November 2025 Meeting

Meeting Date
  • Opening quotation 
    • “There is so much that able-bodied people could learn from the wisdom that often comes with disability. But space needs to be made. Hands need to reach out. People need to be lifted up.” - Alice Wong
  • Agenda 
    • Improving the Council:
      • Mission Statement
        • Our Mission: We support change. We connect people, programs, and resources. We advocate for accessibility and inclusion. We educate the community.
        • Our Vision: A community that respects disability, honors individual needs, and makes everything  accessible.
          • Drafted by a CfDC Committee in February 2019
      • Ideas from our last meeting!
        • Strengthen advocacy and visibility: include representation across campuses, increase outreach, and make advocacy a central focus.
        • Partnerships and resource centralization: Collaborate with university groups and local organizations to create resource centralization and support networks.
        • Training on accessibility and ableism: Implement ongoing, required training on interacting with disabled individuals and ableism.
        • Implementing intersectionality: Increase inclusive participation and reduce burden on underrepresented groups
    • Union support: Invited Guest: John Ware - Higher Education Coordinator, American Federation of Teachers Michigan, current GEO disability contact.
      • Slides presented: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16pUCA8FuzONvcVRckgSK8rGoKu3I1dwu/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109180476440653619515&rtpof=true&sd=true 
      • What is a union?
        • A group of workers who gather to make conditions better at work.
        • A bargaining unit is a set of workers in similar jobs or classifications who have achieved recognition. A union may be made up of several bargaining units.
      • State of Michigan
        • In the State of Michigan there is collective bargaining for public employees
          • Most UM employees are eligible to be part of a bargaining unit.
            • With the exception of some high level executives.
            • About half of the UM employees are under a bargaining unit. This means there is room for others to create more bargaining units.
      • Main function of a union:
        • Forming bargaining units that are used for collective bargaining.
        • You use a union structure to bargain a contract to negotiate working conditions.
        • Once a bargaining unit is recognized your employer is legally obligated to negotiate with you over:
          • Wages
          • Hours
          • Working conditions
        • Union power comes from its members.
      • UM specific policy:
        • UM interferes less with forming new unions compared to other employers. They require you show the majority of people in your group have:
          • Become members
          • Want a union
          • Want to engage in collective bargaining
      • How unions form:
        • Form an organizing committee
        • Assess support
        • Membership drive
        • Election (if necessary)
        • Bargain first contract
          • In a contract Employee refers to anyone under that bargaining unit/contract
      • Bargaining Avenues for employees with disabilities
        • Discrimination and Harassment
          • Make violations subject to grievance and arbitration
        • Accommodation procedures
          • What is the process for requesting an accommodation?
          • Who makes the decision?
          • How is medical information handled?
        • Accessibility
          • Can negotiate things like:
            • Parking (cost, location, etc)
            • Physical space/building accessibility
            • Health and safety
            •  
        • Discipline and discharge
          • Principles of just cause
            • Reasonable rule or work order
            • Notice
            • Sufficient investigation
            • Fair investigation
            • Proof
            • Equal treatment
            • Appropriate discipline
        • Layoffs
          • Ensure University’s RIF process is being followed:
            • Order of layoffs
            • Notice
            • Preference for rehire
          • If it is not include this process in the contract because it makes the process more enforceable
        • Benefits
          • Limits annual copays for mental health and physical therapy
          • Negotiates healthcare coverage.
            • Example: gradCare covers a range of treatments for ASD, ADHD, and neurodevelopmental conditions
          • Time off
            • How much time off?
            • In what increments?
            • For what purposes?
            • What notice and documentation is required?
            • PTO?
      • Union power outside the contract
        • Community
        • Mutual aid
        • Advice and Support
        • Policy Change (Work Connections?)
        • Political Power
      • What can you do?
        • Join your union
        • Talk to your coworkers
        • Show up, weigh in, vote
        • Take part in action
        • Become a workplace leader
        • Serve on a committee
        • Join or start a disability caucus
        • Start a Union if you don’t have one
    • Questions:
      • If we want to unionize do we have to be part of a different group or can the council be the group?
        • A bargaining unit is a group of people who do related jobs. And it has to be all the people in the related set of jobs. Because members of CfDC are not all people who do similar jobs it may not be possible to unionize this group directly.
          • For example: nurses, medical technicians, etc.
        • Also spaces like CfDC can be used to strategize around disability across unions.
        • You can also have disability caucuses within unions to advocate for disability inclusion.
      • We should all have a disability caucus
        • There is currently a problem within unions with shutting down ideas when the person who has the idea is not able to pursue the idea.
          • This is related to general inaccessibility in union processes.
        • Making unions themselves accessible is also a problem,
          • We need collaboration and a community.
        • Students who take leadership in the GEO disability caucus tend to leave due to them not being able to get the accommodations they need.
      • Issue in the union world.
        • Nobody else is going to do it for you.
          • This makes the efforts hard but it is also where the union power lies
        • The power of the unions lies in the people with opinions and energy to do the work. That’s not me. I have the opinions, I don’t have the energy
      • Can you, as part of AFT help LEO-GLAM and ALL AFT unions course correct on this topic to set the standard of accessibility?
        • Yes this is possible. The more you can coordinate what you are doing across different unions the more effective the effort will be.
          • However, needs may need to be addressed individually.
      • Could this counsel do a presentation or consultation to advise unions on becoming more accessible?
      • Where can union questions be sent?
      • What protection do you have if you want to start a union?
        • You have the legal ability to do so. However, without a union you are more vulnerable without a union.
        • Union work must be done on non-work time and non-work places.
      • A lot of these accessibility issues come from technology. What can we do technology wise for unions?
      • Concern: What can the Council do for its members?
        • All of us are members.
        • Members are cut off from other people through the email group.
          • Idea for a daily digest email chain.
            • Each individual user would set preferences.
        • Some people believe that other places are more worthy of their time.
          • Introduction of an idea for half an hour of conversation and half an hour of a presentation by speakers for the meeting.
        • Members want more sharing and communication between members.
        • There currently is no space for collective organizing in this council.
      • I’ve come to utterly despise the “stack” mode of communication in union meetings. As soon as I see “stack” I tune out. Because my voice is not going to be heard
    • Comments:
      •  A New Unit Organizing Committee for USU is taking place
        • USU is for non-supervisory staff.
      • If there are other LEO members here who want there to be a Disability Task Force as part of LEO
      • https://www.michigandaily.com/news/focal-point/following-injury-and-illness-hundreds-of-u-m-employees-relied-on-the-university-to-facilitate-their-return-to-work-they-say-it-failed-them/ 
      • U-M is exempt from paying out financial damages to employees experiencing discrimination even when it has clearly violated ADA rules.
      • Join this email group > MM-Disability-ChronicCond-Forum <[email protected]>
        • Please note, the group is specifically for Michigan Medicine employees, faculty, staff, and students/learners. Not for patients or the public.
      • I can't emphasize enough how much we (union organizers + members) support one another informally / without a contract and how important that support is.
      • LEO (and AFT Michigan) should cultivate an atmosphere of inclusion not make disabled people fight for it.
        • It needs to be "what can LEO-GLAM do."
      • Idea to create a slack channel for members.
        • Some members dislike this platform. Some suggest discord.

 

  • Other Matters Arising 
    • Announcements
    • Anything to share with the Council?