UPDATE 11/9/23: As we approach 6,000 signatures on our petition, we want to thank MCCC’s supporters and offer a few updates:

1. On November 2, a delegation of community college faculty & staff led by MCCC Vice President Joe Nardoni delivered over 5,000 of those signatures to Governor Healey at the Statehouse. We were joined by several supportive students from Middlesex Community College for a lengthy discussion with the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Cecilia Ugarte Baldwin, emphasizing that the hard-working faculty & staff at our community colleges cannot wait any longer for equitable pay. Following our meeting in the Governor’s Office, the delegation spread throughout the Statehouse engaging with legislators to apprise them of the dire circumstances on our campuses resulting from systemic underfunding and unsustainably low salaries.
2. On Wednesday, November 8, the House of Representatives voted on the supplemental budget containing MCCC’s Day Unit Contract covering the period between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2023. We expect the Senate to vote imminently, and for the bill to reach the Governor’s desk by November 15. Please continue to contact your State Senators and thank them for their advocacy as we waited on the House to pass the supplemental budget, and urge them to pass it along to the Governor as soon as possible.
3. While funding for the previous contract appears to be on track, MCCC has not received a response from the Governor to the petition or our demand that community college faculty and staff be offered the same pay increases for this year received by the other public higher education unions. We need to keep the pressure on Governor Healey to do the right thing. You can help by reposting the image below to social media with the hashtag #fairpaymccc. Make sure to also tag the Governor on her accounts, @maura_healey and @massgovernor on X, @maura_healey and @massgovernor on Instagram, and Maura Healey on Facebook.
4. We’ve created a “linktree” where members and supporters can continue to find updates and media coverage about our fight for fair pay: https://bit.ly/m/fairpaymccc

Thank you again for your support,

Joe Nardoni - MCCC Vice President

UPDATE 10/12/23 12:00pm: Thank you to the nearly 2000 MCCC members and supporters who have signed our petition! Faculty and professional staff at our community colleges haven’t received a pay raise since July of 2020. Though MCCC ratified a successor agreement covering the 2021/22 and 2022/23 academic years back in February of this year, it still hasn’t been funded by the legislature— we haven’t even received our negotiated Covid-related hazard pay bonuses. Adding insult to injury, the Board of Higher Education’s bargaining team initially proposed a 2-year agreement so that MCCC could take advantage of better raises likely to be offered under Governor Healey. MCCC dropped important bargaining priorities to expedite a settlement. Indeed, Gov. Healey offered most public workers including the other Higher Education units an 8% pay increase-- but now the Governor’s office of Administration & Finance is saying MCCC is ineligible to receive 8% and that we must take Gov. Baker’s 2% increase for a third year. Faculty and professional staff at our community colleges can’t wait anymore for pay increases they should have received in 2021, and they can’t wait any longer to receive the 8% increase received by our counterparts in Higher Education. Governor Healey— please give faculty and professional staff at the Massachusetts community colleges the respect we deserve, RIGHT NOW!

Cherish our Community Colleges

Invest in the people who make them successful!

The community college system plays a vital role in ensuring that Massachusetts residents have access to higher education and career training. To maintain the quality of community colleges, it is imperative that the state immediately address the underfunding of community colleges reflected in the inadequate pay currently offered to faculty and staff.

We the undersigned demand that Gov. Maura Healey instruct the Office of Administration and Finance to offer no less than an 8% cost-of-living adjustment plus a $500 equity adjustment to full-time faculty and professional staff members represented by the Massachusetts Community College Council, plus act to provide commensurate salary adjustments to contingent faculty and part-time professional staff.

This action needs to occur immediately because:

·     As the cost of living continues to rise in Massachusetts, salaries at community colleges have eroded by more than 8% compared to their value three years ago. Many faculty and staff are leaving for better paying jobs. The MCCC has even received reports of faculty and staff who rely on their own campus food pantry because their salaries are so low, they cannot afford both childcare and food.

·     Massachusetts this year launched MassReconnect, providing cost-free access to community colleges for residents over the age of 25. We support an expansion of this program to all residents. However, community colleges are finding it impossible to hire and retain faculty and staff because of the low wages. Community college faculty in Massachusetts are paid 54.8 % less than community college faculty in California, the state with most comparable cost of living. Free community college means nothing if we can’t hire and retain the faculty and staff we need to serve our students.

·     This inability to attract and retain high quality staff has undermined the effort to build a more diverse teaching force across the community college system.

·     The staffing shortage is limiting programs available to students. One college had to turn away students from a nursing program because it lacked the full-time staff required to maintain professional accreditation.

·    The Massachusetts Legislature has access to more than $7 billion in reserve funds. Also, voters overwhelmingly approved passage of the Fair Share Amendment to generate approximately $2 billion annually for public transportation and public education—including public higher education.

·     Inflation is ongoing and happening right now; Our members are struggling to pay their bills right now; Our community colleges are losing faculty and staff right now.

To avoid deepening the crisis in our community colleges, we urge the governor to demonstrate leadership and act immediately.