Mass. governor vetoes $42M in pay raises

As cost-of-living expenses skyrocket, especially in housing, Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney has leveled yet another vicious assault on union workers at the state’s 28 public colleges and universities.

On Oct. 5 Romney vetoed about $42.2 million in retroactive raises for thousands of workers, including unionized graduate student-workers, many of whom live at or below the federal poverty level.

Romney, a multimillionaire venture capitalist who recently announced the state has hundreds of millions of dollars in a “rainy-day fund,” is fond of blithely telling workers and the oppressed that they need to make more “sacrifices.” At a press conference last summer a media worker forced Romney to admit he didn’t know the cost of the subway fare in Boston.

Over the past year Romney has been touring the country—recently in South ern states—to gather support and curry favor with various right-wing forces for a possible 2008 presidential run. During this time he has attacked Muslims repeatedly, calling them ” and calling for the wiretapping of mosques. He has attacked same-sex marriage, abortion, pensions, the disabled, welfare recipients and more.

Romney brags fondly of “improving government efficiency” in Massa chu setts, something known to workers as privatization and/or deregulation. He is a firm supporter of the U.S. war on Iraq and works closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other repressive local, state and national agencies in Massachusetts to terrorize primarily immigrants and those of Middle Eastern descent.

Workers want their money now!

A $131 million spending bill passed Sept. 21 by the Massachusetts legislature had included money for the pay raises. Romney approved $88.6 million but cut the rest because he said he doesn’t believe in “giving” retroactive raises. This despite the fact that all the campus unions to receive these raises have successfully agreed to contracts with their respective college administrations. The raises are part of numerous legally negotiated and binding contracts.

Those affected include 4,500 union members at the University of Massa chu setts at Amherst. Romney vetoed $30.27 million of their retroactive raises for the fiscal year July 2002 to July 2003. Romney vetoed another $11.91 million in retroactive raises for the same time period for administrators and support staffers at state and community colleges.

Unions at public campuses in Massa chu setts bargain separate contracts with each campus administration. The contracts are then passed on to the governor’s office for consultation. When the legislature votes for the necessary funding, the governor historically has approved the contracts.

Traditionally, once the legislature allocated funds for the contracts, the governor signed off on them with minimal problems. But former Acting Governor Jane Swift, a Democrat, set in motion the governor’s office veto activity when, in July 2002, citing a “fiscal crisis,” she vetoed the pay raises of all campus workers, even though in 2001 she had signed off on the contracts. Swift is believed to be the first Massachusetts governor to veto contract funding for campus workers. Romney is continuing this trend.

It will now take a two-thirds vote in each of the state’s legislative branches to override Romney’s new veto. The legislature early this year approved other retroactive raises for a different time period. Romney vetoed them, too. But legislators, under mass rank-and-file and labor/community pressure, unanimously voted to override that veto.

Some of this pressure included mass actions such as protests at the statehouse and on various campuses, letter-writing /e-mail campaigns, building alliances with progressive community and campus-based organizations, work-to-rule days, and other bold and creative actions.

These and many more protest actions will increase until all union members receive what is rightfully theirs, according to the 2,500-member Graduate Employee Organization-UAW at UMass Amherst, a leading force in this struggle.

GEO encourages supporters to call Romney’s office “to express outrage and disappointment that he continues to blatantly ignore the state’s legal obligation to fund collective bargaining agreements with state workers.” Call Romney’s office at (617) 725-4005 or fax (617) 727-9725.

For more information, contact GEO at (413) 545-0705 or see www.geouaw.org.

Pfeiferis a 2005 Labor Studies graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.