Contract Bargaining
2024-2027 Successor Contract Bargaining
We had our first bargaining session for our successor contract on February 7th, 2024. MSP's team, in alphabetical order, consists of: Kate Hudson (College of Education), Marc Liberatore (CICS), Lori Reardon (MSP Senior Staff), Sigrid Schmalzer (History/HFA), Katie D'Urso (MTA) and Jeremy Smith (Libraries). We introduced ourselves, agreed to ground rules, and presented our principles, including our commitments to fair compensation, equity, sustainability, high-quality and well-rounded education for our students, and more. In the ground rules, we have agreed to meet every two weeks and to submit all new proposals by March 27, after which we will continue to meet until we have a deal in place.
One of our goals is to strive to achieve a fair and reasonable settlement in a timely fashion and MSP will use the power of our strong union membership to bring our members to the table to speak on particular issues when needed.
2023-2026 Bargaining Themes and Principals
Latest Bargaing Update
2/21/2024
This is the first installment of what will be regular updates from the negotiations. Our greatest power comes from our members, so please get ready to mobilize on the issues that matter most to you. We are especially excited to mobilize members to win increases to the salary floors and other compensation-related proposals.
As you probably know, our bargaining was cut short last year by a decision from the Governor’s office to deliver one-year contract extensions rather than the usual three-year contracts. Still, we were successful in winning 8% (plus 0.5% equity) raises for that one year – a big win!
We have now begun a new round of bargaining to win a robust compensation package and other important new contract provisions for our members.
Our priorities for this round of bargaining include many of the same items we expected to win last year, with the addition of some new items that members have more recently brought to our attention. Our proposals will include:
- Across-the-board raises at least to catch up with inflation
- Merit raises to cover all years without merit
- Increases to salary floors and promotional increments
- New ranks of Full Professor 2 and Senior Lecturer 3
- PMYR funds to be included in base salaries
- Increases to the fund for equity raises
- Increases to funds that support research, teaching, computer replacement, childcare and eldercare, and health and welfare
- Expanded access to childcare on campus
- Coverage of immigration fees for international faculty and librarians
- Improvements to transportation and parking benefits that support climate justice
- And more!
Each side also presented several proposals. We launched with our proposals related to compensation and support funds, which we expect to discuss in future meetings. We have reserved our right to bring members to the table to testify on specific issues – please get in touch to let us know what you’re interested in speaking about.
We look forward to bringing you further updates as bargaining progresses!
Your MSP Bargaining Team,
- Katie D’Urso, MTA
- Kate Hudson, College of Education
- Marc Liberatore, CICS
- Lori Reardon, MSP Senior Staff
- Sigrid Schmalzer, History, HFA
- Jeremy Smith, Libraries
For more details on our proposals, please visit https://umassmsp.org/site/assets/files/1269/2023-2026_bargaining_themes_principles.pdf.
Contract Bargaining Update Archive
Bargaining udpates will be archived here
Kathleen Lugosch and Christine Turner on Bargaining [Watch on Vimeo]