Labor Day Updates: Negotiations, Union Plus Scholarship, Survey Report & More
How SHARE & UMass Memorial Negotiate: Interest-Based Bargaining
SHARE and UMass Memorial’s Negotiations are now officially underway with training for the negotiating teams. Our union aims to avoid the unproductive tug-of-war that comes along with traditional negotiations. Instead, we use a method called “Interest-Based Bargaining,” or IBB. Last week, Brandeis professor Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld educated both the SHARE and UMass Memorial Negotiating Teams about how IBB works.
The strategies used in IBB can be useful for anyone to use in the day-to-day, too, negotiating things in your department and even at home.
In our experience, SHARE members get better outcomes as a result of IBB, partly because we can better focus on the things that matter most to members. During our last negotiations, the SHARE team used IBB to negotiate new career pathway programs, improvements to tuition assistance, and the ability for members to design their own work through expanded Unit Based Teams, among other things. (The 2022 agreement also secured a minimum 21% raise over 4 years for SHARE members, and maintained our Defined Benefit Pension and Health Insurance benefits.)
SHARE Member Awarded Union Plus Scholarship
Kayla Breault from the Patient Access Center has won a national Union Plus Scholarship. She is currently studying toward her business degree at MassBay while working to schedule patients for the appointments they need in our hospital. Kayla is studying for a future helping young people facing hardship to get a strong education themselves — and she wants fellow SHARE members to know this scholarship opportunity is open to them too. Applications for the next round are due January 31, 2027; see this entry in the SHARE blog for more about Kayla’s win, plus more details on this scholarship and other education opportunities.
SHARE Contract Survey #2: What You Told Us About Respect at Work
This spring, 1,456 SHARE members took our Respect Survey, telling us what it's really like to work at UMass Memorial. The results show that most of you find real purpose in your job and feel supported by your coworkers — but only 45% are satisfied with how much say you have in decisions that affect your work. Pay, respect, and staffing are the top reasons members think about leaving, while feeling respected and having a strong manager relationship are closely tied to staying. The full report also breaks down much more, including how disciplinary meetings are going and what having a voice through UBTs looks like.
A Bill for Healthcare Worker Safety Is One Step Away from the Governor's Desk
A bill (H.4767/S.3171) has been proposed in the state legislature that would require Massachusetts hospitals to run annual violence risk assessments, build real prevention and training programs, report incidents to the state every year, and give assaulted workers paid recovery leave. It's already passed both the House and Senate and is now in a conference committee working out the final language before it goes to the Governor. For SHARE members on the front lines — especially in ERs, inpatient units, and psych units where incidents happen most — this could mean real protections and paid time to recover, backed by a rare consensus between hospitals, nurses, and unions.
Welcome, Shanice!
The SHARE Organizing Team is happy to welcome Shanice Vassar, SHARE’s newest staff organizer. Shanice previously served as elected SHARE Representative, and worked at UMass Memorial for eight years, most recently as an MA in the Shrewsbury Family Medicine Clinic. She’s only in her second week at SHARE, but she’s already hard at work, learning about the nerdier technological aspects handled in the SHARE office and the broad range of things that SHARE Organizers do. She even filled her weekend with Labor Day activities. You can read Shanice’s account of the 2026 Central Massachusetts Labor Day Weekend Dinner here.
Labor Day 2026 & SHARE’s 30th Anniversary
SHARE Organizers also joined unions and workers’ rights groups from around Massachusetts at this year’s Boston Labor Day Parade.
Massachusetts obviously has a rich history, and the history of workers here is an important part of that. As the U.S. Department of Labor describes, our state was among the first to institute the holiday: “Oregon was the first to pass a law recognizing Labor Day, on February 21, 1887. During 1887, four more states – Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York – passed laws creating a Labor Day holiday.”
Massachusetts has actually been at the center of American labor organizing since the 1830s, when the "Lowell Mill Girls" formed one of the country's first unions of working women to protest wage cuts and dangerous conditions. That fight helped push Massachusetts to become the first state in the nation to limit working hours by law, setting a precedent that spread across the country. Decades later, the 1912 "Bread and Roses" strike in Lawrence brought together immigrant textile workers of dozens of nationalities and languages to win better pay and hours, proving that solidarity across difference is what makes a union strong.
In 1988, clerical and technical workers at Harvard University, primarily women, organized our sister union, HUCTW, after a patient, decade-long campaign, showing that even in the shadow of one of the world's most powerful institutions, workers who stick together can win a voice on the job. This month – as SHARE celebrates its own 30th anniversary and we prepare to negotiate another contract, we're standing in that same Massachusetts tradition of sticking together – making things better for ourselves and our community.
Interest-Based Bargaining: What It Is, and Why We Do It
Heading back to the bargaining table, SHARE and UMass Memorial will again use Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB), the same approach we used to build our Labor/Management Partnership, and the same approach we used in our past several negotiations. To learn more about our accomplishments in the last negotiations, click the button below.
The Orange Example
The principles of IBB can work in any kind of “negotiation.” For example, imagine two sisters are fighting over the last orange in the kitchen. Their mother, trying to be fair, cuts it exactly in half. Both girls walk away unhappy.
That's what happens with positional bargaining. Each girl stated a position — "I want the orange" — and the mother resolved it the only way positional bargaining knows how: split the difference. It looks fair. It satisfies no one.
If the mother had asked why each girl wanted the orange — gotten underneath the position to the actual interest — she'd have learned one daughter wanted to eat the fruit, and the other wanted the peel to zest into a cake. Their interests weren't actually in conflict at all. One girl could've had the whole peel, the other the whole fruit inside — each getting 100% of what she needed, instead of 50% of what she asked for.
That's interest-based bargaining in miniature:
Positions are what people say they want ("I want the orange").
Interests are what they actually need it for (to eat it / to bake with it).
A negotiation that trades only on positions tends to land on a compromise that shortchanges everybody.
A negotiation that surfaces interests first can sometimes find a solution where both sides get more than half — because the sides were never really competing over the same thing to begin with.
This lesson doesn't claim every negotiation hides a free win. Sometimes interests really do conflict and trade-offs are unavoidable. But you can't tell which situation you're in — a real either/or, or a hidden win-win — until you stop trading positions and ask why.
“Even when you’re negotiating across the table from managers and hospital leaders you deal with regularly, taking the time up front to establish a good process saves time, confusion, and frustration in the long run. ”
To help us all have a good base of knowledge, we’re getting trained again by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, a Brandeis professor and one of the country's leading scholars on labor-management partnerships — the same expert who has helped foster transformations like the Ford-UAW turnaround.
Although both negotiating teams have seasoned IBB negotiators on board, there are members of both teams, too, who are new to the process, and to contract negotiations altogether. For our first sessions SHARE’s Medical Center Negotiating Team is learning alongside SHARE’s Marlborough Hospital Negotiating team.
IBB Isn’t “Traditional” Negotiating
Most people picture contract negotiations as two sides sitting across a table, each holding a list of demands, and slowly trading concessions until someone blinks. That's traditional, or "positional," bargaining, as the example of the orange illustrates. It tends to produce winners, losers, and a lot of friction along the way. In the long run, bad blood can interfere with implementing the contract language and maintaining healthy working relationships.
Interest-based bargaining works differently. Instead of opening with fixed positions, both sides start by naming their underlying interests — the real needs behind the ask. A scheduling proposal isn't just "we want X shift pattern"; it's "we need predictability for parents on our units" or "we need enough coverage that nobody's forced into unsafe overtime." Once those interests are on the table, both sides brainstorm options together — jointly, out loud, before anyone commits to a solution — and test those options against everyone's stated interests rather than against who has more leverage.
Done well, IBB isn't about either side "giving in." It's a different philosophy of bargaining altogether: one built on information sharing, active listening, and joint problem-solving, aimed at agreements that actually hold up over time because both sides had a hand in shaping them — not just signing them.
Kayla Breault Wins Union Plus Scholarship
Kayla has already been named to the President's List for both Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Here she’s shown being inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year college students.
Kayla Breault, a SHARE member and Scheduling Agent in the Patient Access Center (PAC), was recently named a winner of the Union Plus Scholarship. The prize is a national award for union members and their families, including all SHARE members, who are working toward a degree. We’re glad for Kayla’s win . . . and we’re even more excited to know what she’s doing with her education, while at the same time helping patients in our hospital get the appointments they need.
While working at UMass Memorial, Kayla has been studying General Business at Massachusetts Bay Community College (MassBay), working remotely toward her Associate in Science degree. Kayla says she hopes to use her education to create opportunities for young people who grew up in circumstances similar to hers — especially kids who didn't have the support, stability, or resources they deserved.
“I’m so, so honored to be a recipient of the Union Plus Scholarship and incredibly grateful for the support and belief behind it,” Kayla says. “Continuing my education has meant so much to me, especially during a period when health issues and being out on medical leave have sometimes made it difficult to believe in myself or feel like I was still moving forward.”
How You Can Apply
The Union Plus Scholarship is open to SHARE members — as well as our spouses and dependent children — and it doesn't cost anything to apply. Here's what you need to know:
Who's eligible: Current or retired union members, and their spouses or dependent children, with at least one year of continuous union membership as of May 31.
What it takes: One teacher reference letter, plus two short essays (about 350 words each) — one on your relationship to unions and the labor movement, and one on overcoming a challenge or reflecting on something you're grateful for.
What it's worth: One-time awards ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 for fall enrollment, usable at any accredited U.S. college, university, community college, or trade/technical school — including graduate programs.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. EST, January 31, 2027.
Since 1991, the program has awarded more than $6.2 million to over 4,400 families — Kayla is proof that SHARE members are part of that story. You can find full details and the application at unionplus.org/benefits/education/union-plus-scholarships.
Keep Learning
Kayla's win is one of several education and scholarship opportunities available to SHARE members. Check out the SHARE blog to stay on top of what's open:
Congratulations, Kayla — we're proud to have you in the union, and we can't wait to see what’s next!
Report from the 2026 Central Mass AFL-CIO Labor Day Dinner
Shanice may be new to the SHARE Organizing Staff, but she’s hit the ground running. At the end of her first week on the job, she attended this year’s annual Mass AFL-CIO event, and drafted up this account of the evening . . .
(L-R) SHARE Organizers Walt Andrews and Elisabeth Szanto, together with Joseph and Candy Carlson, and the author of this summary of the evening, Shanice Vassar
September 4, 2026, was a rewarding evening as SHARE joined other unions in awarding scholarships to the children of union members in Worcester County pursuing higher education.
We had the opportunity to meet Worcester's Mayor, Joe Petty, a longtime supporter of organized labor since joining the City Council in 1997. State Auditor Diana DiZoglio shared her upbringing in Lawrence, MA where her mother worked as an LPN and influenced her support for working families and unions.
We also met Joseph Carlson, the retiring President of the Central MA AFL-CIO, whose Union Scholarship Program has grown from a single $500 award originally to having given away $245,000 in scholarships for union families across Worcester County. —Shanice Vassar, SHARE Organizer
For another glimpse of the event, check out this short video from State Auditor Diana DiZoglio as she describes the importance of unions, especially when it comes to fighting for women’s and children’s rights, important workplace protections, access to healthcare . . . and, of course, the weekend.
SHARE Updates: Negotiations, AFSCME Convention & More
Contract Negotiations Begin
SHARE is beginning negotiations with UMass Memorial Hospital. Thank you to everyone who participated in our contract surveys and who has been talking with SHARE leaders about our negotiating priorities.
What Happens in Contract Negotiations . . . and Why?
Negotiations are a key way for SHARE members to make a difference at work. If you're new to negotiating, you’re not alone. Many new SHARE members have joined our union since our last negotiations four years ago. We've prepared this guide to the Basics of Contract Negotiations, which covers the basics and answers common questions.
What Is Being Negotiated?
We'll have a lot to cover at the table, including the next round of raises. In addition to the “Main Negotiating Table,” we've set up three Side Tables where SHARE and UMass Memorial leaders will dig into more complex specific issues:
Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies
Problem Solving and Disciplinary Procedures
Fair process for mergers and moving departments around within the UMMH system — Milford and Harrington Hospitals, the recent incorporation of Marlborough Hospital into the Medical Center, and clinics moving locations have all created new roles for SHARE members. This table will work toward a more predictable, fair process for handling changes like these going forward.
How Does SHARE Negotiate?
Our union negotiates with UMass Memorial using a version of “Interest-Based Bargaining,” or IBB. Some members of both teams have negotiated this way before, but not everyone — so we'll start with both sides learning the process together. The trainings will be led by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, an expert from Brandeis University who has facilitated our negotiations before (as well as many other labor-management negotiations, including at Kaiser Permanente and Ford-UAW). The idea behind IBB: instead of opening with demands, each side talks through its interests and perspective first. That usually surfaces things both sides already agree on, making some improvements easy; for the things we don't agree on, understanding each other’s position can help to close the gap.
Why now?
Our contract expires at the end of September. Negotiations are starting a bit later in the contract cycle than usual, since the hospital's Labor Relations department has been short-staffed — but we think it's worth it: we're negotiating with people we know and have a working relationship with, rather than starting sooner with outside lawyer who'd need time just to get-up-to-speed on about UMass Memorial and about the SHARE and how we resolve issues together.
How You Can Participate
You don't have to be on the Executive Board to have a voice in negotiations. SHARE leaders talk continuously with members about what issues matter most, and will keep you informed as negotiations move forward. Talk to your SHARE Rep, come to informational meetings, and keep your eyes peeled for email updates. As negotiations progress, we’re likely to recognize new opportunities. We’ll announce ways to participate and show your support for the negotiating team. The more members get involved, the stronger SHARE's position is at the table.
SHARE Career Survey Results
Thank you to the 1,358 SHARE members who filled out our first contract survey this spring! The results are clear: we love our jobs, and we want to grow. 83% of us want to still be at UMass Memorial three years from now, and more than half want to learn something new or move into a different role here — but less than half of SHARE members currently know where to get help thinking through that path.
Learn more regarding what SHARE members say they care about in the Career Survey Report.
AFSCME Convention & New International President
SHARE’s elected Officers traveled together with members of SHARE's Organizing Staff to this year's AFSCME International Convention in Chicago. (AFSCME is our parent organization — our union is also known as AFSCME Local 3900.)
SHARE’s leadership was glad to endorse and vote for Patrick Moran as AFSCME's new International President, succeeding Lee Saunders, who had served as President since 2012.
Above: SHARE’s elected officers and organizing staff at the AFSCME convention, pictured together with leaders from our sister unions at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard University. AFSCME put the spotlight on HUCTW (the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers) in this video about the importance of our unions — in having a say at work, creating meaning and happiness in the jobs that we do, protecting jobs when things get tough, and shaping the broader communities where we live and work.
Patrick Moran, the incoming AFSCME International President is pictured here (center rear, in sport coat and glasses) with SHARE Organizers and staff from the SHARE UMass Memorial Partnership Office, during a visit to our union earlier this Summer. You may recognize Patrick from SHARE’s own UBT Fair on the University Campus. Patrick learned firsthand about SHARE's unique approach to involving members in everyday workplace decisions. He made an address to the crowd at our UBT Fair to describe how impressed he was at our innovative approaches to involving SHARE members in leading improvements.
Bee Award Winner
Congratulations to Gabriel Addow of 3 East on winning a BEE Award! The BEE award in hospitals honors and celebrates non-nursing support staff and clinical team members who provide extraordinary teamwork and patient care.
Gabriel is pictured here with Kona Enders, SHARE Organizer who previously worked for many years Patient Care Technician also. SHARE is very grateful for the important and honorable work that our members do on the hospital’s nursing floors.
Bone Marrow Transplant UBT Dramatically Reduces Safety Events
The Unit Based Team in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit has undertaken a highly successful quality improvement initiative in the BMT clinic. Their work has already resulted in a whopping 82% reduction in bone marrow biopsy-related safety events. Fantastic job, team! Read more about their successful project here.
UMass Memorial Dependent Verification Audit — Act by September 25
If you're enrolled in a UMass Memorial medical, dental, or vision plan and have dependents on your coverage, please be sure to follow up communications from Willis Towers Watson (WTW), the hospital's verification partner. This process is being handled by the outside vendor to ensure confidentiality. The hospital only wants to pay for coverage for legally eligible dependents.
SHARE wants you to know that this is a requirement, even though we recognize it may also be a difficulty for you. You must submit documentation proving your dependents' eligibility by September 25 to keep them covered in 2027 — dependents without complete documentation submitted during this window will be removed from coverage effective January 1, 2027 for the 2027 year. Questions? Contact WTW's Dependent Verification Center at 877-818-6827, Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm (EST).
Med Moth — A Storytelling Event
Tuesday, October 13th at 5:30 PM in the Albert Sherman Center Multi-Purpose Room (Cafeteria).
Med Moth is an event based on The Moth Story Hour, where members of the UMass Chan and UMass Memorial community, including SHARE members, can share stories for 5–10 minutes each. This year, we'll also be welcoming live music, poetry, visual art, and other forms of expression. Past talks have explored speakers' journeys into medicine, meaningful patient encounters, and other experiences that shape personal or professional identity in health care. Some have been humorous and others more serious.
They are looking for speakers too! Those interested in sharing a story can contact the event organizers, Mariam Tolba (mariam.tolba@umassmed.edu) or Maddie Mulkern (madeline.mulkern2@umassmed.edu), for more information.
Bone Marrow Transplant UBT Dramatically Reduces Safety Events
The 7th floor ACC Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (BMTU) Unit Based Team (UBT) project to improve specimen labeling has already resulted in a significant reduction in bone marrow biopsy-related safety events — from 11 in 2025 to 2 in a comparable span of 2026 — an 82% reduction!
Working together with ACC 5th floor Oncology Clinic, the BMT UBT has been refining this project since February 2025, using safety huddles, event debriefs, focused education, visual cues, and a strengthened procedural timeout to address the problem. The UBT developed a “timeout” that now includes verification that all specimen slides have accurate, complete, and legible patient identifiers before proceeding.
The project was recently recognized at the UMass Memorial Medical Center-wide Safety Briefing. This project gives SHARE members and their co-workers the confidence to know that they’re giving the best patient care possible. SHARE UBT Co-Sponsor Kellie Morton points out that “This new process gives these Medical Assistants added confidence in their skills, which enhances the wonderful care they give.”
Now a full-time SHARE Organizer, Kellie’s own previous experience in the Cancer Clinic keeps her focused on what matters most: “This project was especially important for our patients. This new process has helped to make sure these procedures do not have to be repeated, which causes added stress for patients . . . and staff!”
Tell SHARE What You Want
Last call: if you haven’t yet completed the third and final survey for the SHARE negotiating team, please do so now. We need to know what you care about at work. SHARE has had thousands of conversations and survey responses so far, but every single SHARE member needs to be heard.
This survey is completely confidential and only takes a few minutes to complete. It will close at 7 am on Monday, July 20. Please encourage your SHARE co-workers to take the survey as well. Thank you!
Why This Survey Matters
As SHARE members, we bring different experiences, concerns, and priorities to our work at UMass Memorial. Most of us have a strong interest in wages. Many of us are also concerned about staffing, scheduling, benefits, workplace safety, workload, opportunities for professional growth, or other issues entirely.
That is exactly why it is so important that every member completes the bargaining survey.
The SHARE negotiating team cannot assume what matters most to you. The strongest contract proposals come directly from the people doing the work every day. When members take the time to share their priorities, it helps our bargaining team understand what issues deserve the greatest attention at the negotiating table.
The more members who participate, the stronger our voice becomes.
Why We Are Also Asking About Artificial Intelligence
One area that deserves special attention is the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI).
UMass Memorial already uses a variety of AI-powered tools. At the same time, Epic is also rapidly expanding the use of generative AI and "agentic" AI systems. These “agents” can increasingly perform tasks, coordinate workflows, communicate with patients, assist with documentation, and automate administrative processes.
Some SHARE members say they are already benefiting from these tools. But AI also raises important questions for us, the people who provide patients’ care.
As AI tools become more capable, they may affect workloads, job duties, staffing decisions, training requirements, performance expectations, and the way professional judgment is exercised. New technologies should support healthcare workers—not replace our expertise, reduce staffing levels, or make decisions without appropriate human oversight.
That is why SHARE wants to hear directly from members now.
We believe workers should have a voice in how AI is introduced and used in our workplace. We want to understand your concerns, your expectations, and your ideas. We want to know what protections, training, transparency, and member involvement you believe should accompany the use of AI at UMass Memorial.
Complete the Survey
No one knows your work better than you do.
Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Your feedback will help ensure that SHARE's bargaining priorities reflect the voices of the members we represent—and help us prepare for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
These contract negotiations are very important for our future. Make your voice heard.
SHARE Updates: 2026-27 Representative List, MA Apprenticeships & More . . .
2026-27 SHARE Elected Executive Board & Representatives
Congratulations to all of SHARE’s newly elected leaders!
Participating makes our union strong. We’re excited for the commitment of this year’s elected leaders, and grateful for the many members who nominated and voted. Thank you!
SHARE’s Executive Board (or EBoard) makes steering decisions on behalf of our union and will serve as the core of the SHARE Negotiating Team for our upcoming contract negotiations with the hospital. SHARE Representatives perform many duties for our union, but none more important than helping keep us all linked together. If you haven’t yet met a SHARE Rep who works near you, we encourage you to reach out to them with your thoughts and questions, or just to introduce yourself. Knowing one another is what makes our union strong
Click the button below for the current list of SHARE Executive Board Members and SHARE Representatives.
Cooking Out This 4th of July?
Enjoy a Union-Made in America Barbecue!
MA Apprenticeship Program
It’s Not Too Late: SHARE Survey #3
One more reminder: we want your feedback. Your input helps our negotiating team understand what matters most to you at work. We also seek to learn about your experiences and views on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your workplace. Make your voice heard today!
SURVEY! SURVEY! SURVEY!
Tired of taking surveys? We get it. However, if you haven’t already completed the final survey in SHARE’s series of three, we hope you’ve got energy for just one more. It’s important.
The survey is anonymous. It takes about 10 minutes. You can do it on a computer or your phone. We know that many of you completed the first two SHARE surveys, as well as UMass Memorial’s current “Pulse Survey.” That participation matters. Thank you!
Artificial Intelligence Can Be Weirdly Funny
Speaking of AI, if you’re going to use it, you need time, training, and expertise to do it well. (And even then, AI can be wrong, of course.) We all know that SHARE members know our jobs better than anyone, and that you can’t just plug expertise into a computer and expect good results.
That’s why SHARE is researching the future of work and partnering with experts at leading institutions, especially MIT, to develop effective strategies for determining when to implement new technologies, and how to do it well. These strategies put SHARE members in the driver’s seat.
In case you missed it, you can read more about that work here.
And, for your enjoyment, here are a couple of demonstrations of AI gone wrong . . .
Comic Draft #1: Pickle with a Mohawk Takes an Online Survey
We asked AI to draw a funny comic strip about “survey fatigue.” We can’t explain why it didn’t include any pictures. But here’s the result!
Comic Draft #2: Pickle with a Mohawk Experiences Survey Fatigue
. . . so, we asked AI to include some images in a watercolor style. Behold the comic genius!
SHARE Updates: New Survey & PCT Pathways Program
Survey #3: AI, Money, and Our Priorities
SHARE is now launching the third and final survey in a series that helps us to prepare for the upcoming 2026 contract negotiations. We want every member’s voice included. This survey focuses on key issues, including pay and raises, staffing, job security, and how new technology and artificial intelligence may affect our jobs. Together with the earlier Career Survey and the Respect in the Workplace Survey — as well as the many conversations we’ve been having across departments — this survey helps the SHARE Negotiating Team develop our negotiating priorities.
The survey is anonymous. It takes about 10 minutes. You can do it on a computer or your phone. By taking a few minutes to fill it out, you help SHARE’s Negotiating Team to shape the bargaining agenda and highlight the issues that matter most to you.
Patient Care Technician Pathway Program
SHARE and UMass Memorial are excited to announce a new cohort of the Patient Care Technician (PCT) Pathway Program, a great opportunity for union members and their families to start or grow a career in healthcare. This paid, “earn-and-learn” program lets you build new skills while earning a paycheck, with a clear path into a PCT role at UMass Memorial. Members who completed earlier programs have already shown strong success—graduates of the PCA Pathway moved straight into patient care jobs and are now working on the floors and caring for patients. For more details, see the flyer below . . .
SHARE Updates: Awards, UBT Fairs, AI & More
2026 UMass Memorial System-Wide Innovators of the Year
SHARE was well represented at this year’s Innovator of the Year Awards, with several SHARE Unit Based Teams nominated, and a few winners, including the Hand Clinic UBT, which garnered the prize for 2026 Idea Winner
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work
If you watched UMass Memorial’s presentation of this year’s Innovator of the Year Awards, you know that our hospital CEO Eric Dickson concluded that celebration with several remarks about Artificial Intelligence, and even described that UBTs have begun using AI in their meetings to solve problems. SHARE is having many conversations among our members — and with academics and labor leaders around the country — to understand the role of these new technologies, and the opportunities and risks that come with them.
One key aspect of this work is a partnership with a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working together to design a playbook for worker-driven implementation of AI tools. Learn more about SHARE and AI in this blog post.
2026 Bee Award Goes to Evan Zanauskas
SHARE is excited for Evan Zanauskas, a PCT II working on 4 East, who is the recipient of the most recent UMass Memorial Bee Award. Evan is the first graduate of the PCT Pathway Program to receive this distinction. The Pathway Program has been a great success, and we expect to see more Pathway opportunities on the way. Congratulations, Evan!
Last Call for Responses to SHARE’s “Respect in the Workplace” Survey
As we prepare for Contract Negotiations this Summer, SHARE wants to understand your perspective and know what matters to you, if you haven’t yet completed the Respect in the Workplace Survey, please do so now.
This is the second in a series of three surveys. The final survey, relating to top priorities and Artificial Intelligence, is coming soon.
2026 UBT Fairs Off to a Great Start
The SHARE-UMass Memorial Partnership Office recently hosted UBT Fairs at the University and Memorial Campuses. Roughly 1500 participants have come to the Fairs to celebrate the ways that SHARE members are making their work better through Unit Based Teams. SHARE members compared notes about how to use each others’ ideas in their own departments. Several guests came from afar and remarked about the importance of this unique work that SHARE members are doing, including healthcare leaders from around the country, leaders from our parent union at AFSCME International, and researchers from MIT, not to mention leaders from our own hospital system, many of whom got caught up with the rest of us, singing a rousing song about UBTs to the tune of Abba’s “Dancing Queen.”
Mark your calendars: the next UBT Fair will be at the Hahnemann Campus in the main lobby from noon-1pm on Wednesday, May 20.
Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work
SHARE recognizes that work is changing with the rapid development of new technologies — especially Artificial Intelligence, or AI. SHARE members are already seeing AI incorporated into aspects of our work, as it is integrated into the software systems we use every day.
Using AI as a tool has helped SHARE members keep information usefully organized at their fingertips, making some aspects of our work easier and more efficient. At the same time, some SHARE members also say that their work has become more stressful, as AI takes over the easier aspects of their jobs, requiring members to hit the same productivity goals, while dealing with increasingly complex problems.
Our union is working to keep SHARE members in the driver’s seat with these new tools. Here are a few ways:
SHARE Partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT faculty member Zana talks with SHARE Executive Board member Annette and SHARE Organizer Kirk about new workplace technologies
SHARE is working directly with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and UMass Memorial to test ways that SHARE members can shape AI tools and how they are implemented. The MIT research group brings together experts from a range of technical and social science backgrounds who can help us. They have secured some grant money that pays them to work with us, and have applied for a more substantial grant that would allow us to work together to create a “Work Redesign Playbook.”
The MIT Sloan AI Work Redesign Playbook is a research project focused on making sure workers have a real voice in how AI is introduced on the job. It studies how AI can help people focus on more meaningful work—but also recognizes risks like burnout, job pressure, and job loss if workers are left out of decisions. For SHARE members, this project offers a chance to make sure new technology works for us, not against us, by using technology to help us be able to put our focus on the most important parts of taking care of our patients and our hospital. Learn more here.
SHARE Researching Artificial Intelligence
SHARE leaders are speaking with and learning from researchers and labor leaders from around the country to understand the opportunities and risks associated with AI. We are making connections through Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), Penn State University webinars, AFSCME (our parent union), and local universities including Harvard and MIT.
The first AFSCME International Convening about Artificial Intelligence brought union leaders together to describe what’s happening in our workplaces around the country, and how we can make sure that we maintain a say in how technology is used.
We’re sharing our own knowledge and learning more so that we can:
Keep caregivers in the role of giving care to patients, providing the best care by using our own expertise
Hold long-view conversations about future
Mitigate outside pressures of AI, such as the technologies embedded in the software we use at work
Have transparency about where AI is currently being used
Anticipate re-training needs
Place limits on monitoring, surveillance
Obtain quality training in the use of AI tools
YOU Are Shaping the Future of Work
SHARE members and leaders are having many individual conversations about AI. If you have questions, concerns, or ideas about how AI could be affecting your work, SHARE wants to know. Reach out to your area SHARE Organizer, or email us.
You will receive the third and final installment of the SHARE Survey Series to prepare for our 2026 Contract Negotiations with UMass Memorial soon. This survey has several questions about AI . . . please let us know about your experience!
SHARE Nominations & Elections
Nominations Open May 13 – May 28, 2026
for SHARE Union Representatives & Executive Board Members
Please note that the mailing sent to home addresses contained an error, the correct nominations deadline is May 28th.
To run for Union Rep or Executive Board Member
You must have been a dues-paying SHARE member for at least 6 months prior to the election.
You must be nominated in writing by a SHARE member (either a co-worker or yourself).
Current SHARE Reps who wish to continue to be Reps need to be nominated again this year.
To nominate someone for Union Rep or Executive Board Member
Please send nominations by email to SHARE.Elections@theshareunion.org;
or by fax to (508) 929-4040; or by U.S. mail to SHARE, 50 Lake Ave, Worcester MA 01604.Nominations should include:
the name, department, and phone number of the person being nominated;
the position for which they are being nominated; and
the name and phone number of the person submitting the nomination.
Nominations must arrive at the SHARE office by noon on Thursday, May 28, 2026.
We cannot accept late nominations.Nominees will be offered the opportunity to decline the nomination. Anyone who does not decline is then a candidate.
Voting on June 17 – June 24, 2026
if there are more nominees than the number of positions
The election will be held by electronic ballot, hosted professionally by ElectionBuddy.com, an online voting service that meets the standards set by the U.S. Department of Labor and by our parent union, AFSCME.
ElectionBuddy will send a link to your cell phone or email account for you to vote securely online. You can provide your cell phone number and/or personal email address, or request a ballot by mail, by emailing SHARE.Elections@theshareunion.org or talking to a SHARE staff organizer. The SHARE office phone number is 508-929-4020. If we don’t have a cell phone or personal email address for you then we will only be able to provide ElectionBuddy with your work email.
If you don’t get email from SHARE regularly, please provide us with a cell phone number or personal email address at www.sharehospitalunion.org/update-your-info
You must be a SHARE member to vote, to nominate someone, or to run for office.
If you have not yet signed a SHARE membership card, please go to www.sharehospitalunion.org/join or talk to a SHARE Rep or Organizer.
Positions Open for Nomination in 2026
Below are brief descriptions of the roles of Union Reps and Executive Board Members. If you want to talk about what it would be like to be a SHARE Rep or to be on the Executive Board, or if you have other questions, please call the SHARE office at 508-929-4020, or talk to someone you know who is involved with SHARE.
SHARE Reps: There is at least one Union Rep for every 25-50 SHARE members. A Rep is a contact person for their area. Union Reps get training from SHARE to move information between co-workers and union leadership. They can also get training in helping co-workers solve problems (for example, with discipline or work schedules) if they want to. Reps are elected for a 1-year term. For more information about being a Rep, see here.
SHARE Executive Board Members: Executive Board members have responsibility for the whole union, and in particular for their region (several hundred people). They make decisions about the direction of our union and participate in contract negotiations. They serve for 2-year terms. There are 13 positions on the SHARE Executive Board:
4 Officers: A Co-President from University-connected locations and a Co-President from Memorial- connected locations; a Secretary and a Treasurer elected at large (by all SHARE members).
9 Regional Executive Board Members: based on what department they are in.
Rep Positions by location
All SHARE Representative positions are up for election every year.
Reps are elected by location for most areas: 67 Belmont, Barre, Century Drive, Fitchburg Cancer Ctr, Front St, Hahnemann (including HMG/Chadwick St), Holden, Innovation Drive, Leominster Cardiology, Marlboro Cancer Ctr, Milford – 91 Water St., Queen Street, Shrewsbury Family Med, South County Pediatrics, Tri River, and the Worcester Business Center (including Work From Home employees).
For the University (including ACC and Pavilion) & Memorial campuses, Reps are broken up by location and region: Nursing Floors & ED (region B); Technical & Diagnostic (region C); Ambulatory Clinics (region D); and Clerical & Other (region E).
Executive Board positions by region
Executive Board positions are usually up for election every two years. All even-year positions are up for election this year, and one vacant odd-year position.The even-year positions will have a full 2-year term ending in 2028. The odd-year position marked with a * will finish out the remaining year of their term and be up for election again in 2027.
What is my region?
Your region is printed on your address label, after your name. Rep and Executive Board positions are divided by location and by region. Your region is based on the kind of department you are in, not what kind of job you do. For example, a secretary in a technical department is in the Technical region, and an LPN in a clinic is in the Ambulatory region. If you have questions, please email share.elections@theshareunion.org or leave a message at the SHARE office at 508-929-4020.
How Many Reps are there for my location? What Executive Board Region am I in?
Reminder: SHARE Respect in the Workplace Survey
Hi SHARE members! We’ve gotten a great number of responses to the Respect in the Workplace Survey, but we definitely want to understand everyone’s perspective. If you haven’t completed yours yet, please do so very soon. Below is the initial email announcement and survey link. Thank you!
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Dear SHARE member,
Please fill out this SHARE survey about respect and how it feels to be at work. Just click: SHARE Respect Survey
Preparing for Contract Negotiations this Year
This is our 2nd survey, getting us ready for contract negotiations. (Many thanks to the 1300 SHARE Members who filled out the survey about career advancement!) This survey focuses on what if feels like to work here:
How are SHARE members doing?
Do you want to stay at UMass Memorial?
What’s it like working with your supervisor/manager?
Is your Unit Based Team (if you have one) helping make work better?
Have you ever been called to a meeting with your manager about your work? What was it like?
What do you think of the work that the SHARE Union is doing?
How SHARE Will Use the Surveys
The surveys are anonymous. SHARE presents the data for our whole union to management in our negotiations. After this survey is completed, the 3rd and final SHARE survey will be about our overall priorities for negotiations, raises, health insurance, etc, as well as about how technology is changing jobs.
Your Voice Matters
The SHARE member surveys accomplish many goals:
Clarify SHARE members’ priorities for negotiations
Help us understand what issues matter most for which groups of SHARE members
Document SHARE members opinions to show to management in negotiations
It's Quick!
Please take the time (10 minutes) to fill out the SHARE survey. The SHARE Negotiating Team really appreciates your input.
Thank you!!
-- The SHARE Negotiating Team
TODAY! Memorial Campus UBT Fair
Don’t forget! Today, Wednesday May 6, 11:30-1:30, outside the Amphitheater (across from the cafeteria) we’re celebrating our successes.
Come learn from other SHARE members, enter a raffle, grab a free sandwich, and have some fun. See you there!
2026 Memorial Campus UBT Fair: Wednesday, May 6
The first UBT Fair of the 2026 season, on the University Campus, was a fantastic success. By our conservative estimate, at least 850 attendees learned from each other’s UBT projects, enjoyed sub sandwiches, and mingled with other SHARE members and special guests from UMass Memorial Leadership and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others. Members of the Executive Board from our parent union, AFSCME International, came, even flying in from Maryland. They described being pleasantly blown away by what our union is doing.
With SHARE UBTs, we are developing ways of engaging in important workplace decisions like no place else. We’re looking forward to more. If you’re on the Memorial campus at lunchtime on May 6, we hope to see you for the next big event!