After seven months of negotiations, Oakland University and the union representing maintenance and custodial workers have not reached an agreement.<\/p>\n
The talks between Oakland University Campus Maintenance and Trades (OUCMT) union bargaining team and the university began in late August, after the previous three-year agreement expired Oct. 31, 2025.<\/p>\n
The union represents 141 employees, representing workers in operations and maintenance, skilled trades, groundskeeping, plumbing, electrical, the central heating plant, structural and campus cleaning and custodial.<\/p>\n
Dylan Baade, union president and campus cleaning custodian, said a majority of issues have been resolved, but issues still remain with wages.<\/p>\n
Custodians\u2019, who make up around 30% of the union, current wages range between $15.92 and $17.43. An MIT living wage calculator puts the minimum living wage in Oakland County at $20.97 in a household without children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main things are the skilled trades and custodian economic proposals,\u201d said Baade. \u201cWe are trying to get them a living wage according to an MIT calculation. We are trying to get to that number ($20.97) by the end of the contract. The university has come closer to that, but we are still not there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The living wage is the hourly rate an individual in a household must earn to support themselves and\/or their family, working full-time or 2080 hours per year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith skilled trades, we are losing people; people are leaving for better jobs in that department, so we are trying to get a decent market adjustment for them too,\u201d said Baade. \u201cWe are trying to get a 5% adjustment and we are a couple percentage points away on that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The parties met and negotiated for 11 sessions prior to the University asking for the assistance of a state mediator in November 2025, with the hope that a third party mediator may help the parties reach an agreement.<\/p>\n
As of March 31, 2026, the parties have had 14 negotiation sessions with the mediator and additional dates have been proposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University\u2019s proposals are consistent with agreements reached with other non-faculty bargaining units on campus, and in some respects, exceed what the University has agreed to with those groups,\u201d OU said in a statement updating the current state of negotiations. \u201cThe University will continue to work within the process to seek common ground with the OUCMT.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union has made their frustrations known through \u201ccrisis actions\u201d, which include personally voicing their concerns at a February board of trustees meeting and a silent protest where members lined the halls of the Oakland Center before a bargaining session with the administration in March.<\/p>\n
Baade also said the university is looking at future negotiations that could be affected by the outcome of what is in progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think their biggest fear is, and they have communicated this, is setting too high of a standard where other unions will then also make the same demands,\u201d said Baade. \u201cThey have not done anything to break the law, but I feel like our side has been legitimately trying to bargain in good faith and they have been bargaining just by the letter of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the union president is optimistic a deal will be reached soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not as far apart as we have been, but we are closer together than we have been in the entire negotiation process,\u201d said Baade. \u201cWe are moving toward a tentative agreement and could have something within the next couple of sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWe are the backbone of this university and we love working at the university and serving the students, but we need the best employees and recognizing the dignity of all the workers. We don\u2019t have any animosity towards the university, but let\u2019s just try and recognize what it takes to live in the world and that we are coming up short of what a living wage is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After seven months of negotiations, Oakland University and the union representing maintenance and custodial workers have not reached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,1609],"class_list":["post-261411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}