Walkouts planned as
U-Mass unions demand state funding
By Bryan G. Pfeifer
Amherst, Mass.
On Nov. 6, over 200 rank-and-file members of the campus's
five unions chanted, "Fund the contracts or we won't work," at
the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
The workers were responding to Acting Gov. Jane Swift's July
veto of pay raises for thousands of union members at all 28
state colleges and universities. They demanded that the U-Mass
System Board of Trustees help get their contracts funded.
All unions at the 28 campuses have organized in a coalition
called Higher Ed Unions United.
U-Mass President William M. Bulger has not pressured
Massachusetts House of Representatives Speaker Thomas Finner an
to permit a vote this fall to override Swift's veto. Instead,
Bulger has focused on "entrepreneurial" activities--like
securing more Pentagon and corporate contracts for the U-Mass
system--as well as attempted union busting.
Unions at campuses in Massachusetts bargain separate
contracts with each campus administration. The contracts are
then passed on to the governor for consultation. When the
legislature votes in the necessary funding, the governor
approves the contracts.
Traditionally, once the legislature allocated funds for the
contracts, the governor signed off on them. Swift is believed
to be the first Massachusetts governor to have vetoed contract
funding for campus workers.
Beginning outside in the rain and marching in to the elegant
room where the trustees were holding their meeting, the
rank-and-file and their supporters sang civil-rights-era songs
and chanted, "Hey, hey, ho ho, Billy Bulger's got to go," "No
contracts, no peace," and, "Stop the threats, stop the lies, we
are strong and organized." Some union members wore bright
yellow shirts with the message: "Promises broken."
Presenting a stack of petitions with over 7,700 signatures
from higher-education workers and students, Massachusetts
Society of Professors President Ronald Story declared, "To our
knowledge, this is the largest multi-campus petition drive in
the history of American university systems."
This "represents a new militancy in the U-Mass community,
one that is likely to grow and expand," added Story, one of
three union presidents to address Bulger and the trustees.
University Staff Association President Donna Johnson said
that membership in the clerical and technical workers' union
has dropped from 1,200 to 1,000 due to budget cuts, lack of
funding and forced early retirements. She said this results in
more work with no increased pay; meanwhile the cost of living,
especially rent, skyrockets.
Johnson said some of her members are homeless because their
wages don't cover expenses. She demanded that the trustees and
Bulger immediately help get the contracts funded, start filling
lost positions, and guarantee that students, staff and faculty
have sufficient resources to do their jobs correctly.
Service Employees Local 509 represents 1,000 workers. Local
509 President Thomas Coish, himself a campus worker for over
two decades, said members feel "a real sense of distrust and
betrayal" and most feel the university is in a crisis. But
they're not giving up.
"The general feeling is we're going to give [Bulger] one
more chance to work with us to get the contracts funded," added
Coish.
The AFSCME chapter on campus, with over 1,000 members, has
voted to authorize its leaders to call a walkout. Two other
campus unions, the Graduate Employee Organization with over
6,000 members and the United Staff Association, have given
Bulger a "no confidence" vote.
Over a dozen members of the African/ Latino/a, Asian/Pacific
Islander, Native American affairs student organization ALANA
were also in attendance demanding that affirmative action at
the university be restored. They also demanded that the
vice-chancellor of ALANA affairs--fired in June for fighting
the gutting of oppressed students' advising services and cuts
in other support programs that stripped many cultural
components--be reinstated.
Labor Studies graduate student Jose Perez received applause
when he demanded of the trustees, "Stop the racism."
Building on previous actions including a first-ever
all-union membership meeting Sept. 18 and picketing
administration meetings and administrators' homes, plans are in
the works for campus-by-campus walkouts and possibly a system
wide-one during final exams in December if the contracts aren't
funded.
"This refusal to fund our contracts isn't simply about the
revenue shortfall. It's union-busting, pure and simple,"
declared a U-Mass Rank and File newsletter distributed at the
Nov. 6 action.
"Its targeted union-busting-higher ed workers were the only
public sector workers to not get their contracts funded. Are
we, the workers of U-Mass, going to let this act of
union-busting stand?"
For more information on support activities visit
www.geouaw.org, www.uaw2322.org, call
(413) 545-5317 or email Umassrankandfile@yahoo.com.
Pfeifer is a graduate student in the Labor Studies
Department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Reprinted from the Nov. 21, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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