Negotiation Session One:
On Friday March 13, SHARE and UMass Chan came together for the first session of negotiations for our next contract. Our current contract expires at 11:59pm on June 30th of this year.
SHARE Executive Board members and SHARE staff joined together with representatives from UMass Chan Human Resources, Employee and Labor Relations and management from various departments. This session was mostly introductory in nature. We discussed the bargaining format we would be using as a template for our negotiations, established ground rules and presented opening statements which outlined our members’ priorities. We will be meeting again on Tuesday, March 24th and will continue to meet approximately every other week going forward, until we have a tentative agreement with UMass Chan.
Contract Negotiations Basics:
The end result of contract negotiations is reaching a tentative agreement with management which we believe our members will benefit from. This agreement remains tentative until it has been reviewed and voted on by dues paying SHARE members. Once the tentative agreement is ratified, all necessary signatures will be gathered, and the contract will then be implemented.
If for some reason our membership does not ratify the tentative agreement with a majority “yes” vote, SHARE and the Executive Board will return to the bargaining table with UMass Chan until a satisfactory agreement is reached.
If you would like to be part of the voting process once a tentative agreement is reached, please ensure that you are a dues paying SHARE member. If you have not yet signed up, please CLICK HERE and make sure your vote counts!
Next Member Meeting:
During contract negotiations, it’s important to stay in touch with SHARE. Member meetings are a great way to connect with SHARE members and the negotiating team. Our next monthly member meeting will be held the day after our next negotiation session, Wednesday March 25th. We will be holding three half-hour meetings from 12pm to 1:30 over Zoom.
As you know from taking the contract survey, we have many thoughts and ideas about changing the current pay structure for SHARE members. We plan to use some of this next member meeting time as a “training” about what a Step Raise System is, and to answer any questions you may have.
We hope you can join us!
SHARE