Contract Negotiations For State Educators Tense

After months of contract negotiations marked by regressive and hostile proposals from the state and college administrators, the faculty and staff represented by the Massachusetts Community Colleges will air their concerns on Tuesday, Dec. 8. The educators plan to make their statements at campuses across the Commonwealth and at the state Board of Higher Education meeting in Framingham.

“Community colleges are an integral part of the public higher education system, yet the employees who make the schools so successful find themselves under siege,” said Joe LeBlanc, president of the MCCC.

The MCCC is negotiating with the Board of Higher Education and campus administrators to reach a successor to the contract that expired on June 30. The contract covers 2,500 full- and part-time employees at the state’s 15 community colleges.

Throughout that day, members of the MCCC will be conducting informational pickets and demonstrations at community college campuses across the state.

At issue are proposals by the state to curtail professional judgment and to alter longstanding working conditions. The MCCC argues that the proposals that undermine academic freedom and strain the working conditions of faculty and professional staff will have negative impacts on students. The MCCC further advocates for the hiring of more full-time faculty members to lessen the reliance on adjunct faculty.  Approximately two-thirds of the courses at community colleges are taught by part-time instructors who have no responsibilities to the colleges beyond teaching.

Additionally, the state Board of Higher Education is coupling greater demands on employees with a financial package that is weaker in comparison to what was negotiated in other sectors of public higher education.

“These actions taken together show a lack of respect for the work that we do and the accomplishments that we achieve,” LeBlanc said. “Across the country, community colleges have never been more valued, yet in Massachusetts we are seeing community colleges stifled and neglected.”