Umass Boston Union Office

Dear PSU members,

The ratification vote for our new contract will take place on Wednesday, March 28th. Voting will take place at the following times and locations:

UMass Boston Union Office Quinn Building, 2nd floor, Rm 081 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Institute for Community Inclusion 20 Park Plaza, Room TBA 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Early Learning Center Harbor Point 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM

If you are unable to vote in person on March 28th, please email [email protected] by Monday, March 26 to make arrangements to cast an absentee ballot.

In preparation for the ratification vote, we are sending the revised language that is in the tentative agreement. When you vote in the ratification vote, you will be voting on whether or not to accept these proposed changes. As we mentioned in our initial announcement, the PSU Negotiating Committee and the Joint Executive Council strongly encourage ratification.

Two documents are attached for your information and review:

 Contract language: Full text of the contract sections with proposed changes/additions

 Ground rules: As you probably recall, in exchange for receiving the two year offer comparable to what other state unions had been offered, we agreed to forego our claim to the “retroactive trigger” language in our current contract. These ground rules, which were agreed to by both sides at the table, specify that if our contract is not funded, we will return to the “retroactive trigger” language.

To help guide you through the full language attachment, the summary below highlights the proposed changes to the contract. They are organized in order of section number.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the proposed contract. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the Membership Meeting that will take place on Monday, March 26 from 12 – 2 p.m. in the Healey Library, 11th floor. You may also email your questions to [email protected].

And please remember to vote on Wednesday, March 28th.

SUMMARY

Section 10.2: Professional Recognition: This section states that bargaining unit members shall receive appropriate credit for their work during their evaluations. The new language added is that: Service to the union shall count explicitly as University Service.

Section 21.1: Holidays In exchange for the two Suffolk County holidays (Boston) and the “Suffolk County floaters” (Amherst), both campuses will shut down for the two work days immediately preceding the day on which New Year’s Day is celebrated. If ratified, this means that in 2012, the campus will close on Friday, December 28 and Monday, December 31. In 2013, the campus would close on Monday, December 30 and Tuesday, December 31.

At the bargaining table, the University expressed its interest in working toward closing the University between December 25 and January 1 in the future. These two days are a step in that direction. There is additional language in the section that says that labor and management will work toward closing for the other two days over the next two years and that if closing for the full week cannot be accomplished, we may choose to look at alternative days to replace the Suffolk County holidays in our next negotiations.

Section 24.2: Health and Welfare payments: The University will increase its payments to our health and welfare fund (which funds our dental/vision insurance) according the following schedule:  January 2014: $.50 per FTE per week  June 2014: $.50 per FTE per week

Section 31.1: Salary increases

The proposed contract provides for 4 raises – one every six months.

 Effective July 1 2012 and June 30, 2013 employees on payroll as of the previous day, with satisfactory or no evaluation, will receive a 1.75% increase.

 Effective December 30 2012 and December 29, 2013 employees on payroll as of the previous day, with satisfactory or no evaluation, will receive a base rate increase of 1.25% as an equal dollar amount determined by dividing an amount equal to 1.25% of the total bargaining unit salaries on each campus by FTE.

 In addition, for both December/January raises there will be a .5% “merit pool” to be distributed according to language tied to PMP evaluations (Amherst) as well as further labor-management discussions (Boston). (See 31.2 below)

Section 31.2: Performance Management Program and Merit Program: The language in this section basically returns us to the language from our 2007 contract and spells out the way that the merit pool will be distributed on the campuses.

This section also spells out the relationships between the PMP and the merit awards.

While the contract language lists the relationships between PMP and merit awards for both campuses, it was agreed that for Boston, because we have traditionally had a very low compliance rate with completing the PMP, a labor management committee shall be established on the Boston campus to address issues of PMP compliance and merit awards for individuals who do not receive PMPs. This committee will ultimately determine whether PMP compliance is sufficient to rely on that standard for merit distribution.

There will also be labor-management committees on each campus to review implementation of the annual review process and the tool. This will include designing and implementing training for supervisors. The committees from the two campuses will be working together.

Article 40: Duration

This is a two-year agreement, beginning July 1 2012 and ending June 30 2014.

Side Letter: Parking and Transportation in Boston:

Management and the Boston campus unions have agreed to the process for negotiating any proposed changes in parking fees for members on the Boston campus. Main points of that agreement are:  A joint labor management multi-union committee shall convene no later than April 3, 2012 and meet regularly through October 31, 2012.  This committee shall be charged with reaching a mutually agreed-upon proposal and will be empowered to reach understandings in parking rate changes and other provisions associated with travel to and from the UMASS Boston campus.  If the committee does not come to agreement on or before October 31, 2012, the parties shall request the participation of a mutually acceptable third party neutral  This neutral shall engage both parties in a full day session to mediate disparities in each party’s proposals. In the event that an agreement is not reached during this mediation, the matter shall proceed to interest arbitration.  The findings of the arbitrator shall be binding upon all parties.