To: Colleagues
From: Peter Hogan, Fitchburg State College
Subject: Day Bargaining
Date: September 2003

Dear Colleagues:

Day bargaining broke down on Thursday when the Council of Presidents and BHE told us that they would not provide any additional moneys to fund a one year contract. This was extremely annoying to the MSCA team because we had made it clear throughout negotiations that our members would not ratify a one year deal with a zero. Why we had to wait until mid September to get to this point is a mystery.

I am not a mind reader and cannot explain what is going on in the BHE/COP camp, but I am not favorably impressed. The employer proposed the one-year deal and then seemed uninterested in making it happen. They also had no Plan B. In contrast, I can tell you that the MSCA negotiators have been on the ball. We have worked long and hard to craft thorough proposals. We made time available throughout the summer to meet for bargaining. We have met with the employer at every available opportunity. We have been bargaining hard but realistically. We have been willing to change our proposal and have been creative in our economic offer to make a deal possible. We have left no stone unturned.

In our last proposal, we stripped most of our language changes related to work conditions and proposed transferring the professional development money to the base, and adding about 1% extra on top of that. This was an eminently reasonable offer that would give us one year's breathing space for very little cost to the colleges. We were very surprised that the COP would not even countenance putting the PD money on the base. No extra dollars are needed this year to do that. Rejection of this offer made it perfectly clear that there was no one year deal to be had, and there never had been.

What happens next? I suspect that the BHE and COP will be doing a lot of passing the buck (to explain why they will not pass us any bucks!) The BHE will tell us it cannot go to the legislature and the COP will plead poverty and argue that the state should be paying the bill. Of course, the BHE can go to the legislature and the COP can find the cash. It is just a matter of priorities.