PSUMTA Boston

UMass Boston Chapter

Professional Staff Union/MTA/NEA.

Our goal is to build a union which reflects the needs and desires of our own members and which connects those needs and desires to those of hundreds of thousands of other public education employees throughout Massachusetts. We strive for democratic and effective unionism, leadership accountability, and a forceful collective response to the widespread campaigns aimed at undermining public higher education and the staff and faculty who make it work.

UMass Unions Turn Out for Trustees Meeting

On Friday, September 26th nearly 100 union members from the different UMass campuses attended the UMass Board of Trustees meeting at the UMass Boston campus. Wearing "No More Pay Cut" stickers and holding signs, members lined the Trustees' meeting room to cheer on our union leaders as they spoke about our deteriorating wages and benefits and our concerns for a fair contract.

Contract Negotiations Continue

Negotiations for our next contract are still underway. The economic parameters that will frame the University's wage and salary offer were just handed down to administration in September. We have not yet received a formal economic offer at the table. We expect an offer will come at our next bargaining session.

While waiting for the economic package, we have continued to bargain over other areas of the contract and have come to some tentative agreements on other areas of the contract that we think are very good, including extending family medical leave from 12 to 26 weeks.

MTA ORGANIZES AGAINST QUESTION 1

The MTA strongly opposes the November ballot initiative because it would devastate public education, the economy and our quality of life in Massachusetts.

Speaking to the Trustees were Catherine Lynde, President of the UMass Boston faculty union, Shauna Manning, President of the UMass Boston Classified Staff union, Max Page, President of the UMass Amherst faculty union and our chapter's president, Tom Goodkind.