Today the instructors and adjunct faculty at Western Michigan University overwhelmingly voted for the Professional Instructors Organization (PIO) to represent them.  The Michigan Employment Relations Commission counted the votes in Lansing this morning and announced that the final vote tally was 207 to 29. 

"We are delighted that our colleagues have strongly supported the PIO union, and we will work hard to improve wages and working conditions for all instructors at WMU," said Janet Heller, Instructor in the English Department and Gender & Women's Studies Program. 

"We are confident that our organizing will help university leaders to see that part-time faculty are an essential component (along with tenure-line faculty and graduate teaching assistants) in the educational enterprise at WMU," said Karl Schrock, who teaches in the School of Music. "We look forward to working with the administration to improve communication, faculty recognition, and long-term planning for the university's mission in ways that will benefit students and the university community as a whole." 

Those who voted were instructors at WMU who held appointments of at least 3 total credit hours during the spring 2009 semester although the PIO has been organizing for more than a year.  "I'm proud of our hard work over the last sixteen months to achieve this union," said Martha Faketty, instructor in the English department.

The PIO, which will represent a unit of 430 instructors and adjunct faculty members at WMU, will now begin discussions with the WMU administration about better recognition as members of the faculty and university community.  Many instructors at WMU have not received any salary increase for 12 years.  WMU instructors and adjuncts continue to be one of the lowest paid groups of state university faculty in Michigan.

The vote today follows several other votes in the Great Lakes State over the past two years.  During that time new unions representing contingent faculty and graduate employees have formed at Michigan State, Central Michigan University, Henry Ford Community College and Wayne State University all affiliated with AFT Michigan, the state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.