Fed-up union fights for UMass contract

Posted by Walter Bird Jr.

Employees at University of Massachusetts Medical School say they have been working without a contract for more than a year and that's long enough. One week after UMass nurses took their own frustrations out in a picket outside the hospital, members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2616 on Thursday took a stance at the intersection of Plantation and Belmont streets, the sprawling medical campus in the background. Whether it works remains to be seen; while the nurses always have a strike as an option, these workers do not.

"This is the first time we've picketed," says Mike Higgins of Sterling. "It's the first time talks have shut down in, what, 40 years?"

Higgins is president of the UMass AFSCME Local union. Representatives from the union and hospital administration met about a week and a half ago, he says, to no avail. The main issue is benefits, which Higgins claims the hospital is trying to cut.

"We're trying to put pressure on them to tell them what they're doing is wrong," says Higgins, noting administrators have voted raises for themselves while simultaneously making sweeping layoffs and cuts to employee wages and benefits.

Asked about the work atmosphere while both AFSCME and nurses under the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) buck administration, Doug Winkfield of Southbridge pointed across the street to the Beechwood Hotel.

"Well, there was a manager taking pictures of us earlier, that's how it is," he says. "He drove by in a UMass truck and everything. I think it's kind of silly. Aren't we adults? Aren't we grown men?"

There was no giant, inflatable rat at this picket, unlike a week ago when the nurses aired their mounting frustrations. Some of them were out on Thursday in a show of solidarity with Local 2616. A couple firefighters were also on hand. Some of the signs being hoisted read: "UMass leads the way by taking our pay" and "Technology of tomorrow wages of yesterday."

Ellen Smith, co-chair of MNA University Campus as well as an Intensive Care Unite (ICU) nurse there, says she is holding out hope that an agreement will be struck. Wendy McGill, who works at both the University and Memorial campuses, says the possibility of a strike grows with each day.

"We're getting down to the nitty gritty," says McGill.

In the meantime, both Local 2616 and the MNA nurses are standing together. When the nurses picket again on Nov. 19, elsewhere in the state, AFSCME workers will be there.

"We support the other workers of UMass," says Smith. "The came out for us, we come out for them. We're all in this together."

Source: http://www.worcestermag.com/blogs/dailyworcesteria/Fed-up-union-fights-for-UMass-contract-179565141.html

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