Messages to the Membership-Pres. Pat Markunas: MSCA

November 27, 2007

Dear MSCA Faculty and Librarians:

As you know, Governor Patrick filed the funding bill for our contract earlier than required by law. It is attached to a supplemental budget bill (House 4382). The Legislature is in informal session right now and will act on this bill only if the leadership receives a message from legislators that action is required now.

Please contact your own local representative and convey the following message:

"Please fund the higher ed collective bargaining agreements in H4382 during the informal session this coming month. Our contracts are non-controversial items which the legislature has a legal obligation to fund. The contracts last for only one year. It would be unfair to make employees wait for raises that were bargained for in good faith. Please talk to the legislative leadership in the House and urge them to take action on our contracts before the end of the calendar year."

For the contact information for House members: http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenuh.htm

For additional/background information, please see the comments below from Arline Isaacson, our MTA consultant.

Thanks for your prompt action on this request.

Pat Markunas
MSCA President

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Talking Points on calls to legislators to fund higher ed collective bargaining agreements (H 4382):

Background:
The contracts were filed by the Governor ahead of the usual schedule. Rather than taking up to the permissible 45 days, the Governor filed the contracts with the legislature before Thanksgiving as part of a deficiency budget (H4382). The legislature's formal sessions for the year ended last week. For the remainder of the year, the legislature will hold only informal sessions. During informal sessions, the legislature does not act on controversial matters because issues taken up during this time period require unanimous consent to move forward.

Funding these contracts should fall into the category of non-controversial items that could appropriately be dealt with by the legislature during its informal sessions. While the legislature rarely passes money bills during informal sessions, these contracts should not be treated like other budget items, since the legislature must fund them and is not challenging the validity of these collective bargaining agreements.

It will increase the possibility of getting these contracts funded during the informal sessions if supportive legislators urge the legislative leadership of the House and Senate to act on the contracts before the holidays. If the contracts are not funded by the end of the calendar year, the Governor must resubmit them in January and the process for passing them will begin anew.


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