On Wednesday, February 19th, SHARE held back-to-back half-hour meetings for members, at 12:00, 12:30, and 1:00. People dropped in on their lunch break. For those who were not able to attend, below are the agenda topics (numbered) and some of the things that came up in discussion (the bullets). Please let us know if you have any questions.

Next series of Member Meetings: Wednesday, March 19th beginning at 12pm

1. Survey about the next Contract

We discussed the completed survey participation from SHARE members. We talked about negotiation priorities as indicated by our members in the survey.

2. NIH Funding

We talked about what we think this means for our members
Discussed future job opportunities
Too early to worry? Maybe okay for this year?

3. Scholarship opportunities

Central Mass AFLCIO Scholarship applications available now
For more info- See blog post from February 21st

Contract Negotiations Update:

On Tuesday, March 11th, members of UMass Chan Labor Relations and management gathered with the SHARE Executive Board and SHARE organizers to begin negotiating our upcoming contract.
This first session was mainly introductory, involving a joint training on Interest Based Bargaining.
We have set a schedule for our next few sessions and will meet again on March 18th.
On the morning of negotiations, UMass Chan released a communication regarding budget cuts as they relate to possible NIH funding cuts. At negotiations, SHARE requested for UMass Chan to provide more information about these cuts, and what that will mean for our members. We hope to have a more in-depth conversation about this issue in upcoming negotiation sessions.

Useful links:

Current Contract: https://www.shareumms.org/contract
Join SHARE: https://www.shareumms.org/join-share