The Professional Staff Union remains in negotiations with the UMass Board of Trustees over fair wages and working conditions, more than 16 months after their contract expired.
The PSU at the UMass Boston and Amherst campuses, which is affiliated with the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the National Education Association, has been bargaining with the UMass system since its previous contract expired in the summer of 2024.
“When Governor Healey came into office, she quickly arranged for a one-year contract … with a bunch of other public employee unions,” said Tom McClennan, president of the UMass Boston chapter of PSU. “There were relatively large, or at least decent, across-the-board increases in pay for one year. Then, with that one-year contract out of the way, we went back to the drawing board for the next three-year contract.”
“And that’s where we are today, still bargaining,” he said.
McClennan said the main issues in the negotiation process have come from disagreements over merit raises. Under this system, suggested by UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes, certain employees’ cost-of-living adjustments could be cut while a select few would receive raises based on performance.
“The way Amherst wants to distribute [payroll increase] is by making us compete against each other, and then taking from some people to give other people more,” McClennan said.
PSU is the only union at UMass Boston that has yet to settle a contract.
“They not only won’t entertain a meaningful path for their workers to grow with this university and to get paid more as we become better at our jobs—and as our value to the university increases—they also want to take away the bare minimum of money out of our pockets,” said PSU member Susan Patalano.
During a rally at UMass Amherst Nov. 13, PSU members said they would vote they have no confidence in Reyes’ leadership if the university could not settle a contract. The Amherst PSU chapter board passed this vote Nov. 7, with a membership-wide vote scheduled to take place in early December.
UMass Boston’s website states that negotiations with PSU have been “making steady progress,” and the goal is to “ensure the fair and consistent treatment of all university staff.” As of Oct. 20, 39 meetings have reportedly taken place, but McClennan said that number doesn’t necessarily reflect a concrete bargaining progress.
“There are very distinct differences between how we, the PSU, believe the university should be run and our role as employees and having a say in that, as a democratic and public institution,” he said. “If we have a meeting in the morning and a meeting in the afternoon, they count that as two meetings. In the past, that would have been one day of bargaining. The university has declared impasse by claiming, ‘well, we’ve met so many times with you, and we haven’t reached an agreement.’”
Patalano said the university has not meaningfully prepared to negotiate. “I’ve watched these bargaining sessions and watched our bargaining team come prepared to every single one with meaningful, thoughtful, substantive proposals,” Patalano said. “And I’ve watched management say, ‘We haven’t looked at it. We haven’t had the chance.’ And so I think that’s also something that’s a little bit disingenuous about the number.”
Through the process, the PSU still encourages unity among its members, with frequent meetings set in order to allow members to come together. They hope to reach an agreement with the university sooner rather than later.
“We’re a democratic union, we hope we work for a relatively democratic and public higher education institution,” McClennan said. “We share values, we share challenges, and we try to share the work.”
