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Volume IX |
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Number Ten |
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In This Issue: |
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In the summer of 1987, the MCCC lost one of its most respected leaders when then MCCC Treasurer Raymond C. Lemieux from Springfield Technical Community College died suddenly of a heart attack. Ray Lemieux was a man who was committed to the teaching profession. He was equally committed to representing and defending the professional rights of his colleagues. Actively involved on his campus and in the MCCC, MTA, and NEA, he earned the respect of faculty, professional staff, and administrators alike. His command of the college and state accounting systems made him indispensable when we needed to set up new salary schedules and integrate all the members onto the schedule.
In 1991 the MCCC established an award in Ray's memory and for the past three years has awarded it to a unit member who personifies the qualities and characteristics.. ."of an individual whose service, leadership, and dedication have contributed significantly to the Massachusetts Community College Council. Criteria for the award are service to higher education and to the labor movement in the quest for improved working conditions, the maintenance of high standards of professional excellence, and a demonstrated leadership in higher education at the chapter, MCCC, MTA and NEA levels.
At the MCCC Delegate Assembly on April 22, 1995, the fourth Raymond C. Lemieux Award was presented to Catherine A. Boudreau, a professor in the Office Administration Department at Massasoit Community College. Jim Rice, last year's recipient and former MCCC president, was the presenter.
In his remarks, Rice said, "Catherine Boudreau has distinguished herself, first and foremost, as writer, editor, and publisher of the MCCC Newsletter. On a monthly basis, she has recorded the events and challenges of the MCCC in an objective and readable style along with highlighting accomplishments of the MCCC and its membership." The Newsletter, however, is but one of the many activities Boudreau has been vigorously involved in over the years.
Beginning her union involvement as a grievance officer at Massasoit, Boudreau soon became the chapter's director to the MCCC Board. Throughout the last 13 years, she has been on the Executive Committee of the Massasoit Faculty Association and has served as grievance coordinator several times. Beyond union activities, Boudreau was department chair for eight years. She has remained involved in campus issues and has served on many academic committees as well as being actively involved in the theater productions at the college for many years.
Several years ago, Boudreau began to keep track of legislation that affected public higher education, and subsequently became the legislative coordinator for the MCCC. She keeps chapters up to date on legislation and working with the MCCC President, alerts them when strong political action is needed. She serves as a liaison between the MTA Division of Governmental Services and the Division of Communications and the MCCC. In addition, Boudreau initiated the community college vacancy listing on MTA's Bulletin Board System (BBS). Besides members being able to access vacancies on the BBS, she also fares the vacancies to unit members upon request. According to Ron Miller, the system's operator, the community college listing is one of the most popular items on the BBS. Last year she proposed and the MCCC accepted the initiation of an interdisciplinary journal that will showcase the academic and professional writings and art work of MCCC members. The first publication is due out in September 1995.
During the 1983-1986 contract year, Boudreau became actively involved in negotiations. She served as a resource person for that and the 1986-1989 contract. For the past two contracts, Boudreau has served as vice chair as well as a member of the first DCE Negotiating Team.
Jim Rice also cited her activities within the Massachusetts Teachers Association. She served for six years on the Communications Committee and for four years served as chair of the Colleges and Universities Committee. For the past three years she has been chair of the Higher Education Leadership Council (HELC) and is currently serving her third two-year term representing higher education on the MTA Executive Committee. Last year, as chair of HELC, she proposed to the VOTE Board (the political arm of the MTA) that all Candidate Evaluation Teams(CET's)conducted for elections have at least one higher education person on the Team. The VOTE Board approved the change in its procedures, and in the last election, all but one CET held had a higher education representative on the Team.
Nationally, Boudreau was a member of the higher education caucus and was a participant in the finalization of the bylaws for the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE). She has remained active in the NCHE since its inception.
"The hallmarks of Boudreau's contributions are her emphasis on
communication and dedication to hard work," according to Rice. "Her
team participation skills of research, problem solving, debate,
attention to detail, and valuing and respecting the views of others
is without parallel. Cathy's prodigious labors on behalf of her
colleagues, her dedication to the rights of the individual, her
strong sense of equity without compromise, and especially her
continued efforts to make a difference in spite of difficult
circumstances make her an outstanding choice to receive the Raymond
C. Lemieux Award." 
On April 19, 1995, the Massachusetts Teachers Association was notified that they won the furlough case in the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The Court found that the Commonwealth impaired our contract and, therefore, violated the U.S. Constitution.
The legal staff of MTA (Sandy Quinn was the community college's lawyer and the lead lawyer in this entire case.) led this case on behalf of the higher education locals and 15 other unions through arbitration, the Superior Court, and ultimately the Supreme Court, winning at every juncture.
In 1991, the MTA commenced actions challenging the constitutionality of Governor Weld's furlough program on the basis that it abrogated compensation provisions of collective bargaining agreements, thereby violating the "Contract Clause (Art. I, S. 10, c I. 1) of the Constitution of the United States (No state shall ... pass any ... Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts). A Superior Court judge ordered the question of contract violation to arbitration, and the arbitrator ruled that there was a contractual violation but did not provide a precise remedy. The Commonwealth then sought to vacate the arbitration awards arguing that any remedy would require the state to violate the furlough statute [which it had passed and enforced illegally.]. The Commonwealth, by the way, argued that its enactment of furlough legislation was "as a matter of paramount public policy, during this period of fiscal exigency .. . a temporary program of furloughs for employees and officers .. . is the least painful means of conserving and utilizing the commonwealth's available monies during this extraordinary period of fiscal constraint while permitting the continuation, without any interruption, of the provisions of vital services."
On February 16, 1994, a Superior Court judge answered, Yes, to the question whether,'[i]n the face of a valid collective bargaining agreement, does a public employer violate the constitutional prohibition against impairing contracts, U.S. Const., Art. I, S. 10,, c 1.1 when, to meet a budget deficit, it mandates unpaid "furloughs" for covered employees?' Judge Hiller B. Zobel's position was that "under no circumstances could the Commonwealth justify its action."
Then the Supreme Court asked whether the mandatory furlough program "substantially impaired" the Commonwealth's obligation to pay compensation to employees affected by a collective bargaining agreement even though the Commonwealth sought "to minimize the substantiality of its failure to comply with its contractual obligations . . ."
"Once a substantial impairment of a contract has been shown, the State has the burden of demonstrating that the impairment was both reasonable and necessary to serve an important State purpose and the extent of any impairment if a factor in determining its reasonableness. The United States Supreme Court has observed that if the state is aware of problems when it enters into a contract. the state cannot impair those contracts on the basis of problems that have only changed in degree rather than in kind."
The Commonwealth's case failed on its application of the test of reasonableness. The Justices said the legislature had alternatives, e.g. reducing the number of noncontractual employees or raising taxes, but the state cannot resort to contract violations to solves is fiscal problems. You may recall that at one point the state estimated the deficit to be as high as $850 million, but, in fact, by May the state was projecting a surplus of $28.5 million. They ended the year with a surplus of $237 million.
What next? According to MTA General Council Ann Clarke, discussions will take place with the Attorney General's (AG) Office, and the parties will have to agree on a monetary settlement. "The major victory here," according to Clarke, "is that this can never happen again. This was an important principle for which we as a union had to take a stand, and we prevailed." The intent of this decision is that all contract employees who were part of this suit will be made whole.
The MCCC has send the MTA Legal Division a small thank you on
behalf of the membership. Individual notes from unit members,
however, to General Council Ann Clarke and/or Attorney Sandra Quinn
would be in order. The MTA did an outstanding job not just for our
membership, but for the members of the 15 unions who were a part of
this lawsuit.
The MCCC filed a charge at the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission (MLRC) when No. Essex and Mt. Wachusett Community Colleges failed to conduct a President's level grievance hearing as required by law and contract. The specific instance at No. Essex was that the college decided that the grievance lacked merit and, therefore, refused to hold a hearing. On the other hand, the college president at Mt. Wachusett did not believe the grievance was covered by the collective bargaining agreement because the grievant taught courses for the college inside the state correctional facilities.
The purpose of the required grievance hearing is for arguments and evidence to be reviewed in order for a dispute to be resolved. The administration does not have the right to determine whether a grievance has merit without first hearing the evidence. In both cases, the positions of the colleges and the union should have been examined through the hearing process. Instead the grievants were denied the opportunity to make their case.
The settlement from the MLRC provides that step one grievance
hearings will be conducted regardless of the colleges' positions on
matters. In the event that a college fails to hold a grievance
hearing, the matter will be brought to the MLRC in an expedited
manner.
The MTA kicked off its 150th anniversary celebration at the Annual Meeting on April 28. An activity the MTA is planning is an exhibit at the State House featuring 150 years of "notable graduates" of the commonwealth's public schools and public colleges and universities.
All you need is a name. The obviously well known or famous(or infamous) names may have been overlooked somehow. It is also looking for people throughout history who had or have become famous, but do not fall into the category of "the ones who immediately pop into your mind." Even if you are not sure if he or she is a product of the public schools, you should submit the name regardless.
Especially helpful will be anyone you know who attended or graduated from your college.
Once the MTA has collected the information and researched the names, there will be a display open to the public in Doric Hall in the State House, and early in the fall, an "1845 High Tea" will be held.
If anyone has any information or names, please send, call, or fax them to Billie Lawrence at MTA (tel. 1-800-392-6175 FAX 617-742-7360), 20 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108
Remember, all you need is a name and any accompanying information
you may have; MTA will do the rest.
The MCCC's interdisciplinary journal committee has decided to expand its requests from unit members to include original art work. The committee would like to use a couple of pages in the journal to show original works by MCCC members.
If you are interested in submitting a sample of your work please
send photos to Peter Meggison, Chair, MCCC Scholar, Massasoit
Community College, One Massasoit Blvd, Brockton, MA 02402. If you
have any questions, please contact the editor, Catherine A.
Boudreau.
The MTA will hold its Summer Leadership Conference August 14-18 at Williams College in Williamstown. The MCCC will fully fund two individuals from each chapter to attend this conference. This year, the conference will have two days of plenary sessions rather than four like last year. The evaluations for the last year's new structure were very positive, but the week's program needs improving.
The higher education track will continue as in previous years. It will begin with a higher education luncheon Wednesday. The speaker and the tract are still in the planning stages.
MTA will mail the full Conference packet by the middle of June to
last year's attendees. The June Newsletter will have the full agenda
and application information. If you have any questions, contact your
chapter president.
Last year, the MCCC voted $100,000 for a radio campaign. A couple of months ago, the MCCC asked the presidents to reconsider participating in this venture. Though the presidents could not match the MCCC funds, they agreed to participate in the campaign that allowed it to extend into a third week. This is the second time the MCCC and the presidents have worked on a major joint project, the first being the joint effort of both bargaining teams to work together to get a contract.
On Wednesday, May 3, 1995, ad writer Ken Swope and his sound person went to Bunker Hill Community College to record the sounds of students and teachers on the campus. Faculty were recorded in the classrooms, students shouted their career dreams, and a 60-second ad was formulated. The hour digital tape was taken to SoundTract Studios in Boston, and two superb ads were created for the community colleges.
Each chapter and college president has a list of the stations where the ad will pay until around May 24. Time was bought from stations across the state that have the highest rating. This usually translates into the most popular stations. The ads will air during morning, noon, and evening drive times. The spot should air approximately 1,000 times.
The four Bunker Hill faculty voices in the ad are: Jean Bovinette, Surgical Technology; Bob DiGiovanni, Art; Cliff Fernandez, Business; and Courtney McGlynn, Desktop Publishing.
Thanks to MCCC Vice President Susan Dole and Dean Michael
McSweeney from Bunker Hill for their help coordinating students and
faculty on the campus. Thanks to the MTA for its expertise.
Anyone having a complaint or concern about the Blue Cross Dental plan and coverage should direct his or her comments to
Abe Sherf,
North Shore Community College.
He is the community college representative on the Health and
Welfare Trust Fund.
The vacancies within the community colleges are easily accessible on the MTA Bulletin Board System (BBS) (1-800-523- 8883) You can read, download, and/or print these vacancies at your terminal. If you do not have access to a modem, a printout can be faxed to you. Fax your request to the Communications Coordinator at 617- 236-0448. You must include the name of the college(s) where you work.
For the first time user. When you call into the BBS, you will need to provide some information to the systems operator. You can get on the BBS immediately and choose your password. Once you get on the BBS, follow these steps to get to the vacancy area. Enter your name and password, Select F(ile); 6(Vacancies in community colleges); (F)files in this area; (V)iew and type in the first two numbers of the last dated entry e.g., 42-11-1996 (You would type 42).
Only questions specific to the MTA BBS should be directed to the
systems Operator (SYSop) Ron Miller (1-508-653-7244), preferably
through the BBS. If you have specific questions about a vacancy, call
the college.
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May 20 |
Tenure decisions due |
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May 30 |
Professional Staff submit College Service and Student Advisement (E4 & E5) forms |
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May 31 |
Latest academic year can end |
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June 1 |
Professional Staff work assignment submitted |
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June 1 |
Professional staff work performance evaluation |
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June 1 |
Part-time (day) faculty receive student evaluations |
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June 5 |
Fall leave of absence decisions by president |
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June 5 |
Fall sabbaticals awarded |
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June 10 |
Professional staff receive E4 & E5 evaluations |
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June 15 |
Professional staff post evaluation conference |
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June 15 |
Professional staff summary evaluation (E9) due |
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June 22 |
Sabbaticals for spring 1996 due to supervisor/dean |
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Catherine A. Boudreau MCCC/MTA Newsletter |
The MCCC Newsletter is a publication of the Massachusetts Community College Council. The Newsletter is intended to be an information source for the members of the MCCC and for other interested parties. The material in this publication may be reprinted with the acknowledgment of its source. For further information on issues discussed in this publication, contact Catherine Boudreau, Massasoit Community College, Brockton, MA 02402. |
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