SHARE Executive Board Member Jameal Jackson & SHARE Rep Belinda O'Brien

Being in SHARE connects you to a very big community, one designed to take care of itself, almost 500 members at UMass Medical School, as well as 2700 members at UMass Memorial Hospital. Our strength comes from the stories and information we share.

Current SHARE member Dinea Williams, holding a SHARE yearbook photo of her mother, Dianne Williams, who voted in our union twenty years ago

Our strength also comes from the meals that we share. At our SHARE 20th Anniversary celebration at South Street, the cooks showed up in full force for a fantastic potluck lunch.

A Smorgasbord!

When it comes to feeding ourselves, we really know how to take care of business. Cheese and crackers with guava paste. Two kinds of homemade hummus. Tabouleh. Pulled pork. Meatballs. Rice and beans. Salads. Filipino roasted eggplant. Apple pie. Pumpkin Pie. Brownies. Cookies. Pretzel strawberry dessert. And so many more delicious homemade dishes appeared on the table at the event.

Site Specifics

When a thousand people showed up to eat together at SHARE’s 20th Anniversary Celebration on the University campus, that’s a certain kind of festivity. It demonstrates something about how big our union is. It shows how we welcome others in our community. And, really, with so many of us on that campus, why wouldn’t we host a giant shebang, complete with a ukelele and a congressman?

South Street, however, is a place for a big family meal. During that lunch hour, we had a holiday. We talked family, we talked work. Top tunes from 1997 played in the background. In that festive and familial setting, we even talked about our upcoming contract negotiations (and somehow completed surveys). Thank you to everyone who made it a special day. We’re looking forward to more.

More to Come

We’ve got a lot more to talk about before we sit down at the negotiating table with management. Kicking things off by remembering where we’ve been, sharing our home cooked recipes, and having good conversations about the things that matter most in our lives, that’s a strong beginning to the next chapter for SHARE members at South Street.