MITCPA moves to federal mediation for contract negotiations
Patrol officers demand raises akin to those received by officers at Boston University and Harvard
The MIT Campus Police Association (MITCPA) is moving to federal mediation for its contract negotiations. The move comes after 14 meetings, starting this July, with university officials did not result in a satisfactory contract, according to a press release sent to The Tech.
The MITCPA announced its intention to move to federal mediation via a press release and by distributing flyers to MIT community members near campus entrances.
The flyer writes that the MITCPA is moving toward federal mediation due to “MIT and MIT Police Management being unfair and unreasonable in contractual negotiation” by refusing to “address reasonable quality of life and economic issues presented by the Association.”
The MITCPA’s demands for its three-year contract include an increase in wages consistent with the rise in cost of living due to inflation and medical insurance.
According to the press release, Alan McDonald, legal counsel for the MITCPA, said on behalf of the association, “in the past two years the cost of living has increased substantially, and their wages are not keeping up with current economic conditions. We are simply asking for economic stability to take care of our families and not live paycheck by paycheck.”
McDonald also said that MIT “pretends that it has no responsibility to account for inflation or to compensate our officers in parity with comparable universities.”
The flyer claims that at the MITCPA’s most recent negotiation meeting, members were told that it “cannot compare … to the Boston University Police Department or Harvard University Police Department, who have both recently provided their officers with raises designed to dull the effects of high inflation,” suggesting that “policing is not as challenging at MIT as it is at those two universities.”
The flyer also notes that the patrol officers represented by the MITCPA are not able to work remotely, whereas “15 upper management and civilian employees” of the MIT Police are “out of the station” once a week. In addition to “17 administrative days”, the flyer claims that these employees are not present on campus for over 60 days each year, unlike members of the MITCPA who, according to the flyer, “were on campus every day during the two year-long pandemic.”
The flyer adds that the MITCPA stands with and supports all unions at MIT.
The flyer encourages community members who hope to support the MITCPA to contact MIT leadership and MIT Police Management leadership such as President L. Rafael Reif, Manager of Labor Relations Ashan Ali, Chief of MIT Police John DiFava, Executive Vice President and Treasurer Glen Shor, and Vice President for Human Resources Ramona Allen.
The MITCPA is a union that has represented the MIT Police’s patrol officers since the 1970s and currently represents approximately 42 officers.