By Amy Todd, Department of Anthropology and Assistant Newsletter editor
SPRING 14
At the annual MTA Higher Education meeting in April, MTA consultant and attorney Michelle Gallagher led a lively meeting on coalition bargaining which was attended by members of all the UMass Boston locals, our sister chapters at UMass Amherst, state and community college locals and MTA staff members.
Welcome to the 8th issue of Union News. As usual we’ve got interesting stories about, for example, the proposed retirees’ health insurance changes and the non-tenure track organizing going on around Boston.
Salary Raises
I remind you that you’ll get the last negotiated raise for this contract in January 2014. You’ll get an average of a 1.75% salary increase; 0.50% is across the board and 1.25% is merit.
By Amy Todd, Assistant Editor, Union News, Anthropology
FALL 13
We tend to think of Massachusetts as a union-friendly state. However, the introduction of House Bill 59, An Act Providing Retiree Healthcare Benefits Reform, is a sober reminder that we are not immune to legislative attacks on public sector workers.
Adjunct faculty members at Tufts University recently voted to unionize, becoming part of Adjunct Action, a new adjunct organizing initiative backed by SEIU. The Tufts faculty are part of a growing adjunct uprising around the country and right here in the Boston area. Adjuncts say that unionizing represents their best hope of improving wages, benefits and working conditions.
By Dan Clawson, Department of Sociology, UMass Amherst
FALL 13
An effort is underway to dramatically change the MTA by electing a new president and supporting new policies. The candidate leading this effort is Barbara Madeloni, a faculty member at UMass Amherst. Barbara is an impressive figure, and she is part of a larger movement, Educators for a Democratic Union, that includes K-12 teachers across the state.
