UMass Amherst Professional Staff Union Blog

My name is JoAnne Martone, and I am the co-chair of the Amherst chapter of the Professional Staff Union of MTA. I have come to read a brief statement on behalf of our members.
Thank you for this opportunity to express our views. As you know, we believe that the Search Committee has a huge gap in representative stakeholders by including only faculty and students, and no staff, and so we truly appreciate this opportunity to give input.
We believe it is important that our next Chancellor has demonstrated a history of respect and equity for all workers on campus. This attitude can be demonstrated with the following requirements.
She or he should have direct experience with collective bargaining, and a clear and obvious respect for the process and for the contracts bargained.
She or he should support equity for all campus workers.
She or he should have a passion and support for the tenets of PHENOM:
Fund public higher education so it can serve the Commonwealth
Make higher education affordable
Make higher education accessible to all
Hire more teachers, researchers, and staff
Honor and expand democratic institutions of governance for public higher education
She or he should must show a true commitment and willingness to champion diversity and work toward the elimination of classism on campus.
She or he needs to proactively engage in a dialogue with Union Leadership, and be responsive to the needs of Staff, Faculty and Students.
Again, we thank you for this opportunity to express our needs.