As USA Career Growth & Development Committee Chairperson, I, along with three other USA members and the President have met as part of a Career Growth and Learning partnership with the University and AFSCME. This Partnership for Career Growth and Learning represents a dynamic, problem-solving, and proactive collaboration of labor, management, and workplace education representatives with the shared goals of increasing career and education opportunities for classified employees and promoting a culture of workplace learning at the University .One product of this collaboration has been the offering of workshops focused on accessing career options and specific office skills training, such as Introductory & Intermediate Excel and Access.

Unfortunately, due to the failure of our contract (along with so many other Higher Ed bargaining unit contracts) to be funded, the Partnership has not met since the end of the calendar year .Without funding, Article 24B, which covers Training and Career Ladders, cannot be fully realized. Thus, training offerings or individual reimbursements for career advancement are not possible.

I was also a member of the contract bargaining team. The team negotiated a good contract with the threat of "no retroactive pay" if the June 30th deadline was not met looming over our heads. Again USA-MTA fulfilled its negotiation obligation, while the State Legislature has failed to uphold its responsibility in funding the contract.

Most recently I have worked along side President Johnson in dealing with the impact of the severe budget cuts to our bargaining unit. Meeting with both layoff or pending layoff members and lobbying legislative representatives for contract funding have been two vitally important duties. I hope that a brighter economic picture for the State, the University, and for USA will emerge later in this year .

In Solidarity , Jim Plaza