October Contract Funding Initiative

I. Legislative Phone-In Day -Wednesday, October 16, 2002

At its last meeting, Higher Ed. Unions United decided to mount a massive statewide phone-in campaign to Reps who have not yet signed onto the petition. We hope USA members will help make calls in the Western Massachusetts region as needed; we will let you know where to call. Our goal is to continue our efforts to get Speaker Finneran to allow a vote to override Governor Swift's veto of our contract funding. We are asking every Representative in the state to sign a petition requesting the Speaker to convene a special session of the House to permit such an override vote. The letters went out October 4, with a deadline of November 1 for responses. Over the next two weeks, we will send letters, faxes, and emails to holdouts. Our goal is to get over a hundred names on the petition.

There are several ways you can participate to achieve this on October 16:

1. Phone your Representative or a targeted Representative yourself.
2. Between 11am-4pm on October 16, phone the USA Office at 545-0165 and we will transfer you to the state house.
3. Stop by the USA Office between 11am-4pm on October 16 and place a call or send a fax.

II. Bulger Strategy:

Continuing our efforts to get the President to support contract funding (as many state and community college Presidents have), we are circulating a petition throughout the entire UMass system calling upon the President to urge Speaker Finneran to recall the House to override the Swift veto. Members of the USA Board and USA Stewards will collect names on the petition. Other unions on every UMass campus will do the same. Any employee should sign. USA members can collect signatures from faculty, other staff, students, family and friends. Our goal is to collect several thousand signatures.

We will submit this petition with its thousands of signatures at the Board of Trustees meeting on this campus on the morning of November 6th, where we will be conducting our third demonstration by greeting Trustees and university officials, including the President, with a lengthy poster gauntlet. Plan to attend this Trustee Meeting and hold a poster. Arrive at the Mullins Center main entrance by 8:30am.

III. Department/Building Meetings:

We will help to organize inter-union (classified staff, professional staff, faculty and graduate students) meetings by department and/or building during the month of October to share ideas about future steps. These are unprecedented for this campus. Please attend them if at all possible.

IV. Gubernatorial Strategy:

The USA Executive Board has overwhelmingly endorsed the candidacy of Shannon O'Brien for Governor. O'Brien has said more than once that our contract should be funded, and we believe our best chances to secure funding is to elect her.

We urge you to communicate with her campaign to let her know about your support and that we do care deeply about our pending contracts. We are also supplying postcards with that same message for employees to send.