On Thursday, February 27, over 120 people from the Professional Staff Union (PSU) and the University Staff Association (USA) gathered at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Whitmore Administration Building to protest faculty working conditions and demand a new working contract.

PSU announced their ‘Stand With Us’ protest on their Instagram.

“Our union is our union. We are the union,” Hannah Bernhard, the UMass program manager for Student Success Communications and a PSU member, said.

After chants and testimonials, protesters would march into the Chancellor’s office “so that he, and his administration, cannot ignore us any longer. Our power will keep growing,” said Bernhard.

In previous months, labor unions have rallied and bargained with the university to meet their demands, ranging from more affordable childcare to providing liveable wages.

“So many of us are hungry, overworked at our UMass jobs, and are overworked at our second and third jobs just trying to survive to supplement our full-time state salary,” Bernhard said. “People are beginning to mass exodus. … Our working conditions [and] how we’re treated [reflect] the students’ living and learning conditions.”

Volunteers and PSU members handed out flyers that urged Chancellor Reyes to end delays at the contract bargaining table as well as to support fair wages and job security for staff and faculty. At the end of the flyer, attendees could write-in additional comments they may have. These flyers would then be handed directly to the Chancellor.

“If one of us [gives a flyer], it doesn’t really matter,” Santiago Vidales, Senior Academic Advisor at the College of Computer Sciences (CICS) and PSU member, said. “If all of us do it, then it’s a big deal.”

Silent bargaining representatives, organizing and bargaining members along with attendees stood at the entrance of Whitmore chanting: “What’s disgusting? Union busting. What’s appalling? Bosses stalling. What’s surprising? Worker’s rising.”

They continued, saying, “Exploitation ain’t the way, UMass workers deserve fair pay.”; “Who got the power? We got the power. What kind of power? Union power.”; “If we don’t get it, shut it down.”

Earlier in the week, PSU’s wage scale proposal was denied by university negotiators, according to Emelia Cooper, an academic advisor for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and member of PSU.

“We’re in dire need of crucial raises,” Cooper said. “People are working two or three jobs. People are putting off medical bills. They’re putting off health care bills, car payments, mortgages, having children because they can’t afford to work here. So we’re in dire need of these raises and the university just doesn’t see that yet.”

These proposals were developed in May, according to Cooper. Management did not acknowledge the proposal till September and did not continue the bargain for two months.

According to a statement from university spokesperson Melinda Rose, “The university respects the contract bargaining process and is continuing to bargain in good faith with our union partners.”

The Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP), USA, PSU, along with the UMass Faculty Union, and UMass Clerical Union are working to continue to collaborate and form coalitions towards a common goal.

“I think there’s a lot of avenues of communication that I think we have used, and that we’ll continue to use. We’ll talk to our local representatives as well,” Cooper said.

“Good arguments don’t win a contract at the bargaining table,” Vidales said. “You need to have union power, worker power on campus, flexing that muscle and making sure that the administration knows that we are in fact behind the proposals that our bargaining committee is proposing and that we’re backing them up in that.”

“Management does not want us all here together today,” Carley Paleologopoulos, an Assistant Director for Advising and Academic Initiatives, said. “Our chancellor may not wanna be here for good, but we want to be.”

Two by two, people walked into Whitmore, holding their flyers listing their personal comments for the Chancellor. Though the Chancellor was not in his office, Chief of Staff Michelle Goncalves was willing to take the flyers attendees had brought to the office.

“This is a step in escalation,” Vidales said. “We’ve rallied in front of Whitmore [and] at the student union, we’ve done leafleting at destination day with incoming students and parents. Today we’re going into the office so members can directly speak to the Chancellor, but like any other union, any other social movements, if this doesn’t work then we might need to take more militant strategies.”

“When we are treated poorly, the students suffer,” Bernhard said. “And that is the direct result and fault of management.”

The rally ended at 12:45 p.m.

Kalina Kornacki can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @KalinaKornacki.

Editor’s Note: This story was edited to accurately reflect any factual errors/misspellings.