MCCC Home | Year Index | 1992 Index

In This Issue:

• New MCCC Consultant
• Delegate Assembly Actions
• MTA Political Action Plan
• Chapter 150E Attack

Rep. Flaherty Files Salary Bill

Speaker of the House Charles Flaherty has filed a bill concerning our contract funding. Anne Clark, MTA General Counsel, wrote the language for the Speaker. When the bill was filed, however, it was written as if the bill would provide salary increases for 1992 only. According to Flaherty's aide, the intent of the bill is to fund the contracts completely.

Presently, the unions which are the direct employees of the governor (Alliance) are in three forums concerning their contract funding: Superior Court, arbitration, Labor Relations Commission. Their argument is that the governor must fund their agreements. Because the higher education, judiciary, and lottery employees fall under a separate section of the law, the governor must submit a contract funding bill. He refuses to submit this bill. The MTA and other unions representing higher education employees decided to file a funding bill and go around the governor directly to the legislature. The bill now sits in House Ways and Means, and when the letters and calls for help come in, please respond. A lot of pressure will be needed to get these contracts funded.

Donna Sirutis New MCCC Consultant

In May, 1992, Donna Sirutis from Attleboro, Mass. will become the new MTA consultant for the community colleges.

For the past two years Sirutis has been working as a full-time consultant for eleven K-12 locals in the Taunton area. She comes to the community colleges with a broad background in labor relations, from both a labor and a management point of view.

After graduating with a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California Berkeley, she enrolled in the Labor Relations program at the University of Massachusetts/ Amherst. After receiving her M.S. she earned a J.D. from Suffolk Law School.

When she came to Massachusetts in the early 1970's, Sirutis worked five years as a business agent for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) where she was responsible for negotiating contracts and handling grievance/arbitration matters. She subsequently helped organize and negotiate two contracts for the professional and clerical staffs at the University of Lowell.

While attending law school, Sirutis worked for the Department of Labor and Industries as an assistant commissioner, and after two years she went to work for the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration.

In 1984 she left state government. With her law degree in hand Sirutis spent the next six years self- employed working in labor relations and municipal tax collections. She came away knowing that she did not enjoy representing management because of a propensity by some managers to circumvent the labor laws and violate employees' rights. Sirutis decided to come to work for the MTA in 1990. She says, "I decided that I liked being on the labor side of the table. Collective bargaining is a useful way of resolving conflict, and the union must define its interests and make demands at the table and in the legislature. I never met an employer who felt that he or she was not the fairest person in the world."

Reflecting on her new assignment, Sirutis says, "I do not know if my style will make a difference. I will take my signals from the team that I am working with and hope that we share a common philosophy. Pooling employee resources and skills to made decisions and acting on behalf of the membership is the most effective way of dealing with the employer."

Sirutis perceives an anti-union attitude in government and in the courts as well as at the national and state labor relations commissions. She says, "Governor Weld is attempting to negate collective bargaining in the public sector with his proposed changes to Chapter 150E. I believe he is aggressively anti-union and has a social agenda which is destructive to the people who are not part of the hereditary aristocracy. He would make us all a lumpenproletariat. We have our work cut out for us on the political, legislative, and collective bargaining fronts, and I look forward to the challenge."

DCE Salary Increase

Beginning in September, 1992, unit members will receive a 20 percent salary increase up to a maximum of $650 per credit hour or $1950 for a three-credit course. In addition the collective bargaining agreement mandates a new lab/credit ratio of 1.5 to 1 which will increase the workload value of laboratory assignments for the purposes of computing salary.

It was only two years ago when the MCCC struck the colleges for management's failure to bring the DCE bargaining to a satisfactory closure. The MCCC had been at the bargaining table for over three years and had received a favorable fact finder's report which the presidents refused to acknowledge. When the strike was called off and the parties emerged with a contract after difficult summer negotiations, the MCCC unit members went from an average salary in 1990 of $1,050 to a maximum of $1,950 (9/92), an increase of nearly 86%. For the newer employees who have not reached maximum, the salary increase has gone from a low in 1990 of approximately $265 ($795 for a three-credit course) per credit to $570 per credit ($1,710 for a three-credit course), effective September, 1992. This represents an increase of nearly 94 percent.

If anyone has any questions concerning salary, he or she should contact the DCE Coordinator Joe Rizzo or MCCC Treasurer Tom Parsons.

Leadership Conference at Williams College

This year's MTA Leadership Conference at Williams College will be held August 10-14. In addition to over 500 training and academic sessions, a higher education component will begin on Wednesday. When the program is finalized, all unit members will receive a mailing. There will also be a more detailed overview in the June Newsletter.

Each chapter is entitled to send two participants which the MCCC will fully fund. The price of $225 includes room, board, and registration fee. For those interested in attending the higher education portion only, the price will be $112.50. If a chapter does not sent its allotted two attendees, another chapter can be funded on a first-come, first- served basis.

MCCC Delegates Vote September Action

At the MCCC Delegate Assembly held at Mt. Wachusett Community College on April 25, 1992, the delegates voted the following motions:

• Be it resolved that, if there is no movement on the pay package in our contracts by the opening of school in the Fall of 1992, as determined by the MCCC President, all full-time members if all campuses will participate in an all-day statewide demonstration and lobbying meeting at the State House in Boston in a date in September, to he determined by the MCCC President working in conjunction with the Higher Education Leadership Council (HELC). This motion passed unanimously.
• Be it resolved that, if there is no movement on the pay package in our contracts by the end of the Fall 1992 semester, as determined by the MCCC President, the students' grades will be handed over to each MCCC chapter president and not to the administration until such time as real process is made on our contracts.
• The MCCC deplores the loss of U.S. scholarship aid as a result of the disastrous cuts in the state scholarship grants by Governor Weld and the legislature. This loss comes at a time when students' tuition and fees are sky-rocketing. This motion passed unanimously.
• The Delegate Assembly go on record as being against the merger of Roxbury Community College to any other institution. This motion passed unanimously.

DCE Resolutions

When the DCE contract was implemented at Massasoit Community College, the DCE Dean defined threshold status for reappointment rights to mean that a unit member had to teach five courses over three consecutive years in a given work area. The Massasoit Faculty Association grieved that interpretation, and this issue has been resolved, The decision stated that the standard used to define threshold status will be as the union negotiated: five courses over three consecutive years at the college.

In another matter at Holyoke Community College, a grievance was filed by the association because the college would not pay the DCE salary to day faculty who were converted to day DCE faculty. The issue was resolved, and these unit members will receive their proper DCE salary.

Governor Attacks Chapter 150E

All unit members should have received from the MTA the overview of the governor's attack on our collective bargaining law, Chapter 150E. This assault has wide-ranging ramifications for education's ability to negotiate a contract and resolve grievances.

With proposals to eliminate bargaining over promotions, transfers, layoffs, discharges, terminations, evaluations, job descriptions, and other issues, our professional lives would slide backwards to times when politics and personality were the criteria for our conditions of employment. The governor also proposes to eliminate the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration making the dispute resolution process optional. The employer could put a proposal on the table during bargaining, wait two weeks, declare an impasse, and implement its last offer. Presently, the law requires mediation and fact finding prior to implementing unilateral changes. Because the governor could not get his changes through the Education Committee, he has taken the outside section route. This is the same way he is attempting to get our health insurance contribution to 35 percent.

If the governor is successful in his attempt to undermine our rights under the collective bargaining law, public employees will be dealt with by the divide and conquer method.

Make sure lobbying cards are returned. You are needed to stop the dismantling of our professional lives. Collective force is our greatest weapon.

MTA Unveils Action Plan

Flyers

At the Higher Education Leadership Council meeting on Thursday evening, May 7, the MTA presented its political action plan which will coincide with each higher education local's plans. A flyer to all higher education unit members is in the mail. The flyer will outline the major issues in the Fiscal 1993 budget debate so as to familiarize everyone with the focus of the higher education debate. Next will be the flyer which will be distributed at all college graduations this year. Each campus is being asked to write a supplemental flyer which would outline the impact budget cuts have had at that particular institution over the past four years. It is hoped that all chapter presidents, college presidents, AFSCME stewards, trustee chairs, and student government presidents will sign the letter.

Each unit member has been sent a letter concerning the contract funding bill. Enclosed with this letter was a card requesting each unit member to check off the activity or activities they were most concerned with and if he or she would be willing to call, write, and/or visit his or her senator and representative. Those cards are to be returned to the chapter president immediately.

The MTA has paid for 10,000 buttons which have been distributed to all higher education unit members. The buttons should be worn at graduation by faculty, staff, and administration, if possible. Unit members should wear these buttons every day. Hopefully we will not need these buttons in September, but you never know.

The MCCC has ordered informational picketing signs which should be used during graduation. All these activities are not designed to interfere in any way with the students and their graduation. This is designed to raise the consciousness of the public concerning the issues facing higher education. This activity is for education and support, not confrontation. It is time for people to begin taking an active role in the legislative and electoral process. If we are going to be successful in impacting the legislature, we must be organized and we must all understand the basic issues confronting higher education. People will not be asked to make a huge time commitment but rather a short-term commitment. If things do not move, all of higher education has to be organized and ready to make a political and educational statement in September.

Know Your Contract

May 21	Notice of tenure or one-year appointment
May 26	Notice of tentative class schedule for Fall, 1992 due faculty
May 30	Professional Staff submit Student Advisement and College Service forms
June 1	Work performance evaluations sent to Professional Staff
June 8	Notice of sabbaticals for Fall, 1992
June 10	Student Advisement and College Service Evaluations sent to Professional Staff
June 15	Professional Staff receive Summary Evaluations
June 19	Application due for sabbatical for January, 1993

N.B. Dates may vary depending on first day of classes. Also, most of these dates are "last date" standards. In many instances, the action can he accomplished before the date indicated.