Dear Brother Tolman,
On October 5, 2016, the Hampshire/Franklin Central Labor Council (HFCLC) and Western Massachusetts Jobs With Justice (WMJWJ) convened stake holders and other UMass Labor Center supporters in Amherst. Attendees emphasized the critical role the Labor Center has played in the recruitment, support, and education of leaders, educators, and advocates of working people everywhere. They formed the “Save the Labor Center” Joint Committee of HFCLC and WMJWJ and will meet again next Wednesday, October 12. We are sending you this email on behalf of the Joint Committee and its sponsoring organizations. The Joint Committee and nearly 5,000 supporters (who have signed the petition at http://bit.ly/SaveLaborCenter) demand the restoration of full-funding to the UMass Amherst Labor Center and the following (language added by the Committee to the petition is in italics): 1. Two years guaranteed GEO-eligible fully funded Research and/or Teaching Assistantships for full-time graduate students who need them. 2. Externship positions for graduate students who need them, so that the Labor Center can accept working-class and diverse students. 3. Centrally funded part-time faculty positions to deliver the full curriculum including Labor Law, Collective Bargaining, Labor Economics, and other key courses. 4. Centrally funded staff positions, at least one full-time, that are dedicated to the Labor Center, including at least one dedicated administrative staff member, in addition to current staffing levels. 5. Faculty governance of the Labor Center—not by the Sociology department or the Dean’s office—and the right of faculty to choose the next Director. 6. A commitment that the Labor Center is an integral part of the University’s educational mission, not just a profit center to subsidize other programs. The University’s budgetary model is simply inappropriate and wrong. All the above should be fully funded by the University, as a central part of its mission, going all the way back to its establishment as a Federal Land Grant university, to serve the working people of the Commonwealth. Convened by the Hampshire/Franklin Central Labor Council and Western Mass. Jobs with Justice, the over two dozen Labor Center allies and staff who met tonight agreed on some next steps:
1. Mass. AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman, UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, and Frank Callahan, President of the Mass. Building Trades Council (and Labor Studies alum) are hosting a meeting on Monday, October 17, 2-4pm, on the UMass Amherst campus, “to consider ways that the UMass administration, labor, and key stake holders can partner to strengthen the Labor Center so that it continues to play a leading role in advancing the cause of organized labor and Massachusetts workers for many years to come.” Steve invited 19 other stake holders; the Chancellor’s office will be inviting others. Steve said, “While we want to keep the meeting small enough to be productive, if you feel we have left important stake holders off our list I would welcome hearing your thoughts.” Some invitees were at the meeting. We looked over the list and felt that some other stake holders need to be invited: Jobs with justice and HAMPSHIRE/franklin central labor council to host Information meeting10/3/2016
Dear workers’ rights advocates,
As we hope you know by now, the UMass Amherst Labor Relations & Research Center is facing drastic cuts in funding for its students and in faculty and staff and loss of faculty governance. A comprehensive site for the background you need on this issue is http://savethelaborcenter.weebly.com/. We want to quote briefly from its front page: For over 50 years, the UMass Amherst Labor Center has been the premier graduate program in the country for union activists, leaders, staff, and those interested in potential careers in the labor movement to study the history, theory, legal framework, and best practices in this field in an academically rigorous manner. … As inequality increases, the content of a Labor Studies degree has never been more relevant. It is at the Labor Center that working people develop the intellectual and organizational tools to fight back against the forces that produce inequality, and to take back control of their own lives and communities. Cuts to the Labor Center threaten the ability of the program to provide that education to students in the future. The reaction to the cuts has been tremendous – thank you! – and now we hope to involve you in more than letter writing and petitioning. The Hampshire/Franklin Central Labor Council and Western Mass. Jobs with Justice invite you to an information and strategy meeting on Wednesday October 5 at 5:00pm, Bangs Lower Meeting Room (Lower Level), 70 Boltwood Walk, Amherst. (We couldn’t get a location on campus.) Please reply that you are coming to [email protected]. Also, if you are handicapped and can’t use the stairs. Unfortunately, the main elevator isn’t working, but it is still possible to access the room. Please include your need in your RSVP. In solidarity, Jon & Ron SAVE THE DATE: October 17, 2-4pm
I am pleased to invite you to join a meeting, co-hosted by UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, Frank Callahan, President of the Mass. Building Trades Council (and Labor Studies alum) and I, to consider ways that the UMass administration, labor, and key stake holders can partner to strengthen the Labor Center so that it continues to play a leading role in advancing the cause of organized labor and Massachusetts workers for many years to come. The meeting will take place on Monday, October 17, 2-4pm at the UMass Amherst campus. In the coming weeks we will be sending out an agenda and a location confirmation. Please rsvp to Mass. AFL-CIO Chief of Staff Lisa Gallatin at [email protected]. Below is a list of stakeholders I have invited; the Chancellor’s office will be extending invitations as well. While we want to keep the meeting small enough to be productive, if you feel we have left important stake holders off our list I would welcome hearing your thoughts. In Solidarity, Steven A. Tolman Ed Collins, UMass Trustee Tom Juravich, Professor, Interim Director, Labor Center Clare Hammonds, Professor of Practice, Labor Center Jasmine Kerrissey, Assistant Professor, Labor Center Michelle Budig, Professor, Sociology Dept. Chair MTA President and Mass. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Barbara Madeloni MSP President, Eve Weinbaum GEO/UAW President, Jocelyn Silverlight Adam Garfield, current student and staff of GEO/UAW Rudy Renaud, current student in ULA, SEIU staff David Minasian, Labor Center alum, UMass undergraduate alum, Carpenters staff Chrissy Lynch, ULA alum and Mass. AFL-CIO Political Director Rachael Running, Labor Center alum and Mass. AFL-CIO Communications Coordinator Jim Snow, Labor Center alum and former Regional Director AFL-CIO Karen Courtney, Labor Center alum, Executive Director, Foundation for Fair Contracting of Mass., and UMass Building Authority Fiore Grasetti, President, Pioneer Valley Labor Council Ron Patenaude, President Hampshire-Franklin Labor Council Brian Morrison, Berkshire Labor Council Richard Rogers, Greater Boston Labor Council and Labor Center alum Hampshire Gazette
Op-ED: Pat Greenfield, Dale Melcher and Harris Freeman: UMass Labor Center cuts a body blow September 15, 2016 We just celebrated Labor Day to honor the contributions of labor and working people. It is ironic and disappointing that at this time of year, the UMass Amherst administration has taken steps that will undermine the viability of its Labor Center, the Commonwealth’s signature graduate program committed to research, teaching and service on behalf of workers and the labor movement. The master’s degree offered by the Labor Center is unique, providing graduates with pathways to civic-minded careers advancing the rights of workers and their organizations, while tackling the intractable problems surrounding workplace inequality and low-wage work...read more. Labor Notes As UMass Higher-Ups Gut Labor Center, Students and Alums Speak Out September 15, 2016 Read more... SocialistWorker.org Gutting the UMass Labor Center By Ben Taylor, September 27, 2016 IF YOU set foot on the shady walkways of the University of Massachusetts' (UMass) flagship campus in the bucolic Pioneer Valley, you'd be forgiven if you thought that the school's money woes of the past few decades were a thing of the past...Read more. The following statement was issued by Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, UMass Amherst; President Steven Tolman, Massachusetts AFL-CIO; and President Francis Callahan, Massachusetts Building Trades Council:
After a productive meeting in Boston this week, we are united in reaffirming our commitment to support the vital work of the UMass Amherst Labor Center. For more than half a century, the center has been at the vanguard of preparing labor leaders in Massachusetts and throughout the country. We are resolved to work together to revitalize the Labor Center so that it maintains its status as one of the nation’s best in its field. A number of recent reports concerning the status of the Labor Center, both in print and online, have called into question the university’s commitment to Labor Studies and to the labor movement more generally. We want to jointly emphasize that the UMass administration continues to be deeply committed to the center’s important work. We are all committed to restoring the program’s vitality. We will cohost a meeting at the UMass Amherst campus in the coming weeks with key stake holders in the Labor Center to consider ways that the UMass administration, labor, and key stake holders can partner to strengthen the Labor Center so that it can continue to play a leading role in advancing the cause of organized labor and Massachusetts workers for many years to come. https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/joint-statement-umass-amherst-labor-center Boston Globe
Umass labor center loses director, some funding By Laura Krantz, Globe Staff, September 07, 2016 A nationally respected center for labor studies at UMass Amherst has lost its director, and the university removed some of its funding — putting the center’s future in apparent jeopardy while worrying alumni and union activists around the country. School administrators insist they support the center and have a plan to make it thrive. There are approximately 30 such centers nationwide, most of them at public universities, and the UMass program is known as one of the best...read more MassLive Former director says Labor Center in peril;UMass says otherwise By Diane Lederman | [email protected] on September 09, 2016 at 3:03 PM, updated September 09, 2016 at 6:48 PM AMHERST — When former University of Massachusetts Labor Center Director Eve Weinbaum was concerned about a $30,000 budget cut to the department, she sent an email to alumni and center supporters. She didn't expect the letter to take on a life of its own. "The email was for small group of supporters very involved with the Labor Center and know me personally," she said. But it got forwarded widely and reposted online...read more Daily Hampshire Gazette Umass Labor Center roiled by layoffs, budget battle By Chris Lindahl, Friday, September 9, 2016 AMHERST — Budget changes at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Labor Center have prompted faculty, students and allies to sound off against what they say is a siege by an administration eager to cut seemingly underperforming departments...read more Equal Time Radio Northeast’s Only Labor Studies Program Faces More Cuts Friday, September 9, 2016 Chris Brooks, a UMass-Amherst Labor Studies grad student and staffer at Labor Notes, joined by former program instructors, Dave Cohen and Judy Atkins, explain that the UMass Amherst administration has been cutting the Labor Center’s budget for many years. Chris, Dave and Judy talk about why Workers Education is so important. This is the Northeast’s only Labor Studies Program. The Center has been told to shrink the curriculum, to cut electives and to eliminate some required courses including Collective Bargaining and Contract Administration, Current Issues and Debates in Labor, and possibly Labor Law, among others in order to lay off faculty and cut costs. With cuts to student financial assistance, the Labor Center can no longer welcome all students, labor leaders, and rank-and-file activists regardless of class, race, nationality, or ability to pay. Administrators insist that they will only allow the Labor Studies Master’s degree program to continue to exist if it serves as a “revenue generator” to fund other parts of the University. Listen at: http://www.equaltimeradio.com/2016/northeast%E2%80%99s-only-labor-studies-program-faces-more-cuts In These Times The Fight to Save UMass Labor Center Is a Fight for Worker Power By Shaun Richman, Tuesday, SEP 13, 2016, 6:53 PM The Labor Center at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) at Amherst is in turmoil. Its director, Eve Weinbaum, says she was abruptly pushed out of the position. In an alarming e-mail to alumni, students and allies, she protested funding cuts to teaching assistants and part-time instructors and, more troublingly, threats to the “Labor Studies faculty’s autonomy to make programmatic decisions and to designate a Director.”...read more. Jacobin Defending Labor's School By Chris Brooks & Rebecca Givan, September 15, 2016 The Labor Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst is the flagship labor studies graduate program in the United States. Over the past five decades, nearly a thousand trade unionists have earned a master’s degree through the Labor Center, which is both academically rigorous and practically connected to the lives and experiences of the working class. Perhaps this is why the Labor Center is now under direct assault by UMass administrators...read more. Hampshire Gazette Op-ED: Pat Greenfield, Dale Melcher and Harris Freeman: UMass Labor Center cuts a body blow September 15, 2016 We just celebrated Labor Day to honor the contributions of labor and working people. It is ironic and disappointing that at this time of year, the UMass Amherst administration has taken steps that will undermine the viability of its Labor Center, the Commonwealth’s signature graduate program committed to research, teaching and service on behalf of workers and the labor movement. The master’s degree offered by the Labor Center is unique, providing graduates with pathways to civic-minded careers advancing the rights of workers and their organizations, while tackling the intractable problems surrounding workplace inequality and low-wage work...read more. Labor Notes As UMass Higher-Ups Gut Labor Center, Students and Alums Speak Out September 15, 2016 Read more... THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS issued a statement in support of the Labor center9/13/2016 Yesterday, UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy issued a public message in response to our calls to #SaveTheLaborCenter. In it, he accuses us of making “false claims” and refers to alleged “personal attacks” and “damage to the reputation of the university.”
As alumni of the UMass Labor Center, we challenge the administration to find anything false in our website, petition, or other communications. Is it false that student funding has been eliminated? Is it false that funding for part-time instructors who teach core courses has been eliminated? Is it false that the Center no longer has a full-time staff person? Is it false that the administration is forcing the Labor Center to either become a “revenue-generator” or eventually cease to exist? As far as “personal attacks” go, the administration must recognize that by undermining a program that we, UMass alumni, care so much about—and then publicly dismissing us as liars when we raise concerns—is indeed a personal attack on so many of us. And we agree fully that the administration’s own decisions are unfortunately damaging the university’s reputation. Please go to www.savethelaborcenter.com for the facts. And please sign and share our petition: http://bit.ly/SaveLaborCenter SEPTEMBER 12,2016 LETTER FROM CHANCELLOR SUBBASWAMY:
Dear Colleagues, On September 1st, the MSP Executive Committee endorsed and forwarded a message from the incoming MSP president regarding the funding of the Labor Center, the home of graduate programs in labor studies in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The message, addressed to many recipients outside UMass, falsely claimed that the Center is under attack from the administration and asked recipients to send protests to the provost, dean, and chair of the Sociology Department (the Center’s administrative home). Since then, we have received several hundred messages, some of them containing quite personal attacks on the recipients, resulting in damage to the reputation of the university. In the message pasted below from September 3rd, Dean John Hird responds to the false claims, and I forward it to you confirm the accuracy of his account and to offer my own commitment to the future of the Labor Center. Sincerely, Kumble Subbaswamy Chancellor ************************************************* From: "John A. Hird" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, September 3, 2016 at 7:51 AM To: SBS Faculty Listserv <[email protected]>, SBS Staff <[email protected]> Subject: supporting our Labor Center Dear Colleagues: Yesterday I began receiving numerous emails from outside the university expressing distress over reports that the UMass Amherst administration “has been cutting the Labor Center’s budget for many years” and plans “to eliminate funding for the Labor Center and Master’s degree program in Labor Studies.” Perhaps you have heard similar statements. I am writing to assure you of the administration’s support for the Labor Center. The narrative that the Center and its faculty are under attack is simply untrue. As we begin a new academic year, the Labor Center’s future is very bright and its programs enjoy the full support of the Sociology department (in which it is housed), the College, and the central administration. The program’s faculty have developed a plan to grow enrollments in its programs, and Tom Juravich has agreed to serve as the Center’s Interim Director. There is no threat to the Center and I have great confidence that Tom and the Labor/Sociology faculty will be able to rebuild the residential program. One of the great strengths of the residential program is its placement record, and I’d encourage students interested in good careers involving economic justice, working people, and the labor movement to give this program a close look. Although the residential MS program has struggled in recent years with falling enrollments, the limited-residency Master’s program (Union Leadership and Administration, taught winter and summer terms through CPE) has been thriving and is running a significant budget surplus. Last spring, the faculty collaborated with Michelle Budig, chair of Sociology, and me to develop a plan for rebuilding the residential program. Among other elements, that plan includes hiring a half-time staff member devoted to recruitment to the program, which we accomplished in May. The plan also includes bridge funding to support the residential program until enrollments rebound. The instructional support for the program is intact and now undergirded by the robust revenue from the limited residency program. The Labor Center has a long, distinguished history and has graduated many students who have gone on to admirable careers. We continue to honor that history, the Center’s dedicated faculty, and its many proud alumni by working with the faculty to restore the success of all the Center’s programs.Best wishes, and enjoy the long, Labor Day weekend. John |
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