PSUMTA

161 years ago—less than two lifetimes—June 19th marked the day that the news of emancipation spread to enslaved Black people in Texas… two full months after the Civil War ended. PSU celebrates the snuffing out of that brutal chapter in US history, but, echoing W. E.B. Du Bois (our library’s namesake) in the above quote, recognize that our country is far from free today, and we have a lot of collective work to do to get there.

Du Bois was an adamant proponent of collective bargaining and union struggle, but also a vocal critic of the racism that’s all too common in union organizing. We must all at PSU follow in his footsteps and continue to combat our own biases. We will never achieve a liberated and antiracist world if we don’t start by striving to make our union antiracist—by creating inclusive spaces for all of our members across identity, bargaining against bias in discipline, and combatting our university’s complicity in the many echoes of chattel slavery that the US continues to participate in, from mass incarceration and racist kidnapping to genocidal foreign wars.

May Juneteenth be a reminder both of how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go. No one is free until we are all free.

Kicking off a summer of solidarity building ☀️

In an ironic, but sadly unsurprising, turn of events, Trump’s Department of Education has launched a “civil rights investigation” at Smith College, claiming that it may have violated anti-discrimination laws by enrolling trans women. This is a blatant attack on a vulnerable population of students. Trans women are women. Full stop.

PSU rejects this hate-based investigation and believes that ALL women must have their rights to an education—and privacy—protected.

Join us for May Day events tomorrow, on campus and in Holyoke!

May Day Fest is tomorrow, May 1, on the Metawampe Lawn from 10am-6pm.

Then, join us for the May Day March in Holyoke-- tomorrow, May 1. Meet at Heritage Park in Holyoke at 4:30pm.

Please join fellow workers and community members as we celebrate International Workers’ Day through solidarity, coalition, and outdoor activities.

“The Joint Executive Council of the Professional Staff Union of UMass Amherst and UMass Boston unequivocally condemn the Trump administration’s bombing of Iran and other war crimes committed, under his direction, to harm and further destabilize the Middle East, made possible with military hardware created in part by University of Massachusetts partner corporations.

“As PSU rank-and-file members we therefore call on our fellow workers, the university, and all campus unions to recommit to the anti-war movement.”

Read the full statement from our Joint Executive Council in the slides above.

Imperialism is a union issue. Workers in one place can never be safe while workers are slaughtered elsewhere in their name.

“Unionized workers have leverage and power to oppose war and join calls to democratize UMass so that we all have a voice in the decisions the university makes.”

URGENT SOLIDARITY ASK! Our neighbors need our help!

South Hadley is facing an “Override Vote” on Tuesday April 14th. If the town votes YES ON BOTH QUESTIONS, the PreK-12 South Hadley school district will gain a crucial $11 mil ng. If the vote doesn’t pass, the district will face up to 20% staff and faculty reductions 😠

Please join our Massachusetts Teachers Association siblings, South Hadley organizers on Saturday morning 4/4 and/or 4/11 @ 9:30am at the South Hadley Public Library to door knock for the campaign. Register at the link in our bio.

ICE needs hotels to stay in, cars to drive in, planes to deport people on, and data to surveille us. Without corporate cooperation, ICE has no power.

UMass Amherst management contracts with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the primary provider of ICE’s vehicles 🚓 Go to https://tinyurl.com/umassdropice to tell UMass to end that relationship with ICE enablers and DROP ICE by May 1st! ✍️

This is a national campaign with representation from unions across UMass. Our goal is for 20% of PSU Amherst members to sign—that’s about 320 people. Talk to your coworkers 📣 Let’s apply the power we used to shut down merit pay to send a strong message to ICE, and keep flexing the muscles we’ll use to win a truly transformative contract next time around.

Read the Chapter Board’s 1/29/26 statement of solidarity against ICE in the slides above for a bolstering call to action.

"Arabic is the fifth most spoken language in the world. It is crucial for a research university with global ambitions to offer the best Arabic instruction to its students. Four-skilled Arabic is the gold standard of Arabic language pedagogy, not just at UMass but across peer institutions." And yet, motivated by racism and xenophobia, our administration seeks to cancel it for so called austerity.

✍️ PSU members and allies, add your name to the cross-constituency letter in our bio (and learn the full context by reading it) to tell the admin no to austerity, yes to supporting our students and faculty!

While antiracism and solidarity with our fellow workers is the only reason we need to support the Arabic program, remember too that our bosses are testing the waters for what other academic, community, and labor repression they can get away with in the coming days. 😤 Let's show them PSU's resounding answer: NONE! 🛑✊
https://shorturl.at/V44fx

PSU stands in firm solidarity with workers at the Amherst DPW Association. Rally with to help them win a fair contract this Thursday! Tell the town manager that union workers are done with disrespect, low wages, and unsafe working conditions. ADPWA rallied earlier this month, and now they need more solidarity to keep up the pressure on the Amherst Town Manager, Paul Bockelman. Here’s what you can do:

RSVP to the Rally with Amherst DPW Workers (link in bio)
Time: Thursday, 3/19 @ 5:30 pm
Location: Amherst Town Common
Send a letter to the town manager: letter.wmalf.org

Together, we can stand up for one another and build a better Amherst, one fight at a time!