AAUP Prevails as Faculty and OU Administration Reach Tentative Agreement
New Contract Confirms Faculty Protest Not About Salary

‘ROCHESTER, MICH. – At 3:36 this morning, Oakland University faculty and administration reached a tentative agreement, ending a 7-day unfair labor practice protest.

AAUP chapter president Joel Russell wrote in a letter to faculty announcing the agreement: “The [tentative
agreement] retains and in some ways strengthens the shared governance provisions of former contracts,
limits the use of term appointments, protects our intellectual property, and offers choices between our current type of health plans and healthy choice plans.”

The terms of the tentative agreement specify that faculty governance, the major issue at the bargaining table,
has been preserved. Most importantly, the tentative agreement protects the faculty’s ability to block
administration efforts to ignore the University Senate and other university institutions of governance.
Major compromises reached also included a compromise between two proposed healthcare systems. The
administration had tried to institute a penalty-based healthcare system that discriminates against preexisting
conditions. The new agreement maintains the status quo and introduces a new “Healthy Blue Living” option.
Also granted was an option for one other qualified adult living with the primary insurance holder.
Throughout the protest faculty said this job action was not about money. AAUP negotiators were willing to
agree to a minimal economic package. The faculty agreement gives a 0% salary raise in the first year of the
contract, 1% in the second year and in the third year offers a possible 3% raise, which will be subject to
continued negotiation.

Karen Miller, vice president of the Oakland chapter of the AAUP says, “This agreement proves beyond a doubt
that we faculty were never concerned with economics. We retained our say in school governance. Obviously,

the OU administration misled the students and community by claiming that this was about money.”

Faculty also agreed to a two-day pay dock, since this was a non-negotiable issue for the administration. It had
to be accepted to bring an end to the negotiations. Administration snubbed AAUP negotiators’ request to
direct the docked pay into student scholarships.

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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with AAUP Media Rep Liz Barclay,
please call 248/202-7692 or email her at barclay@oakland.edu