AMHERST — More than 94% of Professional Staff Union members at the University of Massachusetts who participated in a vote this week are expressing no confidence in the leadership of Chancellor Javier Reyes.
Completed Thursday evening, union members at the Amherst campus, over two days, voted 966 to 59 in support of the no-confidence resolution. This followed the union’s board previously voting no confidence in the chancellor in November.
“Unfortunately, Chancellor Reyes, the principal decision-maker for the Amherst campus, persists in his demand to punish the staff whose job it is to ensure that UMass students get the education they deserve,” said Nellie Taylor, who co-chairs the Amherst Professional Staff Union chapter, which represents 2,400 employees on the Amherst and Boston campuses.
The union includes many of the student support staff, student success workers, residential directors, advisers and administrative staff.
Taylor said members are alarmed that they have gone 521 days working under the provisions of the previous contract.
Last month, the largest staff union on campus held a rally after 500 days passed without a contract, with members outlining what they say has been misinformation from UMass officials, and the need to file bad-faith bargaining complaints with the Department of Labor Relations.
UMass spokeswoman Emily Gest said the university is negotiating as required under state law with a public employees union.
“The university will continue to present its proposals in good faith and bargain under the laws set forth in Chapter 150E,” Gest said.
A day before the PSU vote, the board of the University Staff Association, which represents more than 800 clerical and technical staff, unanimously passed its own no-confidence vote.
USA President Sheila Gilmour said that vote was about standing in solidarity with another union. “It is infuriating to watch our colleagues in PSU suffer the same ill treatment that we suffered during our contract negotiations,” Gilmour said.
Gimour claims there had been lies at the bargaining table and egregious treatment of staff and students by Reyes, including attacks on First Amendment rights, a disregard for people with disabilities, and calls for staff to rely on food pantries and public assistance despite working full time for the university.
The Amherst chapter board for the Professional Staff Union on Nov. 7 cited three reasons for its no-confidence vote. Those were that Reyes has eroded the ability of UMass Amherst staff to support and carry out the university’s educational mission; has proven unwilling and unable to work with a unionized labor force; and has engineered an on-campus climate of fear and mistrust that can only impoverish the well-being of the entire community.
At the crux of the negotiation is whether a portion of the wage increase to go into effect in January 2027 should be on merit-based pay.
Part of the concern with allowing merit-based pay to be part of the contract was expressed by PSU member Ari Jewell at a late Thursday afternoon press conference put on by the Western Massachusetts People’s Tribunal.
Jewell said the union stands against what it sees as free speech crackdowns on the campus. There are now worries, Jewell said, that any staff and faculty who join students in political actions could be punished by those making the decisions on whether or not to award an employee better salaries.
The union has also argued that the sole purpose of cost-of-living adjustments is to keep state employees’ salaries in line with inflation. Should a portion become “merit pay,” several employees would have their state-provided raises cut by $750 to $1,500 or more.
That proposal is seen as “a shocking misuse of public funds,” said Andrew Gorry, co-chair of the Professional Staff Union.
“We already have too many employees facing food insecurity, having trouble affording rent or a mortgage, delaying medical care, and needing to work second or third jobs,” Gorry said. “Chancellor Reyes needs to stop playing around with our salaries and settle a fair contract with us now.”
According to information obtained from the university, Sheri Neshiem, vice chancellor and chief human resources officer, wrote that the total increase from January 2025 through January 2027 would be 12.5%, with a base increase of 11% and the merit portion making up 1.5%.
That merit portion would be in effect in January 2027 and represent two-thirds of the 2.25% increase. The performance-based compensation would be integrated alongside the cost-of-living adjuistments.
Other student and faculty organizations have also cast no-confidence votes, some in response to the 132 arrests in ending the pro-Palestinian encampment in May 2024.
“For the sake of the common good, it’s time for UMass Amherst to settle PSU’s contract, giving staff an agreement that shows respect for our time, expertise and the basic resources we need to support ourselves, our families and our students,” Taylor said.
Taylor added, “Javier Reyes has united the entire campus against him in a little over two years. He has instituted anti-worker and anti-democratic policies and decisions, which are a bad match with the history and values of public higher education in Massachusetts. We all — students, faculty, staff, and the citizens of the commonwealth — deserve better.”