MSCA/Salem Chapter Newsletter
December 10, 2001


President's Message - Paul F. McGee

Contract Funding
Quoting from an article in the December 6th Boston Globe: "The House used the first five hours of the day (December 5th) to approve a raft of mundane legislation - OK'ing union contracts and land transfers".

One of those union contracts funded was the MSCA contract. MUNDANE, please! This was a hard-fought, three-year exhaustive process to get a fair and equitable contract. Thanks are in order to the MTA Governmental Division, Nancy Harrington and other State College Presidents, Chancellor Judith Gill, BHE Chair Steve Tocco, MSCA consultants, MSCA President Pat Markunas, MSCA Vice President Frank Minasian, and other MSCA statewide leadership for their tireless efforts to secure funding. Members who contacted their legislators through phone calls, letters, emails, or postcards also deserve thanks. Our voice was heard on the hill.

Thanks should also go to Governor Jane Swift, Speaker of the House Tom Finneran and Senate President Tom Birmingham, who has long supported taking positive action on our contract. Members of the House and Senate, who unanimously voted to fund our contract, deserve a thank you.

The two questions I have been asked the most are...When? and How much? When? ...not sure, but Valentine's Day can be very expensive and we hope we will have our raise by then. How much? ...here is a review of the economics:

Part-time faculty members - 5% increase each year effective January 1, 2001 (for those in the unit teaching the Spring semester 2001), June 24, 2001 and June 30, 2002.

For full-time unit members and part-time unit members on annual salaries - with effect on January 1, 2001
a) general increase (base rate), 3%,
b) equity pool adjustment (base rate), 1%,
c) step equivalent for successful performance (base rate), 2%.

For tenured and tenure-track unit members, a signing incentive for post-tenure review (off-base), 2.5%.

Members will also receive on-base in-rank adjustments as follows:
· Professor/Senior Librarian - $2,000
· Associate Professor/Librarian - $1,200
· Assistant Professor/Associate Librarian - $500.

With effect on September 30, 2001 - a general increase of 3%, a step equivalent for successful performance .75%, both on-base. A merit pool bonus of 1.25% off-base, with a cap of $1,500 per member.

With effect on October 1, 2002 - a general increase of 2.5%, a step equivalent for successful performance .75%. A merit pool bonus of 1.75% off-base, with a cap of $2,500 per member.

During this past summer the College provided the following increases: 2% equity adjustment (on-base) and a 1% merit pool (off-base). Effective September 1, 2001 the College also conducted a review of all full-time unit members' salaries and made adjustments to comply with Article XIII-A minimum formula as adjusted by last year's Memorandum of Agreement. All base rates will operate to increase the minimum salary formula. As of September 30, 2001 and October 1, 2002 minimum salary reviews will be conducted as needed.

Promotions - with effect on August 26, 2001 - promotion increases will be added to salary. The increases will be the agreed upon formula or 5% of the unit member's salary, whichever is greater:
· to Professor/Senior Librarian - $3,672,
· to Associate Professor or Librarian - $3,294,
· to Assistant Professor or Associate Librarian - $2,970,
· to Assistant Librarian - $2,160.

Moving forward, these amounts will be adjusted based on the second and third base rate increases.

Chairs stipends - Will double to $1,500/per semester effective the date the agreement was ratified by the MSCA. Instruction workload reduction shall be calculated based on Fall staffing (currently, Spring semester).

Professional Development - (2001-2002 and 2002-2003). In each year 1½% of the state faculty/librarian payroll shall be available for professional development. Two-thirds of this money will distributed based on Article XIV. The remaining pool will be made available to members who apply to the AVP for funds that are needed for purposes of continuing scholarship. No member of the bargaining unit will be accorded, in the aggregate, more than $2,000 of professional development monies in any one year. One more reminder, please submit the proper form by the deadline.

I know that the above can be very confusing. To help with the calculation there is an Excel spreadsheet on the statewide homepage, www.mscaunion.org, and worksheets have been prepared and are available in the Chapter Office.

I am also familiar with the calculations and I would be happy to help you calculate your pay raise. Please stop by the Chapter Office, call first to make sure I'm there, and we can calculate your new rate of pay.

Bargaining continues on Distance Learning and intellectual property issues and in a short thirteen months, we gather again to bargain a new contract. Yeah!

On a negative note, many higher education contracts (APA, MSP/FSU, MSP/Lowell and the USA contract) did not come up for a vote in the House. The Senate did take action on the higher education contracts that the House refused to deal with. The Senate bill number is S2198.

Please keep in mind that these members sent postcards to their elected officials on our behalf. If you are communicating your thanks to House members, please remind them that all higher education signed contracts deserve to be funded. If you are communicating with your Senator, thank them for funding all the contracts.

FY '02 Budget
The health insurance percentage state employees pay for health insurance (15%) remains the same. But higher education did take a big hit in the budget. Operating funds, library support, and state financial aid to our students were dramatically reduced.

This reduction is further exacerbated by the lateness of the budget since the cuts have to be implemented, in total, in the second half of this fiscal year. Many feel higher education budgets for '03 and '04 are subject to substantial cuts as well.

More information will be provided as the numbers become available.

Appointment - Committee on Promotions
The Chapter Office received one nomination for the vacancy on the Committee on Promotions.

I will request the Chapter Secretary, Thomas Luddy, to cast a single vote for Tom Hallahan. We thank Tom for his willingness to serve on this very important college-wide committee.

Nominations Open for Assistant Director, Registrar Search Committee Two (2) unit members are needed to serve on the Search Committee for Assistant Director, Registrar. If you are interested in serving on this committee please submit your name to the Chapter Office, SB-205B or call extension 6920 by Wednesday, December 19th.

Holiday Wishes
On behalf of the officers of the Salem Chapter and the Chapter Secretary I extend our best wishes to you and your families for a happy, healthy, restful holiday break.

Come celebrate on Wednesday, December 12th . Join us for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the MLK Room, Ellison Center.