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State college union to picket Board of Higher Ed

Members of the Massachusetts State College Association will picket the Board of Higher Education meeting, June 15, at Framingham State College "to protest the Board's insulting economic offer and its failure to advocate on our behalf," according to MSCA President Patricia Markunas.

The demonstration will begin at 8:30 a.m. in front of the McCarthy Campus Center; the BHE meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Markunas noted: "June 15 is exactly 351 days after the expiration date of our collective bargaining agreement with the Board and 624 days since our last comprehensive pay increase.

"Now, to add insult to injury, BHE negotiators made us an offer on June 7 -- their first offer after more than a year of bargaining -- for a three-year contract with raises that don't even begin to keep up with the rate of inflation.

"In fact," Markunas added, "if you add together and compound the BHE's salary offer for all three years, it barely exceeds the inflation rate for a single year."

Markunas and MSCA/Massachusetts Maritime Chapter President C.J. O'Donnell will address the Board.

Faculty at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy voted unanimously to oppose proposals by the school's administration to have it designated a "special mission" Vanguard College. The vote was taken June 8 on the Buzzard's Bay campus.

Markunas applauded the faculty for opposing "a scheme that could lead to the removal of the Academy from the ranks of the state colleges, and the removal of collective bargaining rights from the Academy faculty."

She expressed surprise that the school's president, Admiral Maurice Bresnahan, was supporting the proposal since, "previously, he has publicly stated his opposition to any special designation for the Academy."

Markunas stated, "The Admiral's reversal, as well as the current anti-union atmosphere caused by the Romney administration's continuing and emphatic anti-union actions, raise all sorts of red flags about the possible consequences -- and the true intent -- of the Mass. Maritime proposal."

 "The Mass. Maritime proposal, like the BHE's salary offer, is unacceptable," Markunas concluded. "The faculty and librarians -- and all who depend on the excellence of our state colleges -- deserve more from those entrusted with preserving and strengthening our system of public higher education."