January 24 and 25, 2023

Meeting Date: 01-24-2023

Attendance:

~50 Attendees

Meeting Minutes:

President’s report (Mike)
1. Work to Rule
  1. When is Work to Rule over?
  2. Yes, still on WTR, but need to decide when to end
  3. Big wins for some WTR asks
    1. Suzanne Buglione
      1. Gone as of 12/30/22
    2. BSSE
      1. Will not be dissolved
      2. New dean position will be posted soon
    3. Dean of Health Sciences and Nursing
      1. Position posted and search committee established
        
        Not filling associate dean position
        
        Internal search, and only nursing faculty can apply
    4. Search committee for VPAA
      1. No hiring firm is bing used
      2. Every area of the college represented
      3. Hiring date: end of April
      4. Look for all college forums
    5. Library staffing (Taunton)
      1. Search has begun
        
        Members should note that HR no longer booking interviews for search committees (chairs must do it)
        
        Statewide said college can decide what chairs of committees are doing
2. Communication with administration over cyber attack
  1. Good communication with union (Mike) in early days of network problems
  2. Member question: shouldn’t management be communicating with employees instead of chapter leaders?
  3. Discussions about semester start date for faculty
3. Divisive nature of discussions
  1. Pitting professional staff against faculty
  2. Management threatened to bring faculty in one week earlier to “help” with “student registration” and to prepare for their courses
  3. Executive committee fought back with language of the contract
  4. Management backed down
  5. Note: Professional staff should keep track of hours; let union leadership know if any pressure to work extra hours due to cyber attack
4. Delayed payment for adjuncts?
  1. Union is investigating
  2. As far as we know, all should receive first payment on time; let ex board know if you do not
Professional Staff Meetings with HR (JP)
1. Discussions about format and participation/representation
2. Union wants to include all prof staff/management wants only SSEM
3. Letter sent to Dr. Douglas with issues and what could be done about them
4. HR wants to discuss at next MACER meeting
Chapter Director (Tom)
1. Board of directors meeting
2. Ratification of new contract next week
3. Tentative agreement in place
4. Management and unit have 2 year tentative agreement because so many issues to negotiate; will work on them for the three year contract
  1. Feb 6 at 2 pm: chair of bargaining team will be at our meeting to explain agreement more fully
  2. Members should receive the agreement in the mail
  3. Included:
    1. Salary equivalent for faculty and professional staff
    2. Increments for years of service (15, 20, and 30)
    3. $1000 for covid for every employee
    4. 13% increase in salary
    5. Committee for distance learning
      1. Only 6 members
      2. Two FT faculty; two adjunct faculty; two from management
  4. Financial problems of Union
    1. Union coffers are low; need to encourage people to return to the union
    2. Keep eye out for political action; calling on new governor to prioritize
Work to rule: have many asks met already; not everything has to be perfect to go off work to rule
Grievance Report (Emily Brown)
1. Distance ed stipends 500 per modality still in the works
  1. Day heading to arbitration
  2. Still waiting for date for arbitration DCE
2. Other arbitration across the state that may come first and so resolved
3. Two members dismissed for no vaccine despite religious or health exemptions
  1. Waiting for arbitration
4. Workload in Heath sciences is a concern
  1. May be grievances
  2. Complaints about supervisor who said that vacations longer than two weeks will be scrutinized
5. Concerns about DCE payment; in touch with attorney general’s office about this issue; if people are paid we can withdraw
6. Tuesday: complaint that adjuncts not paid for attending day
Reassign time lowers office hours
Virtual union meeting
1. 1/25/23
2. 30 members in attendance
3. Same agenda as on opening day
Member questions and comments
1. Dean of health sciences: does it have to be an RN?
  1. Just the person who overseeing the nursing program needs to be a nurse for accreditation
  2. Dean has historically been from a number of other areas in health sciences
2. Cyber attack
3. Winter session: very poor communication; could use an emergency preparedness plan; also regroup and see what could be done better
4. Administration decided to start the semester a week later; some adjuncts have plans for after
5. Pay schedule—when will that happen?
  1. Hope to have first pay on Feb 3; should expect on that date unless hear other wise
  2. Beginning in spring of 2020, member received contract, completed work for ASL course; close to starting of class, it was cancelled; already done a lot of work to prepare; why are adjuncts not compensated for that time?
    1. Contract does not allow for any compensation unless course runs; maybe ask dean for flex start, might get a few more students to make the course run
6. New in contract: no grace period for cancelling classes; bargained away in new DCE contract
  1. Member comment: used to be compensated $250 if course cancelled
7. One member was not paid for winter session; should member expect a check? Maybe other people are having this trouble?
  1. Mike will research and get back to member
  2. Member has not been paid for giving comprehensive/comp exam in December
    1. Mike asked that member send info to him about not being paid so he can investigate
8. Members have trouble getting information about the union; maybe bring back the membership committee?
9. Critical that someone from DCE be on the bargaining team discussing distance education MOA
10. Member had jury duty, sent summons to administrative assistant; told take a sick day or prepare an online lesson; Mass law says compensation from employer for first three days of jury duty?
Mike will check with statewide on it