From Joe LeBlanc, MCCC President

February 4, 2010

1. Day Agreement news:
The employer is requesting that we delay salary increases by one day short of a year, meaning that the 1.5, 3.5 and 3.5 percent increases would be postponed by one day short of a year in years 2, 3 and 4 of our Agreement. In addition, we have been asked to take furlough days. Full-time day unit members earning more than $50,000 are being asked to accept 3 furlough days. At the meeting with management, we were told that faculty would be expected to show up for work and teach, etc. on their furlough days.

[See reopener request at the end of this email.]

After a full discussion with our executive committee and board of directors, our board passed the following motion at our January meeting:

Motion: The MCCC Board of Directors strongly opposes reopening the day contract at this time. Passed Unanimously.

Now that the details of the request to reopen are known, Donnie and I will be visiting chapters to hear your views and answer questions about all of this as well as seek input about our action plan.

We will also be working with our lobbyists and the Higher Ed. Leadership Council to organize a campaign to push for funding of our Agreements. Stay tuned for updates and requests for member action in coming weeks.

2. DCE Agreement news:
Members interested in serving on these committees should send me a brief letter of application that includes reasons for wanting to serve and outlining union experience and expertise. Deadline: Thursday, March 4.

3. Butler, Lemieux and Palmer Awards: Each year at our Delegate Assembly, we present awards to members who have served their union in extraordinary ways at the chapter, statewide and national levels. Information and nomination forms are available at the link below. Please consider nominating a deserving leader/member and note the Feb. 15 deadline.

http://mccc-union.org/awards.htm

4. Governor's budget and other State House news: Gov. Patrick's level funding of higher education in his budget is one of the biggest surprises of the new year. The House 2 budget has a long way to go before it becomes law, and debate will follow in the House in April and the Senate in May. For now, this certainly passes as good potential news in the context of continued hard times. Kudos to the Governor for this news at least.

Thanks to MTA Governmental Services' Julie Johnson for her update about the budget as well as the latest proposal to further reform the state employee pension system. A higher education budget spreadsheet is also attached.

Attachments
Reopener-request.pdf
Higher educaton (House 2).pdf
House 2 Budget ummary for HELC.doc

President at his desk
December 11, 2009

As we approach the end of the semester in this most interesting year, here's the latest news from the MCCC:
I wish all of you and yours peace and joy in the upcoming holiday season.

Best,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC

ADMINISTRATION REACHES DEAL WITH FOUR UNIONS
The Patrick administration has drawn concessions, including furloughs and a delay in a previously negotiated wage increase, from leaders of four unions representing 30,000 state employees, Gov. Deval Patrick's budget chief said Friday. The union heads of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), and SEIU locals 509 and 888 will bring the deals to members in the next several weeks, said Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez. At a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce forum, Gonzalez said the concessions amount to "tens of millions" of savings and could prevent hundreds of layoffs. The agreement includes a one-year delay in a 1 percent negotiated wage increase, totaling some $35 million. The administration is still negotiating with a number of other unions, including the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists, groups representing corrections officers, nurses, and State Police officers, he said.
Source: State House News
October 21, 2009

By now, you have read the stories about furloughs, job cuts and threatened "contract revisions". We are learning more about this dire situation every day.

Here's the latest news, much of which is still conceptual and not official:
Last Friday, MTA leaders Anne Wass, Paul Toner, David Borer and Arthur Pippo visited our board of directors to present an overview of the dire economic news as well as discuss how we might best address challenges like those outlined above. While details about the "contract revisions" were not known at that time, our board showed no appetite for furloughs and "contract revisions".

I agree. I am personally opposed to furloughs. The state may very well impose them. If they do so, we will fight them in court. I am opposed to a second zero year. I am opposed to the delay in funding our Agreement. I have little faith that the state won't push for new increases in our health insurance contribution splits.

In the context of continuing growth in community college enrollments - 10.8 percent FTE increase this semester with no end in sight - I do not see how it is possible to cut from our 2,000 full-time faculty and professional staff positions without cutting enrollments  and gutting the quality and character of our institutions at the same time. Our colleges are already short-staffed. Layoffs would be foolhardy and must be avoided.

Much can and likely will change in coming weeks and months. For now, I believe our best and wisest course of action is to say "no" and fight furloughs, layoffs and reversions with all the collective strength we can muster.

Best,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC

P.S. Arthur Pippo, MTA Higher Ed. Division, shared this report with the Higher Education Leadership Council (HELC) earlier today.

October 21, 2009

I wanted to share some positive news before devoting my next email to the dire budget situation.

First, DCE Bargaining Team Chair Diana Yohe has informed me that we have a new Tentative Agreement (TA). Pending ratification, this would be a four-year contract (3 years plus an outside year). By the end of the Agreement, our DCE members would receive 8.5 percent salary increases plus applicable step increases. The TA also contains several language wins, including but not limited to class size parity with the day unit and a new and much-improved student evaluation form.

Diana and MTA Consultant Miles Stern will be meeting with management on Oct. 30 to finalize a Memorandum of Agreement that will provide complete details about the TA. In November, regional cluster meetings will provide DCE members with an opportunity to ask questions about the TA before the ballots are due in late November/early December (estimated timeline).

I want to congratulate our team for fighting to finalize this Tentative Agreement in such a horrific economic environment.

Second, following a suggestion from colleagues at Roxbury CC, our board of directors approved the following motion at its October meeting:

Motion: Recommend that MCCC members boycott the upcoming TYCA (Two Year College English Association) Conference at the Boston Hyatt Hotel and urge members to write to Hyatt’s management to protest the continued delay in reaching an acceptable resolution to this ongoing labor dispute.

This link from the IBEW provides an overview of the situation to date along with contact information for the Hyatt Hotels:
http://ibew2222.org/boycott_hyatt_hotels

The firing of the housekeeping workers is despicable. I understand that TCYA organizers are trying to change the conference venue, but this will likely be difficult. I wish them well in their efforts.

Best,
Joe

October 9, 2009

State budget: State budget news continues to be bleak. September's state revenues failed to meet benchmarks by more than $200 million, and 9C budget cuts will likely be enacted later this month. House Speaker Robert Deleo says the budget shortfall may hit $500 million to $1 billion for FY '10. In a meeting with the Joint Labor Relations Committee last week, college presidents said they have prepared for 9C cuts in this year's budget. One troubling rumor indicates that 9C cuts may be enacted all at once in this fiscal year. Instead of implementing the 9C cuts on an as-needed basis in several installments, the state may slash up to $1 billion all at once. This action will significantly increase the threat of layoffs.

The FY 11 budget is even more troubling. Sources report that state budgets for our colleges may be cut by 7.2 percent plus another 1.5 percent for costs associated with collective bargaining agreements. To better plan for the challenges ahead, we have invited MTA Executive Director David Borer, President Anne Wass, Vice President Paul Toner and Arthur Pippo, Director of the MTA's Higher Education Division, to our next board of directors meeting. Watch for details in my next update.

Licenses and Certifications: The third installment of payments for licenses and certifications will be paid in November. These points/salary increases will be funded by the colleges. In addition, the Joint Licenses and Certifications Committee will meet on Oct. 27 to review member requests to add licenses and certifications to the approved list.

An L and C application is attached (found here on the web site). To be considered for credit by the committee at its next meeting, send the completed application form, a copy of your license and/or certification and supporting materials to the Department of Higher Education by Oct. 20.
To review the list of licenses and certifications list along with points assigned to each license and certification, follow this link:

http://mccc-union.org/LicensesandCertifications/index.html


Day contract funding: The new day contract's cost item request has been sent to the Governor for his signature.

Legal requests: Individual MCCC members provide a steady stream of cases to MTA Legal Services. Legal representation, an important member benefit, is provided to union members, not agency fee payers.

MTA Legal also addresses more general issues and questions for our union. Two current issues are worth highlighting. First, the Higher Education Opportunity Act potentially threatens faculty's freedom to select textbooks. MCCC Day Grievance Coordinator Dennis Fitzgerald outlines our concerns:

  1. Full-time faculty - Impact on timing of text book selection- Text book  information for the fall term may have to be determined as early as January or February.  Under the contract, assignments are made no later than March 31.  Faculty should continue to have full freedom in the selection of texts, but it will have to be done earlier.
  2. Full-time faculty - Impact on full freedom to select text book - Full-time faculty whose course assignment might be canceled and pick up another course will not have the full freedom  to select a text, but may have to use the text assigned to that course.
  3. Part-time day unit faculty - Impact on full freedom to select text book - Part-time day faculty who do not receive course assignments until late summer will not have the full freedom to select a text. The text will be assigned to the course in January/February.
  4. Adjunct DCE Faculty - Same impact as #3 above.

The second legal issue affects our professional staff. MTA Consultant Katie D'Urso writes: "In the fall semester of 2009, the Massachusetts community colleges were required by the state to begin using a centralized state-run payroll system (HRCMS) to pay all full- and part-time employees. Prior to the use of the HRCMS system, many MCCC full-time prof. staff members supplemented their income by taking on part-time jobs in the evening (advising,etc.). Now that HRCMS captures all of an employee's hours in one place, some of the community colleges are taking the position that they are required to pay overtime to all MCCC prof. staff who work more than 40 hours a week. Accordingly, they are refusing to assign this extra work to current full-time members on the grounds that they cannot afford to pay overtime. The colleges have not conducted an audit in order to legally determine which positions are exempt and and which are non-exempt under federal overtime provisions."

"The MCCC is about to engage in bargaining about this change in working conditions and is seeking legal advice regarding the legal standards used to determine which employees are exempt and non-exempt and what appropriate stance to take bargaining this change."

I will share news about both legal opinions in a future update.

Swine flu: The presidents' legal counsel has advised the colleges about a variety of issues surrounding the swine flu, some of which may impact our members' rights. While counsel has advised the colleges to adhere to our collective bargaining agreement, some colleges may have a difference of opinion about what that means. We will be meeting with management soon to discuss how we can best manage to protect our contractual rights with issues that may arise if the swine flu becomes an epidemic.

Increased enrollments and resulting stress: At our last meeting with the college presidents, we outlined several general concerns with managing our colleges record enrollments with too few full-time faculty and prof. staff. They asked for specific examples of how this growth is affecting our members and our students. Please send such stories to me and I will share them with management at our next meeting.

MCCC research projects: In an effort to gather data in support of our campaign to "reverse course" on the overuse and sometimes shabby treatment of adjunct faculty, MCCC Research Coordinator Hilaire Jean-Gilles is working on the following projects:
- Year-to-year, college-by-college comparison of adjunct use
- Numbers of courses taught by adjunct faculty, college-by-college
- Year-to-year, college-by-college comparison of the numbers of full-time faculty and prof. staff

BHE meeting highlights: This week's BHE meeting highlighted the explosive growth in the Commonwealth's public higher education system. You may find these files interesting. The first provides an overview for numbers of first-time students while the second provides preliminary enrollment data outlining the system's growth that is driven largely by our community colleges.

http://www.mass.edu/library/documents/FirstTimeStudent.ppt
http://www.mass.edu/library/documents/2009EarlyEnrollmentReport.ppt

Higher Education Relief bill: This legislation with its tuition retention provision that would have largely privatized our colleges, has been withdrawn for this legislative cycle. This is good news. Kudos to our lobbyists, Arthur Pippo and the Higher Education Leadership Council for their work in killing this legislation. 

Best,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC

This just in: MTA Attorney Rich Mullane reports that an MCCC Academic Counselor has won her appeal to be granted credit for prior teaching service in Maine. Atty. Mullane writes, "...The Magistrate concluded that what xxxxxx does as an Academic Advising Counselor at MBCC satisfies the statutory language that someone seeking to purchase out-of-state service 'is employed in a teaching position' such that she could make that purchase under G.L. c. 32, & 3(4) as long as her prior service itself met the relevant and different criteria, which it did. This Decision is beneficial to others in the same position or similar positions who might want to purchase qualifying out-of-state service".

The State Board of Retirement may appeal this decision by the Oct. 13 deadline, but this is a nice win, nonetheless.
September 18, 2009

2009-2012 Day Agreement: Today's formal signing marks only the beginning of our ongoing work in implementing and enforcing this new Agreement.

First of all, we are looking for volunteers to serve on the Joint Union/Management Workload Committee. This committee "shall meet to discuss the clinical lab ratio, non-instructional faculty workload, flexibility for day faculty in teaching courses at night and on weekends as part of their day unit workload, online office hours, and professional staff workload".

This committee will begin to meet in October and finish its work by March, 2010. If you are interested in serving, please send a letter to interest to me by Friday, Oct. 2. Be sure to include details about your union experience and your reasons for wanting to work on this committee.

Maximum salaries - While exact numbers are being worked out, management has agreed that members will be not be denied salary increases because they have "maxed out". Details will follow in a future email.

Licenses and Certifications - Now that the contract has been ratified, we will be pushing for payment for the final third of L and C points at the earliest possible opportunity during the fall semester. Payments will retroactive to July 1, 2009. These points will be funded by the colleges.

Other contract issues - I will be happy to include other day contract issues of general interest in future updates. Send your questions to me.

MCCC Fall Conference set for Sept. 29:  This year's event provides something for everyone.
Registration materials are available online. Follow this link and spread the word!
http://mccc-union.org/FallConference/index.html

September 17, 2009

We have a new Day contract. Nominations and Elections Committee Chair Sharron Gillies announces the results below.

The formal signing of the 2009-2012 Day Agreement will take place tomorrow at a Community College Presidents Council meeting at Quinsigamond Community College. The cost item request to fund this contract will be sent to the Governor's office as early as next week.  After the Governor signs the cost item request, it will go to the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees where it will await funding along with the other MTA higher education contracts.

We will keep you posted in coming weeks and months as the funding process progresses. Our goal is to have the contract funded in a timely manner to allow our first salary increases to take effect as scheduled in July, 2010.

More contract and other MCCC news will follow in my next statewide update tomorrow.

Best,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC


Begin forwarded message:

From: Sharron Gillies 
Date: September 16, 2009 7:16:30 PM EDT
To: MCCC President
Subject: Re: Tomorrow's vote

Hi Joe,
The official day ratification count is as follows:
    Yes  597
    No   143
    Challenged Ballots 17
 
Sharron

Aug 14, 2009

Day Tentative Agreement: As you know, our Day Bargaining Team moved quickly in early May to reach a Tentative Agreement (TA) with the Board of Higher Education. This TA was reached hours before the state took all money off the table. If ratified, this Agreement would provide the same increases (0-1.5-3.5 and 3.5 percent) given to and ratified by all other MTA higher education unions as well as other state employee unions.

While this certainly isn't a great Agreement, it largely corrects disparities in base salaries under our Classification system. It also sets up joint union/management committees to work on several troublesome contractual issues, tightens the timeframe for receiving payment for changes in rank, post-tenure review, new academic credentials, etc. and gives us language changes won by other higher education unions in the past year. This TA does not equalize the value of all Classification points. I wish it did, but it not possible to do so with the financial parameters available in this dismal economic and fiscal environment.

Ratification materials were mailed to you earlier this week. These materials as well as additional tools for figuring out your salary increases are available at our website:
http://mccc-union.org/Compute/index.html

Please direct your individual questions to Team Chair Rick Doud, Vice Chair Tiffany Magnolia, MTA Consultant Katie D'Urso (all copied in this email) or me. Team members will also be visiting some chapters in early September.

NUP Salaries: Non-unit Professionals will not receive salary increases in FY10. See the attached memo from Higher Ed. Commissioner Richard Freeland.
DCE Bargaining: In June, our DCE Bargaining Team filed a request for mediation with the Division of Labor Relations. This lengthy and complicated process will begin soon if we are not able to reach a tentative agreement with management. Informal talks have been held sporadically over the summer and a settlement is still possible. Stay tuned...

MCCC Fall Conference: Mark your calendars. Our annual conference will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 4 p.m. at the Worcester Crowne Plaza Hotel. Tentative workshop sessions include the following:
- Day contract basics for new members
- DCE contract session
- Strategic (political) Action Update
- Wellstone grassroots organizing training
- Retirement planning
- Chapter presidents session
- Union and Contracts trivia game show with prizes
- Special keynote session TBA
- Cash prizes courtesy of MTA Benefits

Full-time/Part-time Ratios: Adjunct faculty numbers continue to increase across the system. Thanks to Research Coordinator Hilaire Jean-Gilles for providing us with the latest data.

May 28, 2009

It has been a busy spring semester. The Day tentative agreement will go to a ratification vote by early summer while the DCE negotiations will go down to the wire as our team fights to bring the best tentative agreement possible to our members. The fight to minimize our GIC health insurance contribution rate increases will continue in the House-Senate Conference Committee. The House budget favors an 80/20 split while the Senate budget proposes a 75/25 split.

Watch for updates about all these issues in coming weeks in what promises to be a busy summer.

Best,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC

Day Tentative Agreement: Specifics in the "TA" are being drafted by the Day Bargaining Team and will be shared with all day unit members as soon as possible in the ratification package. We expect the ratification vote to take place by mail by late June. Details will follow, again, as soon as they are available.

No one expected this settlement to happen so quickly. To better set the context, I thought it might be helpful to share this overview of a meeting with A and F Secretary Leslie Kirwan held shortly after our team and the employer reached agreement. This document is provided by Arthur Pippo of MTA's Higher Education Division.

DCE Negotiations: Our team persists in fighting to negotiate the best agreement possible for our members. This is indeed a challenging task in this recession in an era where our colleges are relying heavily on DCE revenues to make up for budget cuts and serve an ever-increasing number of students.

Our team would like to hear from you. We have created a survey to seek your continued input as this process (hopefully) grinds down as we approach early summer. Information about the "Reversing Course"  survey and our organizing efforts follow at the end of this email. Look for updates about the latest bargaining news and action alerts in coming weeks.

Senate budget news: Then Senate passed its version of the FY 10 budget last week. As expected, the budget will use state and federal monies to fund our colleges at FY 09 levels before the 9C cuts. This news is much better than we expected, and federal funds should be used to prevent layoffs and minimize the need to increase student fees.  

The Senate's final budget included an increase in the sales tax to 6.25 percent, a measure that allowed senators to change their Ways and Means Committee's recommended increase in our GIC health insurance contribution from 70/30 to 75/25 percent. This is still much worse than the House budget's 80/20 rate, and we will be working very hard on this issue in coming weeks. Please look for updates and take action when it is requested.

The Commonwealth is starving for revenues. This is bad news for all of us as state employees and faculty and prof. staff in public higher education. I want to thank the following senators who stood up to be counted and voted to increase the income tax to 5.95 percent: Berry, Chang-Diaz, Donnelly, Eldridge, Fargo, Jehlen, McGee, Menard, Pacheco, Rosenberg and Tolman. If this measure was successful, it would have made it much easier to deal with budget cuts this year while spreading the burden more fairly across the Commonwealth.

Kudos are also due to Senator Michael Morrissey, chief sponsor of a budget amendment that would have set our GIC rates at the 80/20 rate set in the House's budget. The following senators also signed on in support: Michael Moore, Pacheco, Menard, Flanagan, Donnelly, Montigny, Eldridge and Hart.

Please contact all the above-mentioned senators and thank them for their support.

Thumbs down to some senators: The following senators voted for a two-year freeze on all state employee wages and hiring: Baddour, Brewer, Brown, Hedlund, Knapik, Petrocelli, Tarr, Tisei and Tucker. This budget amendment failed, but it wouldn't hurt to let these senators know that their efforts are being watched and that we do not appreciate their attempt to balance the books on the backs of state workers.

Classification and the 75th percentile salary gap: MCCC Research Coordinator Hilaire Jean-Gilles continues to track our salaries and those of peer colleges from the ten states used in the original Classification Study. He reports that we have recently cut the 13.85 percent salary gap nearly in half to 7.27 percent. This is due in part to increases received in our 2006-2009 Agreement as well as the effects of the recession. For more information, follow this link:
http://www.mccc-union.org/75th/

GPO/WEP news: NEA Director Bob Gillies (QCC retired faculty and DCE member) tells me that all 10 Massachusetts Congressional reps have agreed to co-sponsor a bill that would eliminate the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision. The GPO/WEP unfairly penalizes the Social Security benefits of our members. The NEA has been working to "Secure passage of incremental steps toward full repeal of the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision, which unfairly cut or eliminate Social Security benefits for many public employees." To learn more about the NEA's efforts, follow this link:
http://www.nea.org/home/16491.htm

CAS petitions: I will be signing off on an agreement this week that will bring scores of new members into the bargaining unit beginning July 1. This agreement marks the end of a much-delayed process that will never be repeated again. Both sides have agreed to participate in a joint labor-management committee that will review all positions that have been questioned by the MCCC. Thanks to many, many people from both labor and management who helped to make this happen.

MTA Williamstown: Up to three MCCC members per chapter are invited to attend the MTA's Summer Conference on August 2-6. The conference provides a wonderful opportunity to learn more about your union as well as recharge your spirits in the beautiful Berkshires. To learn more about the conference, follow this link:
http://massteacher.org/teaching/conferences/conferences_summer09.cfm

If you are interested in attending, let your chapter president know today. We will do our best to accommodate all interested members, though you may have to pay a late fee.

* MCCC DCE Reversing Course Survey
Please take the short, four page survey for members of the MCCC DCE bargaining unit (adjunct faculty at the Massachusetts Community Colleges) to tell the union about yourself and your needs and to get further involved.  Click here  to take the MCCC DCE Reversing Course Survey (or cut and paste http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=42oo1ljvlq_2bXDD8E0yiNDw_3d_3d  into your web browser).

* Check out Reversing Course information on our website-- http://www.mccc-union.org/RC/ <http://www.mccc-union.org/RC/> 

Subject: State budget update: April 13

For statewide distribution...

The recession is hitting the Commonwealth and the nation hard. This is creating horrific budget challenges for the next fiscal year, and legislators will be forced to slash the FY10 budget by $4.2 billion or more. The Rainy Day Fund began the year with $2.1 billion will likely end the fiscal year with $1.3 billion or less. State tax collections plummeted by 16 percent in March compared to a year ago. Nine months into this fiscal year, tax receipts are down by $978 billion or 6.8 percent.

As the legislature begins to draft its budget, we have been following two critically-important issues: college budgets and the Governor's proposal to increase our health insurance contribution rates. When House Ways and Means releases its budget later this week, we expect the following news:

Higher Education budgets: The Governor's House 1 budget proposes a 16.5 percent cut to community colleges. We also expect the House Ways and Means Committee's budget to cut higher education drastically; however, by the end of this budget season, we expect sufficient legislative funding to trigger the release of federal stimulus funds. This would bring college budgets to FY '09 levels before 9C cuts. This would indeed be good news in context of the worst economic crisis in a generation.

Health insurance: We expect the House Ways and Means Committee's budget to include a proposal to increase our health insurance contribution rates to 75/25 or even 70/30 percent. At least 87 state reps have signed on to work with Rep. Marty Walsh, D-Dorchester, to fight this issue. A budget amendment will be filed and the House will debate this issue before it passes its budget. Watch for bulletins to lobby your representative. We will do everything in our power to fight back this attack on our members.

Thanks for your contributions to date. Your grassroots efforts in support of your union are much-appreciated and will be critical to our success. Stay tuned for further updates.

In solidarity,
Joe LeBlanc and Donnie McGee
MCCC


March 24, 2009

The negative news for public higher education may end today when the Governor announces his plans to distribute federal stimulus funds to our public colleges and the university. It appears that $162 million will be distributed to public higher ed. in each of the next two years. This will largely negate the horrific state budget cuts enacted this year and anticipated for next year. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - the stimulus bill enacted by Congress earlier this year and signed into law by President Obama - must be used to minimize layoffs and student fee increases. That being said, the law contains enough potential wiggle room that these points must be stressed again and again in your conversations with college administrators and legislators.

Many people have been working together over the last several weeks to make this happen. I met with Commissioner Freeland, who has worked effectively with Education Secretary Reville to advocate that public higher education gets its fair share. MCCC VP Donnie McGee, Strategic Action Committee activist Brooks Smith and I met with several members of the Joint Higher Education Committee last week. MTA Anne Wass wrote to lobby the Governor for a fair share for education (see the letter). MCCC lobbyist Charles Flaherty, the presidents' lobbyist Michael Muse, MTA Governmental Services and Arthur Pippo, the head of the MTA's Higher Ed. Division, have all worked to lobby the Governor. While these much-needed funds will not solve our long-term funding problems, they will allow us to survive the next two years with a minimum of layoffs. We may even see new full-time positions, especially in workforce development.

Otherwise, state budget news remains bleak. State revenues continue to drop precipitously and more than $1 billion in additional cuts may have to be found to close out this fiscal year. February's tax revenues dropped by 16.4 percent with declines reported in the income, sales and every other tax the Commonwealth collects. The unemployment rate jumped to more than 7 percent in January with losses reported in every sector but education and healthcare.

These challenging times will demand our best efforts, and the items below outline just a few of our current priorities and activities. In coming weeks, stay tuned and be ready to act immediately in support of your union. Together we can meet the challenges that confront us and make a difference.

Best,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC

January 29, 2009

Here's the latest MCCC news for January:

MCCC Election Deadline: The deadline to nominate delegates to MTA and NEA annual meetings is Thursday, Feb 5 at 4 p.m. Ditto for nominations for the Adjunct/Part-time Directors positions on the MCCC Board of Directors. To complete the simple nomination process, follow this link: http://mccc-union.org/Nominations_2009.

DCE Bargaining: In an effort to shake things up and encourage the employer to work harder to negotiate an agreement that both sides can live with, Chair Diana Yohe, MTA UNISERV Consultant Miles Stern and I met with the Presidents' Labor Relations Subcommittee on Jan. 20. We provided management with an overview of the process to date. After receiving input from more than 900 members in an online survey, our team has worked hard to put forward a package that reflects the priorities of our varied DCE membership. Our team developed its package around the theme of equity/parity. This theme should be seen in a framework that does not have to focus solely on economic issues.

We realize these are challenging economic times and that our salary goals of proration are attainable only in the long-term. Other proposals - some are economic and others are not - must be bargained intensely in coming weeks if we are to succeed in negotiating an agreement by the end of the spring semester.

Management listened with interest and said they would be open to counter offers. The teams next meet on Feb. 3. Our team will update our Board of Directors about the status of negotiations on Feb. 20.

HRCMS Changes: Earlier this year, the state began to include all employees on the HRCMS state payroll system. We met with management recently to discuss the impact of this change on our members. We agreed on the following items to begin no later than the start of the fall semester:
  1. All MCCC bargaining unit members will be able to submit one W-4 form for the HRCMS system so that the appropriate tax rate will be applied to the money earned for Day and DCE work. We understand that unit members will only be able to submit one form and that that form will apply to all work, both Day and DCE.
  2. At the earliest possible date, DCE unit members will be placed on a pay schedule under which they will be paid for the first time each semester (or term) during the 2nd payroll period of the semester or term and bi-weekly thereafter until they have received their full pay for the semester (or term).

Note: It is likely that unit members will be required to be paid under direct deposit, as is now the case with Day Unit members.

In the attached letter, MTA Legal advises us that retirees who work in the DCE Unit have been and will continue to be "employed in service of the Commonwealth". As such, they have been and will continue to be will be subject to the cap on state retiree earnings - per state statue.

Attorney Jones writes, "In short, conversion to HRCMS has no legal effect on the earnings cap. However, the practical effect of the HRCMS conversion may be to reduce the probability of exceeding the legal earnings limit without detection".

CAS Petitions: The MCCC and management met recently to continue to slog away at how to best implement the findings of a mediator's report that will settle unit determination cases that in some cases date back to the early 1990's. Later in the spring semester, we expect to be welcoming a first wave of about 75 new member to the MCCC. More will follow along with the creation of a joint management-labor committee that, we hope, will prevent such a backlog of cases from ever happening again. Watch for details in future updates.

FY 2009 and 2010 Budget News: In the latest round of 9C cuts, the Governor cut all higher education campuses by 0.5 to 2 percent. To see how the 9C cuts have affected your college in this fiscal year, follow this link: http://www.mass.gov/bb/gaa/fy2009/app_09/sect_09/hed2.htm

The Governor's just-released 2010 budget (House 1) is filled with all the bad news we expected. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center provides the following overview:

"The Governor cut all state higher education campuses (UMass, state colleges and community colleges) by $158 million (16.5 percent) from their FY 2009 GAA level. State higher education had already received a 5.5 percent cut in their FY 2009 funding through cuts. The Governor’s FY 2010 recommendation cuts higher education campuses by $105 million from their post 9C funding."

The Governor is also resurrecting his plan to create a 3-tiered system with increased contribution rates to the GIC health insurance plans. If enacted into law in the next budget, the impact will be significant. Details will follow in a future update, but please be ready to read MCCC Vice President Donnie McGee 's Strategic Action Committee updates in coming weeks and act on all recommendations for grassroots member action.

Best,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC

December 5, 2008
State Employee Negotiations: The already lousy bargaining environment (see the bleak tax revenues story story below) took a turn for the worse this week, as the Governor announced that there is no money for salary increases.

Bob Oakes from WBUR's Morning Edition asked Gov. Patrick a couple of pointed questions earlier this week about the status of contracts with state workers. See the audio link below.
http://www.wbur.org/news/2008/81780_20081203.asp

Relevant text from the interview follows:
Question: The Boston Herald reports today that because of the economy, your administration has suspended active contact negotiations with state workers.  What is that about?
Governor: It’s just about not having the money…I respect the work the state workers do, they are…, the ones I’ve met run to work, and they deserve to be appropriately compensated, but I also don’t want to be in the position of making false promises.  So I want to be able to be in the position to talk about what we can do in the future.  The state just does not have the cash to pony up.
Question:  So what’s the message to the workers themselves?
Governor: It’s just that.  We are going to work with you, respectfully, to try and keep conversations open and realistic about what the resources are and ask you to be patient with us and work with us to get in a better place so we can do right by the employees.
Question:  So keep working even though your contracts have run out (in particular references State Police)…Keep on the job even though we are not going to re-negotiate your contract?
Governor:  We are going to continue to pay people so those jobs will compensated, but the question is are we able to afford increases now?…and the answer is NO. [end of interview text]

Meanwhile, our Day Negotiations Committee has drafted a new bargaining survey. Day unit members, please watch for an announcement and online link to the survey on Dec 8. Surveys must be completed by Dec. 22. The Committee will review survey results over Winter Break and forward their demand package recommendations to our Day Bargaining Team by early February.
The MCCC/Department of Higher Education Day and DCE Agreements expire on June 30 and May 31, 2009 respectively.

"Breadth of Adjunct Use and Abuse" So reads the headline to an Inside Higher Ed story covering the release of an American Federation of Teachers-sponsored report titled "Reversing Course: The Troubled State of Academic Staffing and a Path Forward".

The report, prepared by researcher John B. Lee, asserts that the overuse and abuse of adjunct faculty is worse than many realize, but that it is not too late to change course.

To read the Inside higher Ed story, follow this link:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/03/adjunct

To read AFT's report and material related to its Faculty and College Excellence Campaign (FACE), follow this link:
http://www.aftface.org

I encourage you to read the report and discuss this issue at the chapter level. Watch for updates about MCCC discussion and responses in this space in coming months.  

DHE meeting: MCCC Vice President Donnie McGee, MTA UNISERV consultant Katie D'Urso and I met with the DHE's Peter Tsafarras recently over a number of issues, including individual member concerns and the following more general items:
Commonwealth Transfer Advisory Group: Earlier this week, I sent this letter to the DHE's Francesca Purcell to urge action on the task force's many recommendations. Our students deserve a transfer system that is fair, rational and transparent. If CTAG's good work is not implemented, the MCCC reserves the right to file corrective legislation to force this issue.  

In solidarity,
Joe LeBlanc
MCCC