UMMAP 6739: Fighting for a Fair Contract!
FAQs on Strike Decision
Why did we call off the strike?
We came to believe that calling off the strike was the best possible path for achieving what we want. We made the decision after securing an agreement from management on the absolute minimum they would spend over the life of the agreement and on core principles for how the money would be distributed. They have already agreed to credit years of experience outside of UM and education / credentials so any final number we eventually agree to will represent the minimum amount they are committing to spend. We know with certainty they will end up spending a lot more once members have their experience and education credited. In other words we have already made excellent progress and expect to make more in this next period of negotiations.
It is important to emphasize that striking has never been the goal – it has been winning a strong contract. It is also not a decision we would ever make lightly. Because striking is illegal in Michigan for public sector workers, it carries the risk of discipline for individual members and significant fines for the union. So we would only take that step if we were confident it meant we would achieve our primary goal of winning a strong contract. Over the weekend we came to realize we had a lot of important details we still needed to negotiate about the salary scale for 150 job classifications (largely due to management taking forever to respond to our proposals).
It is also important to stress that the threat of a strike had the desired effect. It was obvious management was afraid it would happen. They would have never agreed to binding arbitration in the absence of a credible and massive strike threat. (More on the Arbitration MOU below.)
Why did we call off the strike on Sunday night? (Why didn’t we wait until Monday night?)
In effect our strike had already begun, which affected our leverage. Management started canceling patient appointments last Thursday. This continued over the weekend. After a certain point we could expect management to accept the loss and ride out the strike. The Team therefore reasoned our leverage was highest over the weekend. The arbitration option (explained below) would not have been available so close to the strike.
Why did we need to extend negotiations?
First contracts always take a long time, especially in healthcare. We are actually ahead of schedule compared to the national average. Moving 4500 employees in 150 job classifications onto a salary scale in a way that gives everyone a good raise and decompresses wages takes time, and we want to ensure we get it right.
Management has dragged their feet throughout the process, especially at the end. We could not entirely trust their calculations for salary adjustments and they made proposals for distributing the money that were non-starters for the Team. That took time to work through. We also still need to finalize agreements on a handful of other non-economic and economic proposals.
What does the Arbitration MOU say? What exactly was agreed to?
The Arbitration Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a legally binding agreement that commits the parties to negotiate over a ten day period (November 12th to 22nd). If the parties do not reach an agreement by November 22nd, all outstanding issues will go before an arbitrator who will render a final and binding decision. The final contract will then need to be ratified by management and the union (i.e., a majority of members). In exchange, the union agreed to halt our work stoppage on November 12th.
Both parties have further agreed to withdraw unfair labor practices we filed against each other for bad faith bargaining. (The union has not withdrawn our ULP on the University’s dress and appearance guidelines, i.e., the pizza buttons issue.) The union also agreed not to call for another strike in this round of negotiations.
Why did the employer file a ULP against the union?
The employer filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) against the union on Friday, November 8th. They assert we violated our legal obligation to bargain in good faith when we announced an illegal strike before we had exhausted available legal remedies such as mediation and fact finding to resolve any outstanding contract issues. A hearing was scheduled for one day after our planned strike on Wednesday, November 13th. If the judge sided with the employer, which was likely, the employer could have pursued a court injunction to prevent us from going on strike again. Ignoring a court injunction could result in significant fines for the union and jail time for union leadership.
Who made the decision to opt for arbitration? Where did this idea come from?
Arbitration was the union’s proposal. It is very unusual for management to agree to binding arbitration in the absence of a statutory requirement. Police and firefighters in Michigan can choose to take unresolved contract negotiations to binding arbitration through Act 312 (a state law). What we agreed to is similar but on a sped-up timeline, and we insisted on a majority vote of the membership to ratify any agreement.
Management only agreed to the idea because they feared our strike.
The Bargaining Team voted to recommend this route, and the UMMAP Executive Board voted to accept the recommendation.
We will also picket in front of the Pavilion. The skilled trades unions whose members are working at that construction site have committed not to cross the line, i.e., they will not show up to work thereby halting construction for as long as we have a line in front of employee entrances.
What does Arbitration mean? And what kind of leverage do we have now?
Arbitration is a private process commonly used to resolve labor / management disputes. The arbitrator is typically a retired judge. Both parties must agree on the selection of the arbitrator. If we go to arbitration, both parties would provide their respective final offers on any outstanding issues and make their case in a hearing. Then the arbitrator would make a ruling. That ruling would be final and binding, meaning there would be no more negotiation over the terms. So there is power in binding arbitration for both sides but we know that our arguments are sound and rational and we are confident we will make a compelling presentation to an arbitrator (if necessary).
Again, it should be stressed that the goal is not to go to arbitration but to use the pressure of a binding decision rendered by a neutral third party to force the employer to settle with us beforehand. As part of that we will lobby Regents to apply pressure on management to reach a strong agreement with us as soon as possible.
What is left on the table? What have we accomplished so far?
We have made significant progress to this point. The 61 Tentative Agreements we have achieved so far, and their summaries, can be accessed on our website and are also available here. As it stands now, our members will have a much fairer attendance policy, stronger rights to affect unit level decisions over scheduling and PTO requests, the ability to be paid during emergency worksite closures, more generous pay and PTO options for Holiday pay, a workplace safety committee with the option to take disputes to arbitration, enshrined benefits protections, and much else. On unit level issues, we have made significant gains. MAs have professional development funds for the first time, Behavioral Health workers secured no discipline for failure to meet performance metrics, and so on.
All signed tentative agreements achieved until now are final. The arbitrator cannot touch what we have already won.
The outstanding issues besides Salary are PTO, Campus Sick & Vacation, and some unit level articles.
What can we expect our raises to be?
We do not know yet. But we do know that whatever number we land upon will be the minimum amount that management will spend. After ratification, members will get the opportunity to fill out a survey on their education and prior work experience which will earn them a certain amount of credits and place them on the wage scale. Put another way, management has committed to spend much more than any of us can know at this time. For the next ten days our goal will be to fight for a final package that includes a strong raise for all members, especially our lowest paid and longest serving, and a step scale that decompresses wages and establishes a foundation for fair compensation moving forward. We will also continue to fight to backdate our raise. We know members want their raise – we want it too! So that is definitely a priority for the Team.
We spent weeks organizing for a strike - now what?! What can members do to support the bargaining team over the next 10 days?
Our Contract Action Team will soon announce a plan for how we can continue to apply pressure on management. We do not know yet what that looks like but it could involve info picketing, letter writing, or something else. What are your ideas? Write to office@ummap6739.org to share your ideas or join CAT.
We know that member power has gotten us to this point and we will need all members to stay engaged and keep fighting to reach the finish line.
