CANDIDATES FOR MCCC OFFICERS
For President
Claudine Barnes
My name is Claudine Barnes and I ask for your vote to serve you as MCCC President. The MCCC will be entering a new, challenging era with the upcoming Janus decision and we need strong and knowledgeable leadership to guide the union with integrity, honesty, and transparency. We need to focus our energies on management, the state legislature, and the governor. Some ideas: engage in a membership drive and improve how we reach out to members; improve strategic action; make it easier for members to participate; outreach to each chapter; and continue to improve the working conditions and wages of part-time professional staff and faculty. The more unified we are, the greater success we will have in the future.
I have spent years in different union leadership roles in my CCCC chapter and at the state level fighting for all of our members. I take on challenges, listen, fight for fairness, and fight for what is right. I have led negotiating teams, improved wages and contract language for faculty and professional staff including the implementation of salary grids, served as MCCC Secretary, engaged in strategic action, and have vigorously enforced our Day and DCE contracts in my chapter and impact bargaining. I serve on the Board and Executive Committee, and Day Negotiations Team. I am a chapter president, have served on Day and DCE MACER, and understand how to bring union members together with trust and a strong commitment to ourselves and to our students. For our union, together.
For President
Margaret Wong
Twelve years ago, not yet tenured, believing in my union, and certain it was worth fighting for, I declared my candidacy for MCCC President. I did not prevail in 2006. However, undeterred, aware then, as I am now, that the good of the MCCC transcended my personal situation, I moved forward and became even more involved.
Today, tenured, vastly more educated about our union, I am again running for MCCC President. Armed with experience drawn from being Chapter President, working with Day and DCE grievances, serving on multiple bargaining teams, the MCCC Executive Committee, the MCCC BOD and MTA BOD, etc., I am ready and able to fight for the well-being, professional progress, and fair treatment of every individual served by the MCCC.
Right now fundamental differences of purpose among part-time and full time professional staff and faculty divide us. Competition for increasingly scarce resources has fully exposed and highlighted our differences. Our union is propelling toward the brink of permanent division at a time when destructive anti-union forces are threatening our very right to fight collectively for appropriate compensation and working conditions — when solidarity is more important than ever.
Fair-minded, experienced leadership is critical at this juncture. As MCCC president I will use the full measure of my union experience and expertise to address our internal challenges and the external threats to our union. For specifi cs go to mwong4mcccprez.org, where I lay out my platform and goals and invite feedback. I ask for your support and for your vote.
For Vice President
Rosemarie Freeland
I believe MCCC members want confident, thoughtful, and concerned leaders. I am Rosemarie Freeland. I am that leader. Respectfully, I ask for your vote for the office of Vice-President.
I am a trustworthy, dependable and clear headed Professional Staff member since 1999. My values and lived experience,combined with a GCC education (1991-1993) prepared me well for both my work with students and the MCCC. I cut my activism and advocacy teeth as a grassroots welfare rights organizer during the height of 1990’s welfare “reform.” The critical analysis and active deconstruction of oppressive systems absolutely informs my interest in MCCC Strategic Action leadership. SAC was intentionally included in MCCC organizational structure to better assert our collective MCCC voice at the public policy making table. The corporate-funded war against public sector union, in the form of Janus vs AFSCME is a reality that cannot be ignored by leadership or our membership. Facilitating and maximizing our collective potential as an influential, member-engaged union is my primary focus. I have breadth and depth of MCCC knowledge which encompasses all facets of our union: Day and DCE contract enforcement; demonstrated leadership at both my chapter and statewide; Professional Staff advocacy on the Day Negotiations Team and Salary Grid Committee. Our colleges continue to exploit the labor and good will of DCE faculty and part time Professional Staff and we must create a shared vision together to end the unequal distribution of academic and professional labor and the resources obtained in our names.
In solidarity.
For Treasurer
Georgiana Chevry
Unite for Equity.
Georgiana Chevry is seeking election as MCCC Treasurer. She is a higher education professional with 7 years’ experience overseeing budgets up to $3 million dollars, including private, state and federal funds. Additionally, she brings 14 years’s of experience collaborating with faculty, students, administrators, municipal and state entities and 8 years’s of affordable housing redevelopment skills to the MCCC Treasurer role. As the Coordinator of Internship Programs at Bunker Hill Community College, a professional staff role, she works to build the voice and collective power of community college students in the workforce through internship experiences. To maximize Bunker Hill’s Internship Program impact in response to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Georgiana partners with faculty, students, staff, employers, quasigovernment entities and other institutions to facilitate paid internships in healthcare, research, S.T.E.M., hospitality, culinary/pastry arts, performing arts and business. Lastly, Georgiana convenes her peers at MA public colleges and universities to leverage their limited collective resources and ideas to increase workforce development impact.
So what, right? Well, all this is to say that Georgiana has substantial experience negotiating competing needs and barriers with limited resources to get the job done.
As MCCC Treasurer, Georgiana welcomes the opportunity to work toward workload and pay equity for faculty and staff, full-timers and part-timers included. As MCCC Treasurer, Georgiana’s priorities in these changing economic times are: (1) Fiscal responsibility. (2) Pay equity. (3) Equity in workload. Vote for Georgiana Chevry on March 2, if her priorities are your priorities. Visit: https://gcmccctreasurer.wixsite.com/mysite
For Treasurer
Gail Guarino
Union Experience:
- 20+ years working at the Chapter and State level for the MCCC. I have been the chapter grievance officer for 20+ years, so I have an excellent working knowledge of the Day contract.
- Currently MCCC appointed Treasurer
- Served as my chapter’s President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and DCE Coordinator.
- MCCC Secretary for 4 years.
- MCCC Director
- MCCC Finance Committee for 10+ years
- MTA Annual Meeting for 15+ years
- NEA Representative Assembly Delegate 8 times
- NEA Higher Ed Conference Attendee Bargaining Experience:
- Member of two MCCC DCE Negotiating Teams. I served as the secretary for one of the teams.
- MCCC Personnel Committee Chair for 4 years. Successfully negotiated PCA contract.
- Appointed to new Day Negotiating Team
I would bring years of experience and service to the Treasurer’s job. Thank you for considering me for the Treasurer’s job.
For Secretary
DeAnna Putnam
Thank you for electing me in 2016 as an adjunct faculty member to serve as MCCC’s statewide Secretary. As a new, emergent leader within MCCC, I look forward to continuing in this capacity.
MCCC’s statewide leaders are responsible for the professional well being of thousands of faculty and professional staff. Candidates must not act based on personal ambition, but we must consider what our real talents and abilities are. Our members’ jobs depend on our honest self assessment and real ability to serve. It takes energy, savvy, and experience to deal with our contracts, the requirements of labor law, and daily battles with Management.I have considered all this in choosing to run for re-election.
When first elected, I had specific goals. Aside from keeping honest and accurate minutes, these included and still include, Equal-Pay-for-Equal-Work for adjuncts and evaluating our relationship with MTA. I also wanted to show my commitment to ALL members, both Day and DCE, not one unit over the other. I believe I have done that during a very rough period in MCCC history. I am not afraid of confronting Management, nor am I afraid to stand up to wrong doing within our union. I enjoy fighting for your best interests.
Hired to teach philosophy at BHCC in 2010, I served as BHCC’s DCE Grievance Rep and DCE MACER Chair, and I have served twice on the DCE Negotiating Team. I have seen how MCCC members demonstrate astonishing dedication to our community college students.
CANDIDATES FOR PART-TIME/ADJUNCT AT-LARGE DIRECTOR
Margaret Crowe
We Adjuncts teach 70% of our Community Colleges courses. We are the majority! It is important that we are a vocal and active part of the MCCC. I want to encourage my fellow Adjuncts to seek out agency fee payers among their colleagues and urge them to become full union members. The current political climate is bringing many forces to bear against us. Our solidarity is more critical than ever.
I support the decision to go on work-to-rule in response to the abhorrent decision of the GIC to limit insurance choices for state employees. However, it is also important that we stay on work-to-rule until there is a fair and equitable DCE contract, giving Adjuncts access to those same benefits. It is sometimes mooted that work-to-rule does not impact Adjuncts. As my fellow Adjuncts know,just because we are not contractually obligated to serve our colleges by sitting on committees, holding office hours, or writing letters of recommendation, does not mean that we do not actually do these things. Because we are first and foremost educators, who prioritize our students, management counts on their ability to exploit our commitment to our students to obtain woefully under-compensated labor. As long as DCE courses continue to be a “cash cow” for the colleges, they will have every motivation to hire more Adjuncts and reduce full time opportunities. This is in no one’s interest, but management’s.
As your At-Large Member of the Board, I will make sure that all our voices are heard.
Swan Gates
Currently no candidate statement from Swan Gates.
Carol Gray
I am currently serving as the Adjunct Faculty / Part-Time Professional Staff Director and I hope you will consider voting for me to serve another term. I began teaching at Greenfield Community College in 2007, teaching courses in Criminal Justice and later Political Science. I am part-time professional staff at Holyoke Community College where I have been a Professional Writing Tutor since 2015. My background before teaching was that I was a public defender. I’m currently working on a doctoral degree in Political Science at UConn.
I am passionate about equality in our union and in our colleges. As an adjunct, I know first hand the harsh reality of job insecurity, inequitable wages, and lack of benefits. I served on the bargaining team for Adjuncts/DCE from 2012- spring 2013, am a former co-chair of the statewide Adjuncts Committee, and am currently a zealous advocate for equality in my role as a MCCC Director. I believe pay equity and job security for adjunct faculty should be top priorities for our union. I have been concerned that our MCCC Board has not been as zealous as it should be for the rights of adjunct faculty. With contract negotiations going on right now and Management not budging on the issue of pay equity, we need the full support of all union members to try to push as hard as possible in bargaining.
I would be happy to hear from any part-time professional staff and adjunct faculty in our union about concerns you have. Please contact me at carolgray_2000@yahoo.com.
Linda Grochowalski
I’m running for the MCCC Board of Directors seat as Part-time/Adjunct Director. An active union member since 2002, I served 2 terms as my chapter’s VP, 12 years as DCE grievance coordinator, as state-wide and chapter adjunct representative, and as a charter-member of the Adjunct Committee (chair in 2016-2017).
As a member of two DCE Bargaining Teams, I helped the previous team gain the largest raise in recent memory; currently I am fighting for equal pay for equal work in the contract now being bargained. My focus is, and always has been, on our members—not my personal benefit—particularly to ensure part-time voices are heard in order to move toward full equitable treatment, respect, and a spirit of collegiality that will help our Union become stronger.
Fully committed to fighting for contingent faculty’s and professional staff’s rights, I helped rally faculty and staff at my campus to support the full vote for part-timers, and I served as chair of the DCE MACER committee on my campus, the first chapter state-wide to form one. Recognized as the second John Palmer Award winner, I believe that the best way to make positive change for contingent and professional staff is to work WITH, not against, all union constituencies,which I had done successfully for 6 previous terms on the Board.
I would appreciate the opportunity to continue to represent you as a strong thoughtful, and respected voice on the Board, to help bring healing instead of division. I welcome your vote. Thanks!