The Point: Union History: Rhyming, if Not Repeating

10/30/2025

TODAY! 

Our PSU colleagues are currently in their fourth semester of bargaining, and it looks like their negotiations will come to an impasse. UMB cannot function without our staff, and they need our support. Please join their rally today from 12:00-1:00pm on the quad outside of Quinn. 

This week’s Point is written by Jessica Holden, Associate University Archivist for Research Services. As always, The Point represents the views of the author and is not the official position of the FSU. 

After a long and contentious bargaining cycle that ended this past spring, this archivist and former Core Bargaining Team member was inspired to look into the history of the FSU and our first contract negotiations. As I did so, I found many parallels between those earliest organizing efforts and our union’s current struggles. 

Faculty, librarians, and professional staff at UMass Boston and UMass Amherst began a unionization drive in 1975. The Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission approved a union election the following year. This MLRC decision was “particularly notable because the Commission declared that part-time faculty are eligible for [the] collective bargaining unit. There has been little precedent for such an all-inclusive unit of university employees” (Mass Media 26 Oct. 1976). After two years of organizing, employees across the two campuses voted to be represented by the FSU under MSP, MTA, and NEA. 

This was not the end of the unionization fight. Almost immediately, the UMass Board of Trustees appealed the MLRC’s decision, noting that “department heads are considered management, and that part-time faculty members do not share the ‘community interest’ of the University” (Mass Media 8 Mar. 1977). A member of the FSU Steering Committee commented that the appeal “demonstrates a contempt for the legal process, and contempt for the faculty. It’s an attempt to break the union” (Mass Media 15 Mar. 1977). This effort to sow division amongst the faculty sounds familiar, doesn’t it? 

FSU members fought back, including through a protest at the State House. Their resistance was successful, and initial negotiations began on April 25, 1977. The poster below illustrates that many of the union’s earliest core issues continue to resonate today, especially regarding shared governance, class sizes, and equitable pay and benefits. Additionally, those of you who recall FSU’s push for expanded bargaining over the past few years might be interested to know that the union brought in a handful of “official student observers” for the first round of contract negotiations—the student equivalent of our silent bargaining representatives! 

FSU poster, 1977 

The FSU spent an entire year fighting for our first contract, and it was not an easy road. In April 1978, the Administration walked away from the table over the issue of tenure decisions: FSU asserted that “tenure decisions should not be made against the Faculty’s recommendations unless the Dean provided convincing reasons for overturning them. The Administration wanted the power of tenure decisions to rest solely with the Dean and administrators, regardless of Faculty recommendations” (Mass Media 23 Jun. 1978). 

At the end of June 1978, Governor Dukakis announced a tentative agreement with the union. However, FSU called for continued negotiations over several issues that they saw as unresolved, most notably protections for librarians and part-time faculty. Also of concern was an Administration-proposed “management rights clause,” under which any issue not addressed in the contract could be decided by the university without negotiating with the union. 

At the beginning of September 1978, the FSU and the Administration came back to the table, but negotiations quickly collapsed over union concerns about sabbaticals, tuition waivers, and fringe benefits for part-time faculty. One ten-hour session ended with a strikingly provocative statement by the Administration’s lead negotiator, who apparently said: “Your noses are pressed against the windows of the candy store, and the door is locked, while I am sitting in the store, holding the keys. I cannot give you the keys just to make you happy” (Mass Media 26 Sep. 1978). FSU members went on strike the following month, holding a two-day walkout on October 4 and 5, with an estimated 75% of classes cancelled during the work stoppage. While Chapter 150E, Section 9A of Massachusetts law has prohibited public sector strikes since the 1920s (a result of the 1919 Boston Police Strike), the 1970s were a period of union militancy, with educators and other workers striking in Massachusetts and all over the United States. With their focus on successfully unionizing and bargaining their first contract, the FSU must have felt that an illegal strike was worth the risk. We should note that the first contract included a no-strike clause in Article 23, which still stands today. 

In November 1978, after three years of organizing around forming a union and negotiating a contract, the FSU membership ratified its first collective bargaining agreement. While much of that contract looks different than it does today (thanks to FSU’s decades of pushing for better contracts), and while (as is often the case) the FSU was ultimately dissatisfied with the results of the negotiations, this first contract laid the groundwork for many of the protections and benefits that our members receive today. 

Finally, while many of our current concerns might feel especially difficult and unique to our present moment, it might be some comfort (or perhaps not!) to know that we have been fighting many of these same fights over our fifty-year history. The struggle continues. 

MTA/NEA poster, 1978 

All images are courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Healey Library. Explore our Faculty Staff Union and Mass Media digital collections or contact library.archives@umb.edu if you are interested in learning more about FSU history.