Dear Colleagues,

with yesterday’s General Membership meeting postponed to December 8, Gina Reis, Chair of the Educational Services Unit (ESU), and I traveled to the State House in Boston to participate in actions to protest the failure of the legislators to resolve the differences between their versions of the supplemental budget bill and to deliver it to the Governor to be signed into law.

Gina and I joined hundreds of other state workers who came to Beacon Hill, filling the visitor’s gallery of the room where the conference committee members were in an informal session —  many union members were still outside of the room once it was filled to capacity. Those who were in the room all stood up and marched out to indicate our displeasure that progress was not being made towards resolving the differences in the house and senate bills.

We met with Beth Kontos, President of AFT-MA, and other AFT-MA officers and members to visit the offices of several legislators to speak with them and their staff about the importance of passing the budget bill and getting these well-deserved salary increases to our members, increases that were agreed to in negotiations months ago.  Some of the other state worker unions had ratified their agreements last January, meaning that their members have been waiting nearly a year to see their raises.

After speaking with the legislators, we joined the rally outside the State House. Chants of “Do Your Job!”  and “Shame, Shame!” came from the assembled crowd as we heard from several union leaders about how the failure of the legislators to do their job was impacting not just current employees but also hurting retention and the recruitment of new workers into public service. 

People were angry that the salary increases are almost certainly not happening before January 2024. While state workers will eventually get the money that we are owed, people are upset that we are going into the holiday season and colder weather without the salary increases that we were promised.  We negotiated in good faith with the Administration and to see the legislature fail to honor these agreements is disheartening.  

Faculty Federation and ESU leadership will continue to advocate for these salary increases to happen as quickly as possible.  We ask that members please continue to contact their local legislators to implore them to work together to pass the supplemental budget bill in full.

In Solidarity!