Important Fall Updates from the FSU

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to campus for those of you who are returning.  For those of you who are new, welcome to UMass Boston and the Faculty Staff Union email update. 

►Our retroactive raises will be paid:  In the paychecks scheduled for October 23, the administration plans to give us our retroactive cost of living raises owed us from July 1, 2014 to May 2, 2015 and our retroactive merit pay owed from January 2015 to May 2, 2015. 

We fought for this for nearly an entire year.  Thanks to everyone who signed the petition, participated during our rallies, wore stickers, and posted and carried signs. 

► The Cost Share for Your Health Premiums Did Not Increase to 25%:  This is another victory.  Thanks to everyone who attended lobby day and testified so that this did not occur. 

► We won these because we worked across unions and across the state.  But the costs for students increased by 6% for undergraduates this fall, and 8% for graduate students.  We will continue to work with the other unions on broad issues of keeping UMass affordable, respecting workers, and faculty governance. 

You can help in these efforts by:

●Attending the Board of Trustees Meeting, this Wednesday September 16, 9 am, CC Ballroom.

● Help publicize this event to your students.  Fliers can be downloaded here and are available in the union office. 

●Wearing a Sticker at Convocation, Thursday September 17.  Come to the union office to get one, or get one from faculty passing these out there. 

●Join the union:  Not everyone receiving this email blast is a union member, and your union dues help in these efforts.  Contact us to join or to see if you are a member.

►   Fair Share Campaign:  A coalition of organizations, including the Massachusetts Teachers Association, will be collecting signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to add 4% to the state income taxes of those with incomes of a million dollars or more.  Come sign the petition in the union office, or contact us if you want to help with this campaign. 

► ORP to SERS.  For those of you who are transferring to the State pension retirement system, there has been some confusion about how much this will cost you and why you have not heard from the State.  Only your employee contributions can be used towards the cost of this, and all of your accruals, from both employee and employer contributions and accruals will be withdrawn.  For clarifications on this, click here or contact orp@massteacher.org. 

► CPC/DPC training will be Tuesday, September 29 from 2:30 - 4:00 in the Chancellor’s Conference Room.

►NTT Contract Implementation Update Meetings are below. NTT will be receiving a separate email shortly with an update on the contract implementation:

●Tuesday, September 22nd, 12PM-1PM- Location to be determined, or

● Wednesday, September 23rd, 2PM-3PM- Integrated Sciences Complex, 1st floor, Conference Room 1400

►   Ask your legislator to support Part-time Faculty Health Insurance Bills (H # 2207 and S 1377). These companion bills would extend group health insurance coverage to part-time faculty who teach at least four (3-4 credit) courses per calendar year at one or more of the state's colleges or universities.

·         To find out who your State Representative and State Senator are, go to: www.wheredoivotema.com

·         To reach your legislator by phone, call the main State House number (617-722-2000) and ask to be connected to your legislator. 

·         To send an email to your representative, go to: http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenuh.htm

·         To send an email to your senator, go to: http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenus.htm

Your actions today could improve the lives of adjunct faculty members tomorrow.

►2:2 in CLA:  The FSU is conducting an evaluation of the 2:2 in the College of Liberal Arts.  We will be sending out a survey regarding this. 

►AFRs are due this Wednesday, September 16. For promotions and to receive merit pay, you must fill this out.  NTTs, it is important for you to fill this out in order to receive any merit pay as well. 

►Got ideas on how we can/should communicate with members?  Contact us.

Got a problem, question, or want to help on any of these issues?  Contact us at fsu@umb.edu

Marlene Kim

FSU President

Professor, Dept. of Economics

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