Editor’s note: UMass Amherst is home to many unions, and in the spirit of solidarity and fostering a vibrant worker culture, we open our PSU pages to news from beyond PSU, as in this dispatch from our siblings in the University Staff Association. UMass works because unionized workers do!
Hello PSU! Thank you for lending the University Staff Association (USA) a corner of your newsletter. Members of our union and yours work closely together in many places on campus, supporting departments, students, and professors. While our roles on campus may be very different, USA and PSU members largely fill education roles in support of faculty and students. USA roles include your office managers, library assistants, UHS support staff, lab technicians, IT specialists, mail clerks, and many others.
USA and PSU members face many of the same challenges: heavy workloads due to understaffing, pay that does not keep up with either the cost of living or similar jobs in the private sector, and the increasing risk of having our positions privatized. Last year, PSU and USA rallied together when UMass privatized 120 positions in Advancement, which our unions’ leadership continues to fight today.
These shared struggles on campus have a direct impact on our lives outside of work. In a recent membership survey, 1/5 of USA members report working a second job to make ends meet, and a shocking 1/3 of our members reported experiencing some sort of food insecurity over the last year, either in skipping meals or reducing food servings because there simply wasn’t enough money for food. These numbers underscore the dire need for increased union power on campus, which can be gained through inter-union collaboration and solidarity.
Historically, PSU-B and AFSCME have had the same salary schedule and 14-step system as USA. However, we are working to change this in this round of bargaining our contract. USA, along with our co-unions, will be submitting a coalition proposal to change the current 14-year step system to a seven-year step system.
We have much to gain by building connections between our unions and building stronger, unified unions as we bargain at the table for what we deserve. We ask you to reach out to your USA coworkers to talk about your shared workplace issues and invite them to be USA Silent Bargaining Representatives! We’d love to count on the support of PSU, and we look forward to joining PSU’s fight.
In solidarity,
Your colleagues at the University Staff Association!
