We, the undersigned Professional Staff Union members, call upon the University of Massachusetts’ President’s office and the administrations of the Boston and Amherst campuses to quickly move to settle a fair contract with our bargaining unit.

The University has signed agreements with other unions on both campuses, yet continues to insist on additional concessions from the professional staff: cost of living increases lower than other state employees will receive in order to fund more “merit,” a new power for supervisors to order professional staff members to have their fitness for work evaluated by university-paid doctors, and the elimination of internal candidate pools (the one small advantage we have in job searches) at UMass Amherst.

By signing this petition, we support the Professional Staff Union bargaining team in holding firm against these concessions and pledge that we will not vote to ratify a contract that:

· Offers professional staff employees a lower cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) than the 9% over 3 years that Governor Patrick approved for other state workers and that the university offered to other non-faculty unions on the Amherst and Boston campuses; and

· Contains “fitness-for-work” language giving the administration the right, whenever it wants to question a professional staff member’s physical or psychological “fitness for work,” to order them to see a health care provider employed by the university; and

· Eliminates internal hiring pools at UMass Amherst.

Further, we call upon the University administration to pay all salary increases negotiated with campus unions without imposing increases in student costs.