Posts tagged SEIU Local 509
Boston University Denies It Would Use AI to Replace Striking Teaching Assistants
April 2, 2024 // The university’s response comes after an email to faculty from Stan Sclaroff, dean of arts and sciences. Last week, two days after thousands of BU graduate student workers began a strike, the email made recommendations including using artificial intelligence to better manage course discussions, labs and student feedback. “Neither Dean Sclaroff nor Boston University believe that AI can replace its graduate student teaching assistants, and the assertion that we plan to do so is patently false,” Boston University said in a statement on Friday.
BU grad workers vote to strike Monday
March 22, 2024 // The Boston University graduate workers union voted Wednesday to go on strike Monday afternoon if they do not reach a contract agreement with the university. The union, which represents roughly 3,000 graduate student workers at BU, voted last week to authorize the strike after a longstanding battle with the university over fair pay and stronger benefits, including health care coverage and child care assistance.
State employees frustrated that raises are tied up in Legislature
October 24, 2023 // The Local 509 bargaining units -- featuring employees at the Department of Children and Families, Department of Transitional Assistance, Department of Developmental Services, Department of Mental Health, and other agencies -- reached a contract deal in April that was ratified in May, for raises that would have been retroactive to January. The pending list of bargaining agreements before the Legislature has risen to 82, and while some are contracts that would take effect in the future, like the State Police Association of Massachusetts, others are historical, like an agreement for faculty and professional staff at the state's 15 community college campuses that deals with raises due back to 2021. The 82 contracts are laid out in Gov. Maura Healey's $2.15 billion budget bill (H 4090) to close the books on fiscal 2023, which ended almost four months ago. The list also includes five agreements with MassDOT employees, 23 with University of Massachusetts personnel, nine with Registry of Deeds workers, 35 with employees of county sheriff's departments, and an agreement with National Association of Government Employees units that cover tens of thousands of employees across the executive branch.