On Thursday, June 12th members of the PSU negotiating team attended the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees meeting at UMass Lowell to advocate for improving the tuition/fee waiver policy for our spouses and dependents across the UMass system. A union proposal to waive fees for spouses and dependents and to fully waive costs of continuing education courses is currently on all the bargaining tables of UMass MTA unions who are in contract negotiations. The tuition/fee policy is controlled by the Board of Trustees.

Tom Goodkind, President of the Boston PSU, spoke for the professional staff on the issue. He spoke to how this benefit has been severely diminished over the last years as the cost of fees have far outpaced the cost of tuition.. He also presented information comparing the UMass benefit with what our peer institutions have for their professional staff. Suffice it to say, that we don’t look very good by comparison.. He called upon the Board of Trustees to revise its policy in this area and restore the value of this benefit. Max Page, President of the UMass Amherst faculty union and Catherine Lynde, President of the UMass Boston faculty union, also spoke in support of this proposal.

To download a copy of the presentation,

Bargaining has been going well, if slowly. We have many important issues still on the table that we are working on while we wait for economic parameters (the financial "offer") from the Patrick Administration. We've had wide-ranging discussions at the table on a variety of important issues, and we've made some progress on a few-most notably on improving language on flexible work schedules and work locations (alternatively known as "telecommuting").

We want to focus attention on three of our major concerns.

No merit without a fair COLA!

All the public higher education MTA locals are standing strong to refuse to accept any merit pay unless we first receive a fair cost-of-living increase which we are estimating at 3.8%. As you know, the cost of living in MA keeps going up and we keep falling behind. If the state is unable to give us raises sufficient to ensure that our pay isn't shrinking as inflation increases, then they should not tie what they do offer to a flawed merit process. Merit pay is something that meritorious employees should only receive OVER AND ABOVE a fair cost-of-living increase!

Include mandatory fees in our tuition waiver!

We are continuing to push the UMass Board of Trustees and the MA Board of Higher Education to do what's right and restore our "tuition" benefit by adjusting their policies to include mandatory fees in tuition waivers for our family members. While the BOT was impressed with the PSU's recent presentation and report documenting the erosion of this benefit, we expect the University to offer some resistance to what they will see as a "cost item."

Guarantee us 26 weeks of Family/Medical Leave!

This is the second round of negotiations in which we've asked to have UMass employees treated the same as professional staff of other state agencies (such as DSS) who are guaranteed 26 weeks (rather than the federally mandated 12 weeks) of unpaid job protected leave to care for themselves and their families. Last time round management flatly refused to expand this benefit. This time we are having more productive conversations.

Nobody is going to simply hand us any of these things; we all have to be ready and willing to fight for them. Look for more of these email updates, and for opportunities to help us win these (and other) important improvements in our contract. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns please contact a member of your campus bargaining committee.