We are in the final push for funding of our contracts and public higher education in general.  Funding for is now included in a supplemental budget (House Bill 4868) which is sitting in Ways and Means.  At this point, communicating directly with the House and Senate Leadership is the most effective path toward moving our contract though to funding.

Please call House Speaker Robert DeLeo (617-722-2500) and Senate President Therese Murray (617-722-1500) and make the following points:

CALL!!!!!!!  Robert DeLeo  -  Speaker of the House

The 2009-2012 collective bargaining agreement between the Massachusetts Society of Professors/Faculty Staff Union/MTA/NEA and the Board of Trustees of the University of Massachusetts was overwhelmingly ratified on both campuses (Amherst and Boston) on Friday, March 6, 2009.  Only one "no" vote was recorded.

MSP members are joining in with other higher education faculty and staff around the state for a JUNE 1^st STATE HOUSE CALL-IN DAY.  MSP President, Randall Phillis urges all members to make three calls today (or tomorrow) to key legislators.  The purpose is to urge them to pass House 4396, the supplemental spending bill that includes the funding for the MSP contract, by the close of the formal session that ends on July 31, 2010.  See the email alert below for details and PLEASE MAKE YOUR CALLS ASAP!!

On Monday, Feb 22, 2010, in the Campus Center Auditorium, representatives from the MA Joint House and Senate Ways and Means committee will take testimony on Higher Education (1-2:30) and public testimony (2:30-4).

On Thursday, January 28 the attached “Discussion Points” were delivered to all UMass unions by representatives of President Wilson’s office.  The points represent a formal request that MSP re-open and re-negotiate provisions of our signed agreement which was ratified by MSP members last March.

The contents of the administration “offer” includes concessions by way of furloughs and raise delays.  These concessions represent roughly $10,000 in financial losses for the average MSP member, with many members losing considerably more.  We have been told that these concessions are neither to prevent layoffs nor to relieve an immediate financial crisis.

JACK WILSON, president of the University of Massachusetts system, was awarded a raise of almost $73,000 this year. Apparently, the UMass trustees judged that his previous salary of $473,000 - and his housing allowance of $45,000, his $25,000 in deferred compensation, his $51,000 retirement annuity, and the use of a car - was not sufficient to support the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed.

Governor Patrick failed to submit our recently negotiated contract to the legislature for funding in time to be included in the budget which was just approved.  As a result, the 1.5% across-the-board salary increase which was to be effective on July 5, 2009 has been delayed.

As 2010 begins we are facing some serious financial issues that affect our paychecks, our benefits, our careers and the core values of the university.  In this year we will clearly need to be organized, persuasive and persistent advocates for public higher education if we are to stave off deep changes to the university.

Despite the huge losses to the funding of higher ed, the governor wants more.  We have been asked to reopen our contracts to potentially modify our meager raises by delaying their implementation dates and giving back pay in the form of furloughs and benefit concessions.

It began with a crisis, of course. In 2002, during yet another budget crisis produced in large measure by the state’s tax-cutting mania, Massachusetts proposed a massive cut in the university’s budget. Through an early retirement incentive, the state wanted to reduce the faculty by 10 percent. No one was prepared to fight back.