We, UMass’s students, staff, faculty and community members, call on President Caret and the UMass Board of Trustees to honor all settled union contracts and pay all negotiated wage increases immediately.
We are staunch supporters of public higher education and of UMass. But at this time—when UMass received over $521,000,000 in state appropriations in 2014-2015 (which amounts to an over 8.5% increase from last year); when Governor Baker, former Governor Patrick and the Legislature have all stated that these funds should cover all negotiated raises; and when the UMass Board of Trustees approved a compensation package totaling $952,000 by 2018 for the President of UMass—the University should honor its contracts with all UMass employees and honor its promise to Massachusetts families not to raise tuition and fees.