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.