March 12, 2005 Saturday

Legislature's failure to overturn veto of pay raises stuns community colleges

Erik Arvidson, Sentinel & Enterprise Statehouse Bureau

Faculty at community colleges said they were stunned and disappointed to learn they were not included in a measure approved by the Legislature Wednesday that set aside $29 million in retroactive pay raises for higher education employees. Lawmakers unanimously overrode Gov. Mitt Romney's veto of pay raises for thousands of clerical and staff workers at state colleges and universities, but let stand the governor's veto of $3.78 million for contracts covering community college faculty.

The raises were included in a supplemental spending plan which Romney signed on Feb. 24, when he vetoed the raises, saying the state was in a fiscal crisis when the contracts were negotiated.

"Everybody is in shock," said Yoav Elinevsky, president of the Mount Wachusett Community College Faculty Association. "Everybody expected the override to include money for us, but we were left out. We feel it's extremely unfair."

Elinevsky said it's "unheard of" in the business world that a bargaining unit would reach agreement on a contract with their employer, only to have it not funded. He said it's only equitable that community college faculty receive comparable raises with their state college and university peers.

"We're not teaching less. We teach five courses apiece. We're doing our part, " Elinevsky said.

The Massachusetts Community College Council, which includes about 2,000 faculty statewide, was seeking payment of its contract 'points' from 2003 through 2005. Faculty receive points that increase their pay based on seniority, a post-tenure evaluation, or after receiving a specialized degree.

The contract would have provided 0.8 percent to 1.2 percent point increases to the community college faculty.

Richard Dowd, president of the MCCC and a faculty member at Middlesex Community College in Lowell, said the contract was originally signed in April 2002 by the union and the Board of Higher Education.

However, after higher education contracts in Massachusetts are ratified, the governor must submit a appropriations bill to the Legislature to set aside the money. In late 2002, acting Gov. Jane Swift, who was leaving office the following January, did not sign off on the community college faculty contract with the state still in the middle of a fiscal crisis. Dowd said that the contracts for the other higher education unions were agreed to by the Swift administration earlier in the fiscal crisis when the deficit was not as large.

"We have to get this contract funded. Our members believe we have a signed contract with the commonwealth of Massachusetts," Dowd said.

On the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, House chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that Romney "correctly pointed out that there was no signed contract relative to community colleges," and that it would be illegal to fund them.

The Legislature approved funding the points for community college faculty last year, but Romney vetoed the raises in September. In his veto message, Romney noted that lawmakers rejected his spending proposals in the spending bill for items such as substance abuse services and environmental remediation in Boston.

The MCCC's executive committee is considering several measures to put pressure on the Romney administration, including a job action known as "work to rule," where faculty perform the minimum level of work required, but nothing extra.

In addition, the union is lobbying lawmakers to change the state's labor laws so that the governor is required to submit funding for all higher education within 30 days of being ratified.

Erik Arvidson's email address is earvidson@lowellsun.com.

Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg, Massachusetts)