February 1, 2010

Dear MSCA members,

On January 21 MTA Higher Education Director Arthur Pippo, APA President Rick McDermott, MCCC President Joe LeBlanc and I, along with our MTA consultants, met with representatives from the Board of Higher Education (BHE) and from State and Community College management.

The meeting was held at the request of the BHE, the purpose of which was for the BHE to present to the MTA-affiliated unions representing employees at the State and Community Colleges the details of the Patrick administration's request to reopen the collective bargaining agreements that were settled and ratified last year, but that have not yet been funded. We were told that a meeting between the BHE and AFSCME representatives would be held in the near future. A meeting between the representatives of the UMass Board of Trustees (the UMass employees' employer of record) and the UMass unions was held on January 28.

The BHE presented us with a document at the meeting that we have posted on the MSCA website for members to see. It can be accessed via the MSCA homepage mscaunion.org, or by the direct link http://mscaunion.org/news/100128_BHE.pdf.

We have posted with this document a "clarification" document that clarifies some of the items in the BHE document based on the oral presentation at the meeting (http://mscaunion.org/news/100128.pdf).

Having received the proposal we put together another document that details the economic effects of the BHE's proposal, as presented and as we currently understand it (http://mscaunion.org/news/100128a.pdf).

At the meeting we provided to the BHE written questions that the MSCA Board of Directors needs answered in advance of making a decision regarding whether to reopen the day agreement. We await a written response at this time.

C. J. O'Donnell
MSCA President

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