24 January 2003

A Promising New Contract Development

On January 17 our statewide union officials met with President Bulger and his senior staff to develop a productive working relationship to solve the ongoing salary funding crisis. A communiqué was released which said:

President Bulger was cordial, open and direct and expressed a good faith commitment to work cooperatively with us to reach our common goal.

Both parties agreed to continue to:

1. Meet to work to develop possible solutions

2. Arrange for meetings of representatives of each party to accomplish the following:

* Refine the financial scope of the issues. This will begin within the week.

* Develop cooperative political strategies

* Develop appropriate public relations coordination.

This marks a notable step forward that should improve our funding prospects. We will keep you posted on future developments.

Why We Must Still Fight for Our Raises in Spite of Everything

Many of you are wondering: With the state budget collapsing, human services and health care under siege, and public higher education in grave peril, why are we continuing to fight for our pay raises? I share many of these concerns. But I think we need to keep fighting anyway, for the following good reasons.

* Good faculty and librarians need good salaries. Going without raises undermines our competitive edge. Already our full and assistant professors are in the 3rd quartile nationally. We cannot afford to slip further without dire long-term consequences.

* If we don’t get our raises now, when they’re contracted, we could go a long time before getting them because of the state’s bad fiscal situation. However awkward it feels to insist on them now, we still need to – precisely because future prospects are not rosy.

* We are not the only ones involved. So are our secretaries and maintenance workers and staff and graduate assistants. Even if some of us could go without raises for several years, many of them cannot. We cannot give up the fight for our own raises without also giving up the fight for theirs. We would be abandoning many full-time workers who make less than $20,000 a year.

* The integrity of the collective bargaining process is at risk. If we can’t trust this signed agreement, it’s going to be hard to trust future ones. If that happens, there will be two consequences. First, distrust will grow in the UMass system and on campus, fostering a climate of hostility and suspicion on campus that will make everything harder. Second, word will spread that UMass doesn’t honor its agreements with faculty, making it very difficult to recruit.

* The state fiscal crisis is largely self-inflicted. There have been $4 billion in tax cuts over the past decade. If the tax cuts had been only half that amount, the current crisis would be a mere fiscal blip. There would be money to fund both our pay raises and the campus budget. What the state can do, the state can undo. But it won’t unless we help keep the pressure on. In that respect, we are fighting not only for UMass workers, but for the mentally ill and others at risk.

* Adequate pay for people is as important to an institution of higher learning as library funding, rehabbed buildings, and student financial aid. To be top-quality, you need all four of these. Our pay must be part of that mix if we are to achieve our potential.

So we continue to work on this. The deferred payment plan, the collaboration with the president’s office, and the contacts with legislators are a part of the work. So are our various campus actions. Please stay with us. This is important to us collectively as well as individually.

Why We Must Also Fight for a Decent Campus Budget Despite Everything

Last year’s "Save UMass" campaign was helpful. We took a hit in the 03 budget – but a small hit that would probably have been worse without the self-help efforts of the higher education campuses. We have heard from legislators that the student- parent letter-writing campaign in particular was helpful.

We are facing even worse risks this year. Some reductions may come this spring, others in the FY04 budget that will emerge by June. So just as we will continue to fight for our pay raises, we will help in the fight for a decent campus budget that will support library acquisitions, building rehabilitation, private fund-raising, and funded research subsidies. It’s all part of the same battle.

To this end, we have been working to forge alliances with the Student Government Association and the UMass Amherst Alumni Association as well as with other campus unions on a plan to urge full funding of our budget request. We will take out joint ads, for example; make targeted visits to the State House together; help pay for a student phone bank operation. If we ask for your help, please respond. This really matters.

February 19 and 20 Teach-In

To make sure that our students and their families and the general public understand our concerns about both our contract and our budget, we are organizing a Teach-In on Wednesday Feb. 19 and Thursday Feb. 20.

We’re asking faculty to take about 15 minutes of class time on those days to talk with students about why it’s urgent to fund both the pay raises and the campus budget – and then, if they are willing, to write home asking their parents to contact their legislators about these issues. We’ll provide talking points and paper and envelopes.

As a further wrinkle and to attract some positive press, we can ask a lower-paid campus worker – a secretary or food service worker, for example – to come to the class to talk about what this pay package means to them. That might be a stronger message than simply asking for raises for ourselves. But the talking sheets will have various points. Faculty can use any of them that they feel comfortable with.

If you’re willing to do this – for yourselves, for your co-workers, for the campus – please let us know, with the time and place of your class, so we can distribute materials. Also let us know if you want someone to show up to put a human face on the pay issue. We especially want faculty to participate who teach big classes, so If you have a class of a hundred or more, please give this especially serious consideration. But big class or small, we want you all. So please let us know right away.

Keep the faith.

Ron Story, President

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