.
⁃ Second, that Western’s academic mission is being starved by this Administration’s poor spending priorities is also unlikely to move this Administration to make reasonable offers at the table. In fact, when we look at the evidence—for example this Administration’s weird and shameful handling of the ongoing Faculty Research Travel Fund debacle—we see them bending over backwards to AVOID supporting Western’s research mission. Even as WMU continues to market itself as a research-intensive university to students and their families, the lengths to which this Administration has been going to avoid even its limited contractual obligation to fund faculty scholarship—and we’re talking about a relatively minuscule amount of money here—is stunning. What are we to conclude other than that this Administration either doesn’t care whether or not most faculty are able to succeed in their jobs, or that they simply expect us to pay for our work travel out-of-pocket, further diminishing our eroding salaries. I should add here that, at the same time, this Administration is quite happy to spend tons of money on their own travel, presumably because they think the work they do is more important for the university than what we do.
⁃ Third, this Administration probably still won’t even acknowledge that they actually do have the money to fairly compensate the faculty and other employees. The fact is that Western is in robust financial shape, sitting on impressive reserves, even as, year after year, it continues to dump jawdropping subsidies into Division I sports. Nonetheless, the likely scenario is that this Administration will sit across from our negotiation team and continue to claim poverty yet again this summer. And let’s be clear here, what we have effectively been told by WMU administrations FOR YEARS is that Western Michigan University can afford millionaire administrators and coaches, elaborate, endless construction projects, and, again, an embarrassing drain of resources into Division I athletics. However, WMU somehow still does not have enough money to properly compensate the professors, teaching assistants, part-time instructors, advisors, custodians, landscapers, and many other employees whose work makes Western work. As you may also have noticed, the Administration always seems to have a long list of excuses when asked about its (dis)investment in the university’s academic mission, never mind that students are among those hardest hit by such inappropriate spending priorities.
Of course, the WMU-AAUP will continue to point out the factual contradictions and ambiguities that underlie the Administration’s self-serving positions, but please understand how unlikely such arguments are to be compelling to them. No, we don’t yet know how things will go this summer—and we can certainly leave some space for hope and optimism—but I would remind you that just a few years ago, the Administration’s opening bid for faculty raises was an unprecedented zero percent. Zero. Zilch. Not one damn penny. And, to be clear, the Administration treated our academic labor partners —the PIO and TAU—similarly during their contract negotiations. This insulting approach to negotiations by the Administration was not business as usual—which would have been unpleasant enough—but an especially nasty shift in tactics, one in which they sent the message right off the bat about what they think academic laborers are worth. Zero. Zilch. Not one damn penny.
And as I prepare to conclude my remarks, I will reiterate the one thing that IS most likely to get this Administration to begin investing in the faculty again: They must understand that we will accept nothing less than a decent salary and benefits package. Period. They must be helped to appreciate that we are exhausted by their self-serving excuses and perverse spending priorities and will not be assuaged, intimidated, or hoodwinked into accepting anything less than what we deserve and need. To reiterate a slogan that has become one of my very favorites: United we bargain, divided we beg.
Strength in solidarity 