Amherst picketing to continue Thursday, August 02, 2001
By Martin Luttrell (Worcester) Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER-- Graduate students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst brought their fight to unionize continuing education instructors to the university's board of trustees yesterday, even as representatives from the two sides prepare to sit down with a mediator to discuss the issue on Saturday.
Leo Maley, political advocate for the Graduate Employee Organization, briefly outlined the union's position at the board's meeting at the UMass Medical School. While there were no follow-up questions by the board, trustee Robert B. McCarthy of Watertown said that graduate students should be able to organize, and urged the university administration to reconsider its stance.
“These people are doing a service that is needed,” said Mr. McCarthy, the labor representative to the board. “They want a voice. Part of the collaboration (between the university and its faculty) is a union. The union movement is part of why we're sitting here.
“My biggest concern was when an out-of-state law firm was hired” to handle the GEO demands. “I'm not going to make a motion, but I ask the administration to reconsider its challenge to the union.”
While graduate students have been unionized for 10 years, the university has not recognized union coverage for instructors of continuing education, the union says, and has not discussed the issue during collective bargaining.
The university has argued that graduate students who are continuing education instructors are casual employees and not eligible to join the union. The university hired the law firm of Seyfarth & Shaw, which filed a brief with the state Labor Relations Commission opposing union coverage for continuing education instructors. No ruling has been made yet.
Members of the 2,500-strong GEO planned to continue picketing today in front of the university's continuing education department at the Amherst campus.
Graduate students make about $2,500 for teaching a continuing education course, compared with $5,500 or more for a regular course. And continuing education teachers receive no heath insurance, union members said yesterday.
In asking the board to extend union recognition, Mr. Maley pointed out that unionized faculty members receive union pay for teaching continuing education.
“In doing so, the board will demonstrate its goodwill toward the work force that teaches the majority of UMass-Amherst undergraduates,” he said. “Secondly, we call on the board to end a regrettable pattern of anti-union practices by the UMass administration in its dealing with graduate student employees. This includes the use of university funds to retain Seyfarth & Shaw, a notorious anti-union law firm.
“... The university administration's refusal to voluntarily recognize the union comes even though more than 80 percent of the continuing education instructors signed cards stating their desire to be represented by the United Auto Workers (with which the GEO is affiliated), and despite the overwhelming vote by the UMass-Boston instructors in the division of continuing education to join the faculty-staff union associated with the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
“You can recognize our union today. It is the right thing to do. It is also the expedient thing to do. The longer this unnecessary conflict drags on, the greater the public relations cost to the university. ... There is no need to wait for a labor commission ruling.”
University spokeswoman Kay Scanlon said that at the last negotiating session, the administration proposed a mediator to take up the continuing education issue. Despite initial reluctance by the union, it then agreed. The first mediation session is scheduled for Saturday, she said.
“This could be rectified today,” GEO member Pat Duffy said. “We don't want to drag out this fight.”
************************** James A.W. Shaw, President Local 2322, United Auto Workers Northampton, MA
413-584-4905 (phone) 413-584-6624 (fax) jamesawshaw at hotmail.com