Contract Bargaining
2023-2026 Sucessor Contract Bargaining
We had our first bargaining session for our successor contract on February 3rd, 2023. 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), Brendan Sharkey (MTA) and Jeremy Smith (Libraries). Both teams (MSP and the Administration) have committed to meet every other week until a deal is done. 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
3/10/2023
Your MSP bargaining team met with the administration’s team on March 3, 2023 for our third session. As a reminder, we are Kate Hudson, College of Education; Marc Liberatore, CICS; Lori Reardon, MSP Senior Staff; Sigrid Schmalzer, History; Brendan Sharkey, MTA; and Jeremy Smith, Libraries. The administration’s bargaining team includes: Michelle Budig, Office of Faculty Development/Sociology; Michael Eagen, Provost’s Office; Ann Kostek, Human Resources; Kristen Gibbons, Provost’s Office; Barbara Krauthamer, Dean, HFA; Jocelyn Tedisky, Provost’s Office; and Mark Tuominen, Associate Dean, CNS.
At that meeting, we put the remainder of our substantive proposals on the table. Our proposals are organized around three major themes: (i) Pay, benefits, and equity; (ii) Climate justice; and (iii) Online and multimodal teaching and workload.
In brief:
i. We hold to the principle that the University must fairly and competitively compensate all its workers. Base wages must rise to account for recent inflationary pressures, as must salary floors and promotional increments; merit raises ought to be available for excellent work; and other benefits should improve to make work more tenable, to bring us into line with our peers across the country, and to preserve UMass Amherst’s position as a leader and flagship institution.
ii. We believe that we share with the administration the goal of reducing UMass’s net carbon emissions, and forging an institution that is responsible and sustainable in its operations. UMass should improve green transit options, including better support of the PVTA and bicycle commuters. We should also close the campus during the natural lulls of Thanksgiving week and at the end of the calendar year.
iii. High-quality online teaching is a significant effort, especially if done concurrently with traditional in-person instruction. The administration must appropriately recognize and compensate faculty who engage in this work.
For more details on our proposals, please visit https://umassmsp.org/site/assets/files/1269/2023-2026_bargaining_themes_principles.pdf.
Getting our proposals on the table is just the first step in negotiations – we’ll keep you posted as things progress, but we’ll need your help in winning at the table! Please get in touch if you have testimony and expertise you can share with the team and at the table. We’ll be calling on the membership to drive home to the administration the importance of our agenda!
Contract Bargaining Update Archive
Bargaining udpates will be archived here.
Kathleen Lugosch and Christine Turner on Bargaining [Watch on Vimeo]