Parking Bargaining – Update

2/18/2026

Dear Member,

How do you get to campus? Do you ever drive & park on campus?  Do you take the T? 

Our UMB campus unions have been fighting for years to lower the parking rates and raise MBTA subsidies for all UMB community members– students, staff, faculty and librarians-- which most other Boston-based colleges and many public agencies have already done.

For almost three years, a coalition of the Classified Staff Union, Department Chairs Union, Faculty Staff Union and Professional Staff Union, have been meeting with UMB administration regarding parking rates, parking passes, lot designations, public transportation subsidies, and other transportation related issues.

The union coalition proposal focused on:

·        Accessibility: Assure parking costs aren’t a barrier for students and employes to access classes, work or campus events.

·        Sliding Scale parking fee by income: Assure lower-paid employees and students pay less than the current rates. 

·        Multi-Use Passes: Expand parking pass options to assist those who drive to campus less than five days a week. This includes a 30-use pass.  

·        Public Transit Subsidy: Extend public transit subsidy of 50% to staff, faculty and librarians.

Negotiations and Future Rates

During negotiations, discussions arose about past parking rate increases being large and that these hefty increases (from $6.00 to $9.00 Bayside, and to $15 all other lots) were detrimental to the UMB community.  To counter this, UMB management proposed a process like that used at UMass Amherst, where if parking and transportation expenditures exceed parking revenue, then a minimal parking rate increase may be imposed at the start of the new fiscal year (July 1st). They call this the “accelerator.”

There’s a big difference between UMB and UMass Amherst, though: UMB has added the debt from building the West Garage into the Parking and Transportation budget. This debt is close to $4,000,000 every year. While the current revenues from parking fees are sufficient to cover the staffing, operations, and maintenance of all the parking facilities (as well as pay off some of the annual debt), those revenues are not enough to cover an additional $4 million in debt each year.

The coalition, hearing from many of you, agreed in principle with a method to have small, predictable increases in parking fees each year, and to reduce these periodic large increases every few years. So, we submitted language accepting the idea of an “accelerator” but that limits the amount of the debt we must cover to $2,500,000 annually. In addition, our language proposes capping any increase to parking rates to no more than 0.25% less than the lowest across-the-board salary adjustment received annually by any of the unit members.

Here is what UMB Management’s counter proposal included:

·        Daily Parking Rate: Increase to $18 effective July 1, 2026.

·        Sliding Scale: While they accepted the union’s sliding scale based on income, but for every level they are seeking rates higher than the current rates.

·        Multi-Use Passes: They continue to reject reinstituting a multi-use pass, and only want monthly and semester passes.

·        Public Transit Subsidy: They rejected our 50% subsidy, and only proposed a 20% discount.

·        Accelerator (see Negotiations and Future Rates above): They rejected our language to limit West Garage debt to formula.

Next Steps

The coalition will continue to fight against increases to the daily parking rate, and to demand multi-use passes and an increased transit subsidy.  And we will continue to push back on the accelerator language.

We expect to have a negotiation session within the next month. 

What you can do

Sign the petition and tell administration the impact of their proposed cost increase- such as your quality-of-life ability to pay to come to campus on non in person days.

Union Coalition Members

Classified Staff Union: Alexa MacPherson, Jariza Rodriguez and Anna Rose (MTA field representative)

Department Chairs Union: Michael Carr

Faculty Staff Union: Caroline Coscia, Lorenzo Nencioli (FSU Senior Staff), Katie D’Urso (MTA field representatives)

Professional Staff Union: Anneta Argyres, Michelle Browning, Mary Jo Connelly (PSU Staff)