UPDATES

2024 State MSCA Officer Elections Page

Please review the 2024 MSCA Officer Elections page to view the days and times for the forums, which will run via Zoom, as well as the rules for the forum.

Office of President, Vice President and Treasurer Candidate Forum

Thursday 29 February 2024 from 6-7pm

Register here to attend this Candidate Forum

Office of Secretary Candidate Forum

Friday 23 February 2024 from 1-2pm

Register here to attend the MSCA Secretary Candidate Forum

2024 State MSCA Candidates

Please visit here for the 2024 State MSCA Candidates. You can visit each candidate’s personal folder with their information, including a personal statement.

DGCE Bargaining

The DGCE bargaining team met with management via zoom on November 15th. This was the first meeting where proposals were put on the table. 

The union submitted our first set of proposals designed to address pay and resource inequities in the DGCE contract. Many of our members do not even realize that you are likely making $1500 less (for the exact same course) just because you may be teaching it in the evening (or in some cases online). The union’s key proposal was meant to address this inequity by increasing the per credit stipend for DGCE so that it aligns with the Day contract and to ensure the continuation of that alignment by requiring the application of any salary adjustments negotiated in the Day contract to also be applied to the DGCE. In addition, the union offered proposals that would limit out-of-pocket costs to members for doing their jobs by requiring universities to provide computers and internet service for online teaching and to reimburse travel costs for those teaching or supervising at off-campus locations. 

Our next meeting is scheduled to take place on December 5, 2023 from 10:00-1:00. This session will take place in-person at Worcester State University. Silent bargaining representatives are welcome and can RSVP HERE. The union will have a number of proposals focused on ensuring integrity in our continuing education and graduate programs and management is expected to have proposals as well.


Day Contract Funding

The legislature ended their formal session on November 15 without having passed the supplemental budget that included the contracts of nearly 100 public sector unions. As such, the funds for our 8% salary increases, remain (for the time being) held up by this legislative process. It is unconscionable that what should be an easy last step in the processing of our salary adjustments has, once again, been delayed because our elected representatives have not done their jobs. Instead, our members are paying the price for legislative infighting and political posturing in the statehouse. 

Our union membership and leadership, along with the MTA and other public sector unions, have been busy working to push our representatives to DO THEIR JOBS and to get our contracts funded in time for salary increases to hit our paychecks by the holidays. 

Joint Committee on Higher Ed at BSU

Nearly fifty members, from three unions (MSCA, APA, and AFSCME), gathered at Bridgewater State University on Friday morning to ask the members of the Joint Committee on Higher Education what they were doing to get our contracts funded. 

Public Sector Union Members at the Statehouse

There was an amazing turnout at the rally on Monday with hundreds of angry public sector employees from MTA, NAGE, SEIU 509, AFSCME, MOSES, and AFTMA.. Members filled the House and Senate galleries to capacity with overflow. They visited every Senate and Rep office in the State House in under an hour, taking roll call of who was there working for the public and who had taken an early Thanksgiving holiday.  You can read coverage of the event in the Boston Globe and at the State House News.

  • Thousands of members across all unions have written or called their representatives to express their outrage at this failure and the expectation that our elected leaders need to come back and get this done!
  • The Council of Presidents also joined our efforts, sending their own letters to the Conference Committee, Senate President Spilka, and House Speaker Mariano. 

Thanks to your activism we are receiving lots of confirmation from legislators who support our asks. Twenty-four legislators signed on to a letter urging the Conference Committee to report out a bill that funds our contracts and others are reporting that they are pushing their leaders to address this issue.

But talk is cheap and we have heard promises for far too long. We need action! We are asking our members to keep up the pressure! If you have not yet done so, please reach out to your legislators and let them know that we expect them to get this done immediately! 

If you are interested in writing a letter to the editor or willing to help target key legislators in a social media campaign, please reach out to MSCA President, Maria Hegbloom.

EVENTS/WORKSHOPS

MTA Forum – Wrestling with Privacy: Surveillance Technologies in Education

On Tuesday, November 28th from 6:00-7:00, MTA will host a virtual forum featuring Dr. Allison Butler, a member of the Massachusetts Society of Professors, and Dr. Nolan Higdon, as they discuss the research from their forthcoming book Surveillance Education: Navigating the Conspicuous Absence of Privacy in Schools, which tackles the ubiquity and harm of surveillance technologies in K-12 and higher education. This will be an interactive session and will provide participants with lessons and ideas of how to push back against the encroachment of a surveillance culture in our education systems. Please RSVP.

Credit Counseling and Loan Forgiveness: Various dates and times, August – December

While we are often concerned with the debt our students are taking on, we also recognize that many of our members are still dealing with the debt they incurred as students. These training sessions provide guidance on how to handle debt while qualifying for loan forgiveness. For a list of dates and times, please follow the link to Sign up here