Wednesday, June 21, 2017

A New SHARE Union: UMass Memorial--Marlborough Hospital

For those of you who haven’t heard, we’re lending support to employees at our sister location in Marlborough who wish to join SHARE. Impressed by what we’ve accomplished, they’ve come to us with a request to join in. If you have friends at UMass Memorial’s Marlborough Hospital, we could use your help connecting them with our union.

A Rising Tide

SHARE believes that everyone benefits when workers have a say. We’re making work better for ourselves, and we want our colleagues up the road to have that opportunity, too. What’s good for Marlborough Hospital is good for UMass Medical School, and for the Central Massachusetts community.

SHARE is a union unique to UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Hospital, tailored to our needs here. Our region is distinct, with its own economic challenges. We know that inequality is hurting us. Without unions to advocate for middle-class wages, employers alone dictate the market rate.

Our connections make us strong, and we want to strengthen and be strengthened by the inclusion of the UMass Memorial's Marlborough location, to enlist the help of our colleagues toward improving the area where we live and work.

Everyone Should Be Free to Participate

We want our friends in Marlborough to know that our SHARE union gives us opportunities to compare notes, to talk and think together, to build structures for making improvements. Like our hospital’s senior administration, we believe in the mission of our institution. We also believe that a labor-management partnership can make our University vibrant and resilient. We can’t do it without each other. We believe that the same is true in Marlborough.

We Want to Share Values and Strength

There are 500 of us (plus 2700 of our friends in SHARE at UMass Memorial Hospital), and our relationships with our employer are extremely complex. As a matter of principle, we maintain kind and respectful conversations with those in management roles. We have support and assistance from in-house SHARE staff organizers who help this happen. Perhaps most importantly, we can have those conversations safely because our union affords us an independent source of power. Our friends at Marlborough need this, too. They deserve to negotiate their own agreements with their hospital leaders.

Let’s Connect

If you can help connect SHARE Organizers with friends who work at Marlborough Hospital, let us know. If you can help us make an introduction, or would like to know more about what we’re doing, please call the SHARE office (508-929-4020) and leave a message on the voicemail for one of the Marlborough SHARE Organizers to call you back.