Dozens of academic staff members wore union t-shirts and held union signs at a meeting of WMU's Board Thursday. This comes just a week after all three academic unions at Western approved a vote of “no confidence” in president Edward Montgomery, who announced earlier this month that he would retire at the end of June.
The unions say the university has failed to invest in its academic staff and is engaging in anti-union tactics. They also say that Western has not lived up to a promise to offer raises that keep up with inflation after all three unions made COVID concessions.
Cathryn Bailey, the faculty union president, spoke about current negotiations for more pay.
“How often have we heard recently that WMU is doing just fine by its employees because there are universities with salaries that are even lower than ours, right? Not only are such administrative claims frequently false or misleading,” Bailey said, “it's also just embarrassing when our leaders boast about how our university aspires to be squarely mediocre.”
History professor David Benac suggested the Board was part of the problem.
“When President Montgomery's anti-labor stance and dismissal of shared governance resulted in a faculty vote of no confidence the first time, in 2021, the Board of Trustees rewarded him with a raise.”
The administration has stated in emails to the campus community that its offers are reasonable and it is negotiating in good faith. The messages have provided an unusual running commentary from administrators on a labor negotiation. In previous years, the university tended not to comment until a contract was approved.
Several other people came to the meeting to encourage the board to drop investments that support the Israel-Hamas War.
Don Cooney is an associate professor in the School of Social Work and a Kalamazoo city commissioner. Cooney said the board divested from South Africa in the 1980s, to protest apartheid.
“When we broke all ties from South Africa in 1983, we were the sixth university in the country to do that. We set a standard. We set a model. We encouraged. And in the end, 112 universities broke the ties with South Africa,” Cooney said.
“It is time for us to stand up again.”
WMU has said its policy is not to take a public stance on a political issue that could alienate those with opposing views.
