Catch the LEO flashmob video

…speaking of not just good but great (now imagine that with a Tony the Tiger roar) ideas, 

They sing, they dance, they teach!

University of Michigan Lecturers' Employee Organization aka LEO trumps us all yet again. Not even Michigan politics can get this bunch. Let it be a lesson to all. "Lecturers, flashmob, what is she going on on about?" I can imagine the muttering. This showed up on the visitors section of our FB wall this morning...too good to pass on snagging for the blog. They'd love us to share it... we love sharing it. Watch. Enjoy. Start planning your own flashmob happening: sing and dance; stomp and shout. Video and send it to us to post.


Dear NFM,

We'd love if you could share this video of our Lecturers' flash mob. I include the link to it and the press release I sent out today:

University of Michigan Lecturers' Employee Organization Releases Flash Mob Video

Ann Arbor, MI - The Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO), which represents 1500 contingent faculty Lecturers at the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses, held a flash mob at the Fishbowl on the University of Michigan's Central Campus at noon on Wednesday, January 30, 2013. Donned in bright yellow LEO t-shirts, Lecturers surprised the campus community by singing and dancing to an adaptation of Aretha Franklin's "Respect." As their revised lyrics indicate, they seek "respect for [their] teaching" via a fourth contract that gives them equal pay for equal work, benefits, and job security.  

LEO has encountered challenges in contract negotiations since the passage of union-busting "right-to-work" legislation in Lansing, MI, in December 2012. There continues to be great distance between UM administration and LEO over wages and benefits. Although Lecturers teach a substantial number of UM courses every semester and are central to UM's educational mission, they are paid substantially less per course than their tenure-track and tenured colleagues. 

Sociology and Residential College Lecturer Ian Robinson outlines problems with pay equity for teaching at UM in a report funded by LEO and the Michigan conference of the American Association of University Professors. The report, Teaching Equality: What the Principle of Equal Pay for Equal Work Means for Lecturer Pay at the University of Michigan (pdf), is available at the LEO website.

Equal pay for equal work (sign the petition and then share it) and fair benefits for all would enhance the educational mission of the university without requiring an increase in student tuition. Lecturers hope to complete negotiations with the University administration by March 1, 2013.

The Lecturers' Employee Organization is part of AFT Michigan and the AFL-CIO, Local #6244. AFT MI is a union of 99 locals and 35,000 members working across the state in Pre-K-12, intermediate school districts, community colleges, and universities.

Contact: Liliana Naydan, LEO Communications Co-Chair. 814-777-6871; lnaydan@gmail.com