2025-04-16 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development
2025-04-16 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development
REP MCMURTRY - In an effort to stay on time with many conflicting obligations today, I want to welcome everyone to the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development. For the record, it is Wednesday, April 16th. My name is Paul McMurtry. I have the privilege of chairing this, committee along with my colleagues in the House. I want to take an opportunity to introduce them before we begin. To my right is, vice chair Tommy Vitolo from Brookline. Also have representing the city of Boston section of Hyde park, Representative Rob Consalvo, Representative Dennis Gallagher, Representative Ryan Hamilton, Representative Adrian53 Ramos, Representative Ken Sweezey, Representative Mark, Representative Donato. Welcome to those of you joining us in person as well as those virtually. We hope that today's hearing on labor and workforce development matters is productive, not only for members testifying or folks testifying, but for us as members of the legislature.
We have a bunch of different advocates and experts and legislators and members of the community here to testify on important issues that will shape the workforce of the Commonwealth. As we all know, and we're learning on a day to day basis that the strength of our economy lies within the strength of our workforce. So, again, we're here to listen and learn from a diverse group of voices and guide us on the issues that affect your families, our businesses, and the communities all across Massachusetts. We are committed to having Massachusetts remain a leader in creating opportunities, improving job conditions, and supporting those who drive our economy. So, I'm looking forward to today's hearing, I thank you for being present, as together we build solutions that can make a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve. I look forward to participation not only from members of the legislature, but from the audience as well on those testifying. A moment of housekeeping, we do have a bunch of matters that we want162 to discuss, including an informational portion of today's hearing.
So, we just ask that168 if you could keep testimony to approximately three minutes,172 give us an ample opportunity for members of the legislature to ask questions. My Senate colleague and Co-Chair, senator Jacob Oliveira is due to arrive any moment. When he does, I'm going to let him introduce the Senate members that are attending. Also, virtually, Felipe from LIS is here to make sure that technology is connected, we thank him for supporting that. Also, from the court officers, Jackie Carlito, so this committee has the good fortune of having one of the best court officers joining us. I do want to also acknowledge my staff to, my right is, legal counsel, Garrett Burns, who's220 really been the backbone of most of the legislative matters not only in this committee, but226 in the past, as well as Jody Lanza, who we dubbed the queen of the State House and, also, Jen Bersanian. So, I appreciate them being here to make sure that things run smoothly. So, in an effort to begin, we have a constitutional amendment that we'd like to welcome Mr. Vincent Dixon is here to testify. It's going to be a hearing testimony on House 70, proposal for a legislative amendment to the constitution for a constitutional right to employable skills training. Mr. Dixon, welcome, and thank you for being here.
VINCENT LAWRENCE DIXON - HB 70 - Thank you, Senators, Representatives and staff. My name is Vincent Lawrence Dixon, 60 Lake street unit277 in Winchester, Mass, 1890, additional contact information available upon request. This bill has an apparently somewhat unique distinction in this particular way and being this kind of single proposal, but we can think of it as being in some important ways appropriate since it allows focus in a briefly detailed way on an important innovative approach we can all embrace. I appear before you to strongly support an important proposal of mine, the constitutional right to employable skills training. The text of the proposed constitutional metonym is so written as to be clear, concise, and comprehensive. Reading the language explains the content of the idea and its implementation quite directly. This is one of a triad of bills that one person has described as an important paradigm, which could distinctly reset a comprehensive and dynamic set of processes for continued and strengthened success in our society. Possibly, not surprisingly, Massachusetts has an opportunity to establish and set standards which would inspire, enlighten, and encourage our residents over what are increasingly longer lifespans, productive and healthy work life careers, and often creative opportunities.
Economic self sufficiency and autonomy are central and important keys to social and economic equality, achievement, and the opportunities for progress of a functioning open society. By making a set of provisions that you would have a right to two year training program linked to a job at the end of which, I think, you transform the nature of creating a stronger workforce. Achieving these realities is certainly complex, but it's needed to provide the sound foundations of democratic and representative republican values, balancing the interests of majorities and the rights of minorities and an interweaving of good and productive human values. Massachusetts has not just a wealth of opportunities for the significant range of needs to have a pipeline of trained, retrained, and trainable employees for the remarkably productive and creative entrepreneurial spirit that routinely produces new jobs, new industries, and more. The ability to access the dynamics of changing technology, genuine human needs, and evolving social structures requires423 clear opportunities for continuing education and a range of technical skills.
Our regional vocational technical schools should more energetically be open to and train the many who at various points lose jobs and or more importantly, find their industries vanish or be drastically altered. An employee who loses their industry and or their job in our society is at risk of losing their health care, their housing, and future jobs. In a trio of connected disasters452 that not only damages them and their family units and other connected individuals, but creates employment dislocation patterns that do harm to local communities and schools as well. In doing so, Massachusetts can create effective tools and economic roadways that can be used flexibly and creatively at needed points in the lives of our residents. Please consider supporting H 70 with a favorable recommendation. This is the triad that I mentioned, a constitutional right to health care, a constitutional right to housing, and a constitutional right to employable skills training. This is one of those three bills in a broader package where I'm seeking to be constructive in dealing with some of the issues we have as opposed to be merely being an ideological advocate. All due respect to those aspects, but we're one of the 15 largest countries in the world as an economy, and how we engage that wealth and, allow people 35 or 40 to be retrained in our grade school programs.
MCMURTRY - Thanks, Mr. Dixon for your testimony. Do any members of the committee have questions for Mr. Dixon? Not to belabor, but I'm discouraged, what's your background?
DIXON - I'm a historian, I worked in business, I've been an advocate for many years. I grew up in Allston, a working class kid. For those who may have noticed the news recently, Harvard actually has a great Harvard Extension School program. I was making $2.35 an hour as a security guard at the old Jordan Marsh. My mother was working at the Harvard faculty club. A national defense loan program got me through the school of education. So, as I say jokingly, I have a foot in three camps, because I was also home schooled. I'm very much an advocate of education, I've advised people in school committees and education departments. I conducted my own tour business around Harvard and Cambridge and Boston for about 20 years. I think kind of an old fashioned working class renaissance individual.
MCMURTRY - Well, thank you so much for your advocacy on a very meaningful proposal. I appreciate you being here to testify in person.
DIXON - And thank you for the time, and thank you for your service.
MCMURTRY - I want to take this opportunity before we call up our next585 testifier to welcome the senate cochair on the committee of, labor and workforce development, Senator Jake Oliveira.
SEN OLIVEIRA - Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate starting on time, I was actually stuck on the pike, a disabled truck that was in the Middle Lane. So, I apologize for being late, but I'm delighted to be here today to co-chair this committee with you and a lot of important issues that are before, including over 200 bills, over 70 of which are new bills that have been filed this session, and not returning bills. But I'm also delighted to join many of my colleagues in the Senate on622 this committee who will be circulating in and out as we go through our committee hearings, including our vice chair, Senator Jason Lewis of Winchester, Senator Sal DiDomenico of Everett, Senator Paul Feeney of Foxborough, Senator Pat Jehlen, previous chair of this committee from Somerville, and our ranking minority member on the Senate side, Senator Pat O'Connor from Weymouth. So as they come in throughout the next year or so as we go through the committee process, I know that there are a lot of bills that we need to work on together, Mr. Chairman, and I'm just so happy to have a cochair who has a lot of experience chairing committees as well in the past and someone who has been seasoned in the building, and SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
I am delighted to join you. Thank you.
and I'm act to provide an act to provide fair wages for employees of public institutions of higher education. We have here to testify is, Max Page from the Mass Teachers Association and Allison White, from professional staff here in UMass Boston. Are they here present? Yeah. Is Joe Nadoni oh, he was well. No? Okay. Well, welcome, and thank you for being here.
MAX PAGE - MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION - HB 2185 - SB 1365 - Thank you. Good703 morning. I feel very close-up here. Sorry, we don't mean to ignore anyone on either side, but, thank you for having us here today, appreciate having this hearing. My name is Max Page, I'm the President of the Mass Teachers Association. As many of you know, we represent 115,000 educators, about 15,000 of those are at our public colleges and universities. So, I just wanted724 to, thank you all for being here. I thank, Rep Vargas and Senator Payano for sending in testimony, maybe testifying later on this732 act to provide fair wages in higher education. So I will submit more formal testimony later, and we'll share some studies that we have done that I'll refer to, but I sort of wanted to speak more just frankly than directly to all of you. So, I teach at UMass Amherst, and I've been teaching there for about a quarter century, and about a quarter century ago, met Senator Oliveira, who was not Senator Oliveira then, and been working on issues of public758 higher education access and quality for this past quarter century. I'll start with good news, which is that we, and by we, I mean, all of us together, the advocates out here, you all in the legislature have made great progress on the issue of affordability access.
I think with the fair share amendment money and allocating that towards free tuition and fees at community colleges and, really free tuition fees for working class students at our four year institutions. That's a huge statement for racial and economic equity and for788 an investment in the economic vitality790 and prosperity of the state. So, thank you for all of that, that's something that794 we we frankly went from being in a very bad place on when I started working on this, I think we've come very far in that, so I want to acknowledge that. But the other part of that equation is that when we welcome in new students and welcoming in our working class students, students of color, as it's happening, we're seeing huge growth in numbers in our, community colleges as well as in our other state universities and UMass. We want to welcome them to the very best experience, and that means making sure we are paying our staff and our faculty fair wages. We have828 done a wage study, which we will present to you, we presented to the Chica Commission, the commission you all set up to look at higher837 education quality and access, as well as a survey we did, which 3,000 of our members responded about the experience.
What we see is that, unfortunately, when you account for the cost of living849 in Massachusetts, when we look at our peer states, we are at the bottom in all three sectors; community colleges, state universities, and UMass. I want to especially lift up our community college faculty that are way, way at the bottom in terms of pay. I mean this for our full time staff and faculty, but especially for the adjunct faculty who are across the system, but especially in our community colleges. They teach 70% to 80% of the classes, they are gig workers, exploited gig workers, no health insurance, no job security, no retirement benefits. And full time faculty and staff also don't make nearly what they should given the high cost of living here that is affecting recruitment and retainment and retention. What's remarkable thing today is you are hearing from a union leader, you'll hear from one of our members, you'll also hear from presidents who will speak to this issue as a problem for them. Presidents of the campuses as a problem for them in doing the work and providing the very best experience for students.
It is not a good statement to say, welcome, come into our colleges for the first time for many and the first time in their families to come into our colleges. But actually, we're only we're going to provide you with less than ideal experience. So, we really think this is the moment, and let me just end on that point. This is actually now more than ever is the moment to do this. It is actually an act of resistance to some of the attacks we're getting on public education, Pre-k through higher ed from Washington to take a stand and defend what we do in Massachusetts. That means invested it and do whatever we need to raise revenues in order to make sure that we continue the good work we've been doing in making higher Ed more affordable and accessible, but also being higher quality. This is not the moment to step back at all, especially at this moment when we're under attack, as we actually stand up and take pride and invest in our campuses. We have such a long history of doing this, so I would urge us all to take this moment, not think of this as something we have to put off, we've put it off for too far too long. So we urge you to take seriously and move out of this committee, both the House and977 Senate versions of this bill and,979 advance the equity on the side of the quality of our institutions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, sir. Next, we have, Alison White.
ALISON WHITE - UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS - HB 2185 - SB 1365 - Hello. My name is Alison White and I'm a research satellite coordinator994 at the University of Massachusetts, specifically at the Institute for Community Inclusion. I began my1000 role in February of 2023, and I'm very thankful to1004 be working here. I love my job, and I love the work that I do. I do research with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, specifically helping me move into employment. I don't often feel like my job loves me back in the way that I love it. For those of you that don't know me, I moved to Boston in December of this year or last year, and I wanted to live in a state where I felt safe and comfortable to be myself and where I can build a community and a future in. My concerns about safety and community were not my only concerns though, I also had to look where I would be able to easily find a second job to supplement my income. I've been bartending since I was in college and I continue to bartend to this day, and I'm lucky that I'm able-bodied and young and have experience and a good sleep schedule where I'm able to work a second job easily. Hourly, I average a better wage bartending than I do at the University of Massachusetts. Another thing that you may might not know about me is that I really like to cook, and my amateur chef skills have helped me be able to stretch food to last for longer and to have the same meal 10 times in a row because it's cheaper to meal prep, and that food banks are actually meant for people like me.
I don't always need to celebrate Holloway's in a very traditional way because I can't afford Hassock brisket. Low wages have left me with this sort of constant underlying anxiety and this sort of fear of not knowing that the money that I'm earning will continue to cover the bills that I have. And it's not just the money aspect, there's also sort of this underlying stress to it, that no matter how hard I work and how many hours I put in, however good things that I do are, that I'm still barely getting by. I look1106 around me and I look at my coworkers and peers and particularly people at other institutions who tend to be doing better than I am in moving forward and1114 achieving the goals that they have in their life. I wonder, like, how can I further myself in my career while I'm still just trying to survive? My suppressed wage makes me question my own worth, my own abilities, and what I've done wrong to end up here. I believe that there is opportunity for me to work hard and grow, but I can't see how at my current salary. An act to provide fair wages to employees of public institutions and higher education would provide me the stability and relief that I think that I need. It would bring other educators and myself to a more livable wage. Thank you for your time. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, Allison. And, do any members of the committee have questions for either Max or Allison?
SPEAKER4 - I actually do, mister chairman.
SPEAKER1 - Senator? Yeah.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you.
OLIVEIRA - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also want to introduce, the former co-chair of this committee on the Senate side, Senator Pat Jehlen, who's joined us as well. My question has to do this is a much more comprehensive piece of legislation that includes several pieces of legislation that have been filed in the past, including ensuring that the Governor and the administration files, when they collectively bargain with the institutions, the actual dollar amount so the legislature can appropriate it. I know in the past, in previous administrations, that the administration has negotiated contracts in good faith with the unions themselves and have not actually submitted the appropriation to the legislature, which puts it back on us to scramble to find those dollars. Can you describe a little bit of the process of collective bargaining for higher Ed institutions here in Massachusetts between the three different segments of public higher education and how that funding is submitted to the legislature and why this language is so important in this bill.
PAGE - Sure. We like to do things uniquely in Massachusetts, we have a uniquely complicated system whereby, theoretically, for instance, I'm an employee really of the University of Massachusetts, which is a semi independent organization, they are supposed to be the bargaining agent, but in fact, the Governor sort of sets the parameters. This is what the salary percentage will be across all of state government, that gets negotiated at the table, then it gets submitted to the Governor, the Governor must submit it to the legislature and the legislature must act on it, and the Governor must sign that. We've had delays and interruptions in each of those stages, delays in getting the parameters to the table, delays in negotiations, delay in getting it submitted, and so on. So, the idea is that actually this would speed that process up. And I think we actually have a separate piece of legislation that would actually say that if a contractor is sitting in the legislature more than a certain time, they're deemed approved because we have seen many, many delays over the years.
In the end, the legislature has always done right by public sector employees and approved those contracts, but often they get bundled up in sub budgets months, sometimes a year beyond the time of when the contracts were complete. So, members are waiting to see that pay increase over many, many months. And if it's okay to highlight why that's a problem, it seems like,1315 well, don't worry, you'll get your money eventually. The survey we will show you has a lot, 3,000 members filled it out. Small notes, 1/3 of staff and faculty respondents across the system said they worried that food were drawn out before they get money to buy more. 25%, a full quarter, work jobs outside their college or university to supplement their income. A full 50% are doing adjunct work in addition to their full time1341 faculty or staff position. So, the crisis is real in that way. Thank you.
MCMURTRY - Well, you have no better advocate than Senator Olivera. So any other questions from, Representative?
REP HAMILTON - Just one question. Do you guys have, I'm seeing the numbers as far as bringing it up to the national average on the benchmark there, what is the national average versus what that average salary is in the state?
PAGE - So, we try to divide it by the sectors, they are very different in pay. So, the average salary for full time faculty at the community college, for instance is $68,000, whether they are new, old, those who have been there for 25 years, whatever else. To get the national average for a community college, you would have to raise that by 48%, these are cost of living adjusted, I want to suggest. Then similarly for state universities, it's 92, you'd have to go up 20% to get to the average pay for state universities. I think similarly for UMass is actually 113, but you would have to raise it up 25% to get to the national average. As I1422 say, we have a set of peer states that some of them are actually high cost states like California, and we are in1428 each level, community college, state universities, UMass at the bottom of those in relation to them.
HAMILTON - Do you have a rough idea of the number of state employees this would affect?
PAGE - Good question. I mean, we have about 13,000, I think is the more accurate number of members in the MTA. But there are also American Federation of Teachers also, represents faculty at UMass Dartmouth, and, of course, there are many other staff as well. So I don't know the exact number, maybe 20,000 to 25,000.
MCMURTRY - Any other questions? Thank you very much for being here. Senator?
SEN JEHLEN - [Inaudible 00:24:28 - 00:24:37].
PAGE - Yes. So, we have a full wage study, which we actually hired an outside firm to evaluate, and we've updated them just a month or two ago. So we have those comparisons, we'll submit. We also have the the results of this survey of our own members that has, again, 3,000 of our members responded to. We'll gladly share that with you. We shared those with the commission that the legislature set up, the commission on higher Ed quality and affordability. I think there was, as I say, I think it's very striking, on that commission. And today, you'll hear, support for this from educators or unions as well as the presidents of the colleges who are feeling the difficulty of recruiting and retaining staff and faculty.
JEHLEN - So if you can submit that?
PAGE - Absolutely. We'll submit it to the entire committee.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Thank you, senator. Thank you for being here today.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - So we're going to extend a courtesy to members of the legislature to take them out of order. We have senator Pablo Paolo, my former co chair from last year's committee, here to testify in the bill he filed, senate 13 65, an act to provide fair wages to employees of public institutions of higher education, and then we'll continue back on the agenda. So senator Payano, welcome.
SEN PAYANO - SB 1365 - HB 2185 - Thank you, Chair Oliveira, thank you, Chair McMurtry, I mean, you guys are all1561 blessed to have an amazing co-chair here. We worked together for two great years and amazing partnership. I know Chair Oliveira is going to feel the same way, you know, two years from now. But thank you all, all the members of the committee for the opportunity to testify here today on Bill 1365, an act to provide fair wages to employees of public institutions of higher education. As you heard from our speakers, and I want to thank the previous folks that testified, this bill addresses a long standing issue. An issue which is the chronic underpayment of faculty and staff at our public colleges and universities. These are our educators, our librarians, IT specialists, custodians, and support staff, who make the campus run every day. Yet, they are not paid a wage that reflects either their value or the cost of living in Massachusetts. According to a 2024 salary study commissioned by the MTA, faculty at UMass earn nearly less than $31,000 than their peers at comparable private independent research universities, at our state universities, that gap is $25,000.
For our community colleges, faculty earn about $40,000 less than their peers in other states when adjusted for cost of living. These wage gaps are especially alarming given that Massachusetts has one of the highest cost of living in the country, leading to high turnover and burnout, making it harder for institutions to recruit and retain qualified diverse workforce. These issues threaten the quality and stability of the educational experience we promise to students. This bill would address these inequalities by bringing these salaries in line with national averages, fully fund collective bargaining agreements, and help to ensure affordability for students and stability for educators. Overall, it would help control tuition increases by preventing institutions for passing labor costs onto students. At its core, this bill is about dignity, equity, and sustainability.
It recognizes that those who teach, serve, and support our students deserve fair compensation and in positions of higher education system to remain strong, accessible, and competitive in the years to come. You know, I got involved years ago, young kid at UMass, and one of the things1701 that got me involved in politics was this1703 idea that our universities, our1705 public universities, should be affordable and accessible and provide an amazing education to the working people of Massachusetts. In part of that,1715 we need to ensure that we're able to attract and retain qualified individuals to do that teaching. Our state needs to be doing a whole lot more to contribute to that, and I think that this goes hand in hand to those efforts. I hope that you take this into consideration, and thank you so much, for the opportunity again to testify.
MCMURTRY - Thank you, Senator. Obviously, the system worked well for you, and I couldn't ask for a better advocate for the matters of institutions of higher education. Do any members of the committee have questions for Senator Payano? Thank you, thank you for being here in person. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
And, I also just want a couple housekeeping matters. Welcome into the room, on the committee representative Donald Wong. I believe I may have acknowledged him, but, he's joined us. And also from the staff, staff research on the committee on labor workforce and development, Christina has joined us as well. Additionally, the previous panel, testifying, we received written testimony from mister Nardoni, the vice president of the Mass Community College Council. Continuing with, testimony, we're going to call on, mister Rob McCarron, the president of the AICUM, to testify on host 21 64. Mister McCarron, welcome.
SPEAKER10 - Thank you, chair.
ROB MCCARRON - ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES IN MASSACHUSETTS - HB 2164 - SB 1369 - Thank you, Chair McMurtry, Chair Olivera, good to see you, members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Rob McCarron, I'm President of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts. We are 58 private non-profit colleges across the Commonwealth, educate 290,000 students and employ nearly 100,000, people. We1820 are anchors of local economies and, represent1822 a $71,000,000,000 impact for the state every year. I'm here to offer my support for House Bill 2164 and Senate Bill 1369. I want to thank, Representative Jeff Roy and Senator Mike Rush for filing these bills. Both, Representative Roy and Senator Rush recognized that the legislation is needed to correct an unintended consequence in the Massachusetts Wage Act. The Wage Act was an act to target unscrupulous employers, those who did not pay their employees in full and on time. However, there's been an unintended consequences have resulted from primarily two things.
One is an oversight in the statute for providing exceptions for certain types of employment that historically and reliably have paid employees on a monthly basis. Also the SJC, the Supreme Judicial Court's decision in 2022 in the Reuter versus City of Malden to apply the automatic troubling of damages to the underlying wages rather to the statutory interest. These unintended consequences were only revealed recently with the filing of four class action lawsuits against colleges and universities in Massachusetts. House 2164 and Senate 1369 seek to address the1903 devastating financial impact to these institutions that would result from these lawsuits. Again, because of the Supreme Court decision in the Reuters case greatly amplifies the potential damages in a way that does not align with the legislative intent of the statute, it places hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, at issue.
It's very important to note, that all of the1928 employees of the institutions that have been targeted by1930 these class action lawsuits received their full pay and on the regularly scheduled basis. There are no allegations that an employee was paid less than what they were owed, and there are no allegations that any employee was paid later than the established pay structure. Again, the intent of the Mass wage act is to go after those unscrupulous employers, and there is no,1952 allegation of any of that in these cases.1954 The financial harm to the institutions is entirely1958 disproportionate to the potential damages suffered by the affected employees and the resulting harm to the institutions would dramatically affect their ability to serve students and employees. I also wanted to raise that these lawsuits have been filed in what are times of unprecedented uncertainty for colleges and universities.
We have seen1983 significant threats to1985 international students, and when you think of international students, that's a $4,000,000,000, benefit to the Massachusetts economy every year to have those students here on our campuses with the talents and interest that they bring every year. There's also been cuts to research funding, existing contracts have been terminated, and awarding of newer grants has been slowed down considerably, that's a huge impact to the Massachusetts economy, $3,500,000,000 every year. Later on attacks on DEI, threatening schools to cut off their financial aid funding if they violate a very, ambiguous description of of DEI, threats to increase and expand the endowment tax, cut financial aid. It's just a really unprecedented time for higher education generally. When you lay around these lawsuits, the impact to these institutions would be significant, severe, and2039 it would affect, students. It would affect financial aid, it would affect jobs, it would affect research. Both of the bills, 2164 and 1369 seek to treat employees of non-profit colleges, universities in a manner that is consistent with exemptions that exist in the statute and also maintain the critical role of the statute to go after unscrupulous employees and I would ask for the the committee's support for these legislation, both of these bills.
MCMURTRY - Thank you, Mr. McCarron. I appreciate you being here in person to testify. Obviously,2074 a very significant and timely matter. We, in the legislature, we try to do the best we can, but we don't get it right all the time. And occasionally, there's an unintended consequence. One of the beauties of the work that we do is you have an opportunity to go back and address these matters. So, really important that you're here, we appreciate that. Obviously, an issue that we're hearing about on a daily basis, and it's important for you to share the impact that it's going to have on the institution of higher education and others across the Commonwealth. Do any members of the committee have questions for Mr. McCarron?
OLIVEIRA - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Rob, for your testimony. What are the four institutions that are involved in this class action lawsuit?
MCCARRON - Amherst College, Boston University, Harvard University, and Curry College. I know that they're also actively pursuing via social media other campuses, and that's why we're concerned, more broadly SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
about the impact, could be even worse.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Next, we have joining us remotely, is Claudine Barnes and, Jim Van der Hoeven. Colleen2159 is the Mass Community College Council of Cape Cod Community College, and, Jim Van der Hoeven is the president of Mount Wachusett Community College. They are going to join us remotely to testify on House 2185 in Senate 1365.
Go go ahead when you're ready.
SPEAKER12 - Thank you. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER1 - We can.
CLAUDINE BARNES - MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITY COLLEGE COUNCIL - HB 2185 - SB 1365 - Thank you. My name is Claudine Barnes, I'm the President of the Massachusetts Community College Council, which is the union that represents all of the faculty and professional staff at the state's 15 community colleges. I am a full time professor at Cape Cod Community College. I teach US history and political science. I am also a member of the CHICA Commission. I want to thank all of you for taking the time to listen to us today. I speak in favor of this wage equity bill on behalf of the community college faculty and staff. I have to say though that even with this wage equity bill, it's still not enough. Our faculty and staff are committed to the mission of the community colleges, we love those institutions, we adore our students, but we shouldn't be told by our administrators that you have to think of this as college service because you don't get paid enough money to actually consider your only job.
My members have salaries as Max Page mentioned before that are 48% below the national average, more than 70% below California, the state with the closest cost of living to us. And even with the good parameters that we've received from the Governor in the last several years, that 20% increase still leaves us at 48% behind the national averages. Why is this happening? Back in 1999, the state did an equity study looking at community college faculty and staff salaries, and the contract that resulted from that increased our workloads to take on additional classes in exchange for the state's promise that we would be kept at the 75th percentile of the 10 comparable states to Massachusetts. The state did not follow through with this, if the state had actually followed through with that promise to keep us at the 75th percentile, our salaries on average would be $117,000 not $68,000. Most of our members have multiple jobs, they postpone life activities, they juggle what bills they have to pay.
More than 40% say they can't pay their bills on2311 time, they have trouble finding housing. We have full time faculty and staff who are utilizing our college food banks, it's2319 not2319 right. Although we applaud Mass Educate, it has only compounded our problems. We do not have enough faculty and staff, we have overworked faculty and staff. We can't serve those students as well as we would like to in this situation, it is untenable, it is unsustainable. In Massachusetts, we pride ourselves on supporting education, I myself am a proud graduate of UMass Amherst, but what message are we sending to our students? That faculty and staff need to have two or three jobs so that they can maintain their jobs? What message does it say about work life balance if they see our faculty and staff going to food banks? I ask that you support this bill, I ask that you listen and follow the recommendations that will come from the CHICA Commission. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, Claudine. And, joining you is, mister Jim Vanderhoven. Go ahead, Jim.
JAMES VANDER HOOVEN - MOUNT WACHUSETT COMMUNITY COLLEGE - HB 2185 - SB 1365 - Good afternoon, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Jim Vander Hooven, and I'm the President of Mount Wachusett Community College. We are grateful for the opportunity to speak with you about the salaries and compensation of our faculty and staff. I join Claudine in our collective agreement that the compensation of our employees is far too low. The cost of living in Massachusetts has soared. Free community college has rapidly boosted enrollments at our colleges, and the challenges of recruiting and retaining quality faculty and staff have become more pronounced. We are in full support of raising salaries to at least the national average for community college faculty and staff adjusted for cost of living to ensure that our operating lines include separate appropriations for all the incremental costs associated with collective bargaining agreements and to ensure financial coverage for all employee friend fringe benefits.
According to the legislatively mandated commission on higher education quality and affordability, when you factor in Massachusetts high cost of living, salaries of faculty at our public community colleges lags substantially behind peer states. The average base salary of our professors, associate professors, and assistant professors in Massachusetts is $37,000 less than California. When you compare take home pay after taxes and deductions, our employees in these roles are taking home just $47,000, which was calculated to be 31% lower than the Massachusetts cost of living. We are also pleased to see that the bills call for operating lines to have separate appropriations for incremental costs associated with collective bargaining agreements. Our faculty and staff have waited months after a CBA is authorized to receive the raises that they are expecting, further exacerbating the financial struggles that many of them are facing.
In the past, our colleges have had to rely on an increase to student fees to cover unfunded collective bargaining costs. To be clear, a fee increase has always been a last resort but with the arrival of free community college, our colleges have given up their ability to make up short falls in this way, meaning that including CBA costs in a reliable, consistent way is twice as critical now. The funding of fringe benefits is yet another obstacle our colleges face. Having the state cover entirety of our fringe benefits would alleviate that burden and ensure that students are not paying the price. We are honored to be educating the future of Massachusetts workforce. Over 100,000 students are enrolled in our 15 community colleges. We respectfully ask for your consideration of H 2185 and S 1365, we want to continue to lead the nation. We appreciate your time and look forward to another year of collaboration to support our students and communities.
MCMURTRY - Thank you, we appreciate you being here virtually to testify. Do any members of the committee have questions for either Ms. Barnes or Mr. Vander Hooven? There being none, thank you so much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER13 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - You have a nice2601 day. Next, testifying on the same matters, house 21 85 and senate 13 65. Joining us virtually, mister JC Morales.
SPEAKER8 - Good morning. Can you guys hear me?
SPEAKER1 - Good morning. We can. Go ahead.
JUAN CARLOS MORALES - SURFSIDE CAPITAL ADVISORS - HB 2185 - SB 1365 - Good morning, Chair Oliveira, Chair McMurtry, and members of the Joint Committee of Labor and Workforce Development. My name is JC Morales, and I serve as the founder and managing partner of Surfside Capital Advisors, a strategic finance firm here in Boston. Previously, I was a CFO of TIS and Management and State Street Global Advisors, and I'm here to speak to you on behalf of the business community. I currently also serve on the board directors of Mass development and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. I am a proud member, a graduate of UMass Amherst, and those four years were literally transformational for me and for my journey as a recent Bostonian having come from Puerto Rico following my scholarship from UMass. Loved the university, loved what it did for me, and I still remain in deep touch with some members, in deep contact with some members of the faculty there. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
My
SPEAKER1 - We have a little technical difficulty.
SPEAKER14 - Can you
SPEAKER1 - hear me? We can.
MORALES - I said that I'm a proud member of UMass, the Isenberg School of Management, and my love for UMass aside, I'm here not today out of nostalgia or gratitude because of that, I'm here because I'm a business leader, and I know that Massachusetts' economy, even in this is uncertain times, hinges on brainpower. Brainpower, like the one we've seen come up out of public colleges, universities on the state. When salaries at our public colleges and universities lag behind the national average, it is harder for those schools to attract and retain the talent we need in order to set graduates on a path for long term success. As a business leader, I can tell you that if we don't compete in the fight for talent, the top performers in your field will get snatched by the competition and will tender their resignation in search for greener pastures. For a public higher educational institution to thrive and for the economy of Massachusetts to continue to be able to rely on graduates produced by these institutions, the faculty and staff must be paid fairly.
You have heard2760 or will hear from speakers today with the data on how low and unfair wages are impacting the existing2766 faculty and staff. Allow2768 me to add my own voice to back2770 them up and connect the dots that based on decades in the business community recruiting and hiring talent and helping organizations grow and thrive, the unfulfilled positions and turnover that come from uncompetitive compensation inevitably negatively impact the quality of a product. In this case, that product is education. When you're in a state like Massachusetts, where our people are the greatest natural resource, a negative impact on education is a negative impact on the economy. I thank you for the opportunity to address you today, and I urge you to support this bill, and I welcome any of your questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Any questions from members of the committee?
There being none, thank you, sir, for joining us virtually and for your testimony.
I'm going to welcome, someone in to testify as well, before the committee. But I also wanna before I introduce the next individual, just mentioned to those assembled and those joining us virtually that I know a lot of members, my colleagues in the house have a caucus at noon that there will be excused from the hearing to attend. Obviously, an important discussion taking place amongst the house, that members will have to, participate in. That being said, we're going to, welcome to, testify or to the before the committee, secretary Lauren Jones, secretary of the executive office of labor and workforce development. Secretary Jones, thank you for being here today, and thank you for, what we expect to be some very meaningful statements. Secretary Jones and team.
SPEAKER15 - Thank you.
Good morning.
SPEAKER1 - Good morning.
SPEAKER15 - Just give me a minute to get settled.
2898 LAUREN JONES - EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF LABOR & WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT - Good morning, Chair Oliveira, Chair McMurtry, and certainly members of the joint committee on labor and workforce development.2906 I appreciate the invitation and opportunity to testify before you today. I'm joined by my chief of staff, Kate Kelly, as well as my Undersecretary and general counsel, Ali Warren, and my legislative director, Jess Keaton as well. We appreciate that we were able to join you today. In March, just several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to join Chair Olivera and members of the House and Senate Ways and Means to testify on Governor Healey's proposed budget for fiscal year 2026. I'd like to use today to share a high level picture of the Healey Driscoll administration's labor and workforce strategy as an introduction to some and a reintroduction to others on the committee. The mission of EOLWD is to enhance the quality, resiliency, and stability of the Commonwealth's workforce. LWD cultivates a skilled workforce across industries, provides economic stability for workers affected by job loss, injury, or illness, and upholds standards for safe working conditions within the workplace.
About a year ago in March 2024, I joined Governor Healey in releasing our administration's first workforce agenda, focused on strategies led by LWD and in collaboration with many other state agencies to attract and retain talent, develop talent, lead by example, and modernize our workforce infrastructure to best support job seekers, workers, and employers. I start by highlighting this because state workforce investments span beyond LWD within the state budget. This is represented by the cross secretariat collaboration in our administration's workforce agenda and is also underscored by the close working relationship with the Secretariats within the workforce skills cabinet, including the Executive Office of Education, Economic Development, Health and Human Services, and chaired by me as Secretary of labor and workforce development. I also have the pleasure of working closely with other Secretariats to deliver workforce strategies, such as on clean energy, supporting veterans, and returning citizens.
Specific to EOLWD's budget, Governor Healey's H1 recommendations represent $112,900,000 in FY26. As an introduction, LWD is comprised of eight departments addressing a variety of issues of great importance to your constituents and our constituents across the Commonwealth. The Department of Career Services connects job seekers with employment opportunities and provides access to career counseling, job training, and job search resources. The Department of Labor Standards sets and enforces work place safety regulations and wage standards. The Department of Labor Relations ensures fair and lawful labor practices by overseeing the collective bargaining process, resolving labor disputes, and enforcing public sector labor laws. More recently, DLR has been charged with the implementation of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 150f, which was enacted following the passage of ballot question 3 in November, a first in the nation initiative to allow transportation network drivers the right to unionize and collectively bargain with transportation network companies.
DLR is responsible for oversight of this new body of work. Additionally, our division of apprentice standards oversees and promotes registered apprenticeship programs across the Commonwealth. Our department of Economic Research produces, analyzes, and distributes various labor reports, like our monthly unemployment3153 and job numbers, and other resources related to Massachusetts' labor market. Finally, our Department of Industrial Accidents oversees the Massachusetts Workers' Compensation System to ensure injured workers and employers have necessary resources. I said finally, but I have two more departments. Two additional departments that are actually not reflected in the state budget are worth noting. Our Department of Family and Medical Leave, which administers paid leave for workers who require temporary leave due to personal or family health situations and illnesses, due to personal or family health situations and illnesses is self funded through a trust.
The Department of Unemployment Assistance, which provides temporary financial assistance to eligible workers who are seeking reemployment, is 100% funded who are seeking reemployment, is 100% funded federally through the US Department of Labor. I'd also like to note that in addition to DUA, the Departments of Labor Standards, Economic Research, Career Services, and Apprenticeship Standards also receive federal funding, which in some cases amounts to a substantial portion of the department's annual budget. There are also two programs I'd like to highlight that are separate from the budget. First is the longstanding3228 workforce training fund,3230 a resource made available to eligible employers who pay into the3234 unemployment trust fund to provide matching funds for upskilling and retaining existing workers. In FY24, the workforce training fund leveraged over $37,200,000 in grants, and 27,900 workers were trained.
On average, the workforce training fund3256 maintains an annual budget of approximately $20,000,000, but in fiscal year 24, represented an anomaly, with 21% net growth among participating employers due to unused funding that carried forward during the pandemic. Additionally, recognizing barriers individuals face to pursue job training and employment, LWD launched last year, the workforce skills fund. This fund was designed as a pilot, leveraging ARPA dollars3289 to provide $3,0003291 to $5,000 in stipends to eligible participants3295 enrolled in either a grant supported by the workforce competitiveness trust fund, a line item in the budget, or through a program of the career technical initiative, another line item in the budget. The workforce skills fund was a five month pilot program that supported just over 1,1003313 unemployed and underemployed residents enrolled in job training.
We are currently preparing to survey participants and3321 participating training providers to assess3323 the impact and benefit of this stipend pilot. Ensuring a strong workforce is a major priority of the Healey Driscoll administration. Within LWD, Commonwealth Corporation is a quasi public agency that is responsible for administrating a significant part of LWD's workforce grant portfolio. When resourced, Commonwealth Corporation has demonstrated an ability to move significant investments at scale to address needs across many critical sectors in the Commonwealth. In FY24, for example, through a combination of funding vehicles such as ARPA, the workforce competitiveness trust fund, the Career Technical Initiative, and the Workforce Training Fund, Commonwealth Corporation awarded grants that are projected to serve 41,000 individuals with 3,000 employers supported. Unprecedented levels of funding and a result of historic projections for impact to the state's workforce.
Over the past year, we have been engaging with employers statewide and across regions to identify targeted workforce needs in high growth industries and align our efforts to ensure Massachusetts workers are equipped with skills needed to meet employer demand. For example, in October, we launched an enhanced web platform known as Mass Talent to improve ease for employers and skilled talent to connect, especially in high growth industries and directing users to additional resources and career opportunities through Mass Hire's Job Quest tool. That's mass.gov forward/masstalent. Last year, our division of apprentice standards registered more than 4,000 new apprentices and pre apprentices, including nearly a thousand new expansion industry apprentices in fields like early education, health care, life sciences, financial services, and technology. DAS also approved more than 100 new apprenticeship and pre apprenticeship programs, opening doors for future apprentices. I share these statistics to demonstrate that registered apprenticeship is increasingly serving as an effective tool in new industries modelled off of the long standing model with our construction and building trades to help literally build our talent.
Lastly, we know our workforce infrastructure is reliant upon our ability to adapt and modernize when necessary. LWD and our Department of Unemployment Assistance is currently in the final stages of the second phase of our employment modernization and transformation project. We just did a wonderful briefing this week and look forward to continuing to keep you apprised. Launching soon, this EMT project will replace the current UI online system used by claimants with a more streamlined and user friendly experience. As state officials and staff learned at this briefing yesterday with the project team, LWD has taken great strides to ensure the new system is available on multiple languages, available to individuals employing screen reader technology, is mobile and tablet friendly, and most importantly, uses plain language to communicate the status and processing of claims. We know improved customer service is a concern of many legislators and your constituents, and rightfully so, so please know that it is a priority for LWD and our administration. LWD and DUA remain a committed partner with you and your staff as3544 we plan to roll out this new system.
Additionally, as you know, the Healey Driscoll administration inherited a multibillion dollar liability on the unemployment insurance trust fund, and we worked diligently to reach a suitable resolution with federal government while also making improvements to the UI system. Governor Healey has tasked Secretary Gorzkowicz and I with conducting a comprehensive review of our unemployment insurance system with the goal of achieving long term solvency. We have engaged with business and labor leaders to identify solutions to create long term stability for the fund while supporting employers and impacted workers, and this engagement will continue. We look forward to also engaging with House and Senate leadership, this committee and the legislature as we assess approaches needed to create long term solvency. Once again, I would like to thank this joint committee for giving me the opportunity to present this testimony on behalf of the Healey Driscoll administration and the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. I certainly look forward to working with you in the legislature in advancing our initiatives, building on key investments, and certainly helping to support our workers,3621 job seekers, individuals, families, and our whole Commonwealth. Thank you.
MCMURTRY - Madam Secretary, I want to take a moment to thank you on behalf3629 of the committee for being here. Obviously, you and your team have your hands full, and I realize you, also have a busy schedule. So, we're super grateful that you came here in person, and we look forward to working with you, your team, the administration to continue to develop the best workforce across the Commonwealth, so thank you. I know some members of the committee are going to excuse themselves as you do, to go on to the next meeting, we really appreciate you being here. We also want to take you up on the offer that you extended to the committee to join you on a briefing in person. So, we'll follow back up with that. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER15 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. So we're gonna take a moment, before we call them the next individual testify, to have members excuse themselves from the committee. And then we're going to go to a virtual, Julie McNeil, Kenerson, who will be testifying, virtually. If you can prepare for that, just a moment. We'll come back.
Julie McNeil Kenerson, to testifying remotely on House 2185 and Senate 1365. Julie, are you there?
SPEAKER17 - Yeah. Thank you so much. Can you hear me okay?
SPEAKER1 - We can. Thank you. Go ahead.
JULIE MCNEILL KENERSON - MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION - HB 2185 - SB 1365 - So first3735 of all, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you all today. I want to let you know that I grew up in3741 the city, in Dorchester, in a working class family. My family, made up of two parents who did not attend college, and they made a lot of sacrifices in order for my brother and I to have what I would consider luxuries at the time So, we both went to Catholic school, we went to Catholic high school, we took trips to Disney World and we also had a summer home. Both of my parents worked for the MBTA, and have recently retired. Their dream for me was to be able to get me to a place where I could actually attend college and so that is exactly what I did. I'm 42 years old now, I have two kids of my own, 10 and six, I live about 25 minutes outside of the city in a working class town. I have a master's degree in education from UMass Boston and I spent about three years working part time jobs in public higher Ed before finally getting the position that I'm currently in.
So, I work for Massasoit as a full time disability counselor and coordinator, I have been here for 15 years now and I also work part time as a Senate district coordinator for the Massachusetts Teachers Association. I want to tell you that putting into adequate and eloquent words, just the number of times that I have to worry about paying bills is challenging. And quite frankly, it's embarrassing. To be here is putting me outside of my comfort. It's definitely not easy to explain to people, just how heavy that is and how much it weighs on you to worry about paying bills on time. So for my children, I don't sacrifice for luxuries. I sacrifice for basic needs. I am oftentimes sending out payments just a few days before our grace period ends. I have oftentimes used credit cards to pay for basic needs like food, gas, medical co pays. My older son requires physical therapy, which is something I put off actually for several years, because I was worried about even just paying medical co pays.
So, you know in terms3873 of what I'm doing right now quite frankly,3875 I have a home equity line of credit on my house that I'm using to supplement my income. I am getting myself into further and further debt just to pay my bills, and that's with a full time and part time job. When I talk with people about what I do for a living, they would never imagine that these are the extents I'm going to just to keep a roof over my head and to provide for my children. They see me as somebody that works for a community college and works for a teachers association, and they would make the assumption that I'm doing just fine and I'm really not. I know that I am creating more debt by utilizing the one that I just mentioned, but I don't see any other way to make ends meet and I do worry about my own children's future. My aging mother helps so that I don't have to worry about things like before and after school care and summer care.
I know I'm not the only person that works here at Massasoit or elsewhere that is making these kinds of sacrifices, and it is a tremendous concern for many of the people that I work with, and many of them have had to leave. So, I will wrap this up by just saying this, the sustainability of public higher education in Massachusetts is3951 at a terrible risk, this is a silent3953 crisis. We cannot recruit and retain high quality educators in Massachusetts and we are the hub. We are the hub of education in in this country, and we absolutely need to make this investment in order to have a sustainable public higher education system in this state. So, I just want to say thank you to you all for being here today and for allowing me to speak on behalf of my colleagues. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you, Julie. I appreciate you taking the time to offer some, important testimony, and you seemed quite comfortable. So continued success, and thank you for, sharing that with us. Are there any questions? Alright. And, next we have, Phyllis Keenan, representing, Mount Wachusett Community College, president of Mount Wachusett, again speaking on the same bills, house 21 85 and senate 13 60
Phyllis will be joining us remotely as well. Phyllis, go ahead when you're ready.
SPEAKER18 - Can you hear me now?
SPEAKER1 - We can.
SPEAKER18 - Yay. Technology works.
PHYLLIS KEENAN - MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITY COLLEGE COUNCIL - HB 2185 - SB 1365 - Thank you for allowing me to speak with you today. I want to speak on House Bill 2185, Senate Bill 1365. I am Phyllis Keenan, and I live in Amherst. I teach mostly community college developmental math, which is the math taken to prepare for college level math. Many students have a life changing event with this, it's equivalent to learning to read as an adult. As the students learn these math skills, they develop confidence and their anxiety reduces, they see themselves as students who can learn and succeed in their goals and they become comfortable with math in many areas of their life. They change how they see themselves into being learners who can achieve their goals. Community colleges change students, families, and communities.
However, one in five college students on average in our country live with mental health issues significant enough to miss classes, projects, and or drop out. Massachusetts Community College is an open enrollment system, and I don't expect that to be any lower. That means in a class of 25 students, I have five students on average who have significant mental health issues. In my classes, I have experienced students who died from suicide, went into labor, had panic attacks, and who never came back. Yet, we only have one mental health provider at the whole college. As a professor, I need time to process what I experience in my classes for my own mental health, and I would like to be more involved with my students in campus. However, as an adjunct professor, I work at three other places and many full time faculty and staff have additional jobs.
When my sons were young, I could only work one job. Due to very low wages, when I was raising my two sons, I received fuel assistance, food stamps, and SSI. I could not get a car loan and I drove my cars over 200,000 miles. I remember a month when my sons wanted to buy a book at the book fair, but I had no money after buying food or gas. My sons cried and then the school called me and told me that my sons needed long pants and winter coats for recess, but I was out of money, the school nurse gave us money from a clothing fund for clothes for students at that school. So, I was given $100 to buy both my sons their winter clothes that year. Student success is impacted by lack of time and campus involvement on one campus. Raising our wages could solve this problem. I call on legislators today to invest in community colleges by increasing wages for adjunct faculty and full time faculty and staff. Make Mass educate work. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. And thank you for sharing some very personal testimony and certainly meaningful. We appreciate you being here. Do, any members of the committee have questions? No? Thank you, Phyllis,
SPEAKER18 - and have a nice day. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - So the the today's hearing was broken up into 2 parts of of testimony on, specific bills, but then also informational section. So before we move on to the informational section, I just wanna see if there's anyone here that wants to offer a testimony in person on, the matters that we took up, House 70, House 2164, House 2185, Senate, 1365, and Senate 1369. Is there anyone that we may have overlooked or here that would like to add additional testimony?
Okay. Well, there seeing none.4249 We're going to move on to, the, again, the informational4253 portion.
We welcome, mister Jason Salgado and, Stephanie Herron Rice from the Greater Boston Legal Services to testify in person or to share with us some information. We appreciate it. Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER19 - Thank you.
JASON SALGADO - GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES - Thank you, Chair McMurtry,4278 Chair Oliveira, committee members, and staff. I thank you for the opportunity to introduce ourselves as hearings for this session get underway. My name is Jason Salgado, I'm a staff attorney in the employment law unit of Greater Boston Legal Services, at GBLS. My colleagues and I represent the Commonwealth's lowest wage workers, helping them access benefits, including unemployment insurance and paid family and medical leave, and vindicate their rights under the Commonwealth's Wage and Hour, anti discrimination, and anti retaliation laws. In addition to providing direct representation, we partner with worker centers throughout Massachusetts and our allies in the labor movement to develop and advocate for legislation that would strengthen workplace benefits and protections for our clients and workers like them. All of this legislative advocacy is driven by the experiences and needs identified by our clients and community partners.
This session, we have several priority bills before this committee, they would make improvements to the unemployment insurance, paid family medical leave, and workers' compensation laws, and help ensure that these programs better serve and protect the Commonwealth's most vulnerable workers who face the steepest barriers to accessing these benefits and protections. We will submit a list of our priority bills to the committee after, and we look forward to working with you all this session on these bills and help ensure that Massachusetts continues its long tradition of protecting workers, especially given the challenges and uncertainty posed by the federal government. We also recognize that this committee will face significant challenges and be asked to solve them this session, including the solvency of the UI trust fund as the Secretary mentioned earlier. We've worked closely with the legislator and the executive office of labor and workforce development on these issues in the past and hope to continue working with you all and the administration to find workable solutions this session.
With the chances of a recession increasing, we must ensure that this critical safety net for workers is protected rather than weakened by calls to decrease benefits and restrict eligibility. Now is the time to secure the long term solvency of the UI trust fund by updating and indexing funding formulas, so that employer contributions keep pace with wage growth and ensuring large corporations pay their fair share into the system. In addition, as Secretary Jones mentioned, in just a few weeks, the Department of Unemployment Assistance will be launching its new online benefit system for claimants. While we're hopeful that this site will bring much needed improvements to the system, we anticipate that as with any major technology project, there may be challenges for some claimants at the start. We'll be closely monitoring the launch and in communication with the department to try and ensure challenges are addressed in a timely fashion. We're glad to provide any assistance to your offices and constituents as we prepare for and help workers adjust to this new platform. Thank you again for this opportunity, we look forward to working with you all, I'll turn it to my colleague, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE HERRON RICE - GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES - Thank you. Just brief introduction. My name is Stephanie Herron Rice. I'm not going to recount what we do because Jason said it so well, but I do want to emphasize something about how we do it, and that's legislative advocacy driven by the experience and needs identified by our clients, the lowest wage workers in Massachusetts and the community groups that we partner with. That's something that's integral to GBLS's way of working and why we're here today. Because the priority bills, for me, I work in paid family medical leave specifically and and unemployment, of course, but those bills and the content is driven directly by my experiences and our experiences representing individual clients in pursuing these benefits and the barriers that we see in that process. My first language is Spanish, I'm from Panama, I love saying that because there's so many of us out there doing great work and it's not always apparent. Most of my clients are Spanish speakers, and so connecting with them on that level and then being here before you moving forward agenda that directly comes from their experiences and their barriers to accessing these benefits is something that I'm really, really proud of. So, thank you for the time. And like Jason said, happy to serve your offices, your constituents in any way that we can connecting them with these benefits.
MCMURTRY - Thank you to both of you for being here and for the important work that you do. We appreciate the, insight, and we look forward to your list being shared with us and, look forward to continuing the conversation. Appreciate it. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER19 - Thank you
SPEAKER20 - very much.
SPEAKER1 - Next, we would like to welcome, Lindsay Kenny from the Massachusetts AFL CIO. Lindsay is here in person. Appreciate it, taking your time out of your day as well to be here. Thank you, Lindsay.
SPEAKER9 - This is my job, so I'm happy to be here.
LINDSAY KENNEY - MASSACHUSETTS AFL-CIO - Thank you, Chair McMurtry, Chair Olivera, and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak for you today on behalf of President Chrissy Lynch of the Mass AFL-CIO. I'm Lindsay Kenney, I'm the legislative director, and I'm proud to represent over 800 local unions, representing nearly half a million union members across the Commonwealth. We advocate for legislation to create a Massachusetts that works for working people. The State Federation and our hundreds of local unions are looking forward to working with you this session on the nearly 30 labor endorsed bills and counting before you. We want to partner with you to expand organizing rights to new groups of workers, including app based delivery drivers, to fulfill the promise that all workers deserve the choice to form a union regardless of their industry. We want to partner closely with you to find solutions to the impending insolvency of the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund in ways that do not reduce benefits or eligibility for workers.
We want to partner with you to fight wage theft in all of its forms, including through misclassification and loopholes in our prevailing wage laws. To be blunt, working people and their families are struggling, a fact, all to clear to many of us and many of your constituents. Workers face an affordability crisis while wages remain stagnant. Multinational corporations have been given leave to run roughshod over the rights of working people for decades, and the labor movement is under attack from a hostile federal administration. We filed the Protect Labor Act with Rep Decker and Senator Feeney to insulate Massachusetts from the Trump administration's efforts to eliminate labor unions entirely. This is not an over exaggeration, it is the exact game plan laid out in project 2025. There have already been numerous executive orders to get rid of federal collective bargaining agreements in just the first 90 days of the4666 Trump administration. Private sector workers in Massachusetts derive their ability4670 to organize from federal law, the National Labor Relations Act, which preempts4674 Massachusetts from legislating private sector unions under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board.
No worker should find their union disappear overnight or with the stroke of a pen. Massachusetts has a long history of codifying stronger worker protections than what are provided at the federal level, and this is another moment in which the Commonwealth must serve as a backstop from federal attacks. Massachusetts AFL, in partnership with the National AFL, have developed a way to protect these workers using a right wing tactic of trigger laws, to ensure that if certain circumstances are met, the right to organize at the federal level is immediately protected in Massachusetts at a state level. I will4715 continue to oppose any efforts to undermine our existing labor protections, including crucial penalties to deter violations of the state's Wage Act. In addition, we remain very focused on efforts to protect workers from new and emerging data driven technologies, such as AI and automated decision systems. We filed the FAIR Act, which we hope to use some of the provisions in that bill, in any bills that move forward in the Labor Committee. I look forward to working with all of you to move strong labor policy in Massachusetts. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, Lindsey. Appreciate it. Thank you
SPEAKER21 - so much.
SPEAKER1 - I don't believe there's any questions. Alright. And send our best to, the president.
SPEAKER15 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thanks for being here.
Joining us remotely is, the associate industries of associate industries, Massachusetts, mister Sam Lawson. Sam, can you hear us?
SPEAKER6 - I'm I'm right here.
SPEAKER1 - Oh. Through the miracle of technology.
SPEAKER14 - Yeah. There are incredible things with
SPEAKER1 - technology that exists. Zip a little press of a button and you appear. So, joining us in person from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts is mister Sam Larson. Thank you, Sam.
SAM LARSON - ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES OF MASSACHUSETTS - Good afternoon, Chair McMurtry, Chair Olivera, and members the committee. My name is Sam Larson, I'm the vice president of government affairs, Associated Industries of Massachusetts. AIM is the largest statewide business association with over 3,400 members and 50 different sectors of the economy, whereas it represents some of the largest employers in the state down to some many, small and medium sized main street businesses, our average member is about 200 employees. As the leading voice of the employer community, we often have a strong interest in the members before this committee and the interests, the issues you work on. Last session, we worked with the chairs to develop and eventually pass, historic pay transparency legislation. We believe our collaboration with advocates, this committee, and the staff can serve as a model for achieving consensus and outcomes that work for everyone, we look to continue to build on that process this session.
Our members primary concern this session revolves around the cost of doing business in an increasingly unstable regulatory environment at the federal level. In particular for this committee, we're concerned with one, first and foremost, the structural insolvency with the state's unemployment insurance fund. We look forward to working with you all to find a solution that works for everyone. Two, the spike in kind of gotcha lawsuits, using the wage act to target many members for technical violations, you heard some of the higher Ed institutions dealing with that earlier, it's prevalent in a lot of industries as well. Three, continue issues with the costs and implementation of paid family leave program. Four, what we're calling the statewide talent crisis. We have employers of all sizes and shapes that cannot fill the talent that they need, despite low and persistently low unemployment, we still have vacancies across many sectors and many industries. I look forward to working with you all this session and, the committee and your staff, and I I welcome any questions at this time.
MCMURTRY - Since you're here, any questions? Appreciate you showing up in person, and we look forward to the collaboration this session. Glad to hear that there's some productive measures taken up in past sessions, and, there's obviously a lot of significant issues. So, thank you, Sam. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER6 - Yeah. Same. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - The Massachusetts Brewers Guild being represented by, Katie Stinchon. Katie is joining us remotely unless she uses Sam's transportation mode.
SPEAKER15 - I've gotta get
SPEAKER22 - a hand on that, that George Jetson
SPEAKER1 - Yeah.
SPEAKER22 - You know, zoom in, like, actual zoom in. Right?
SPEAKER1 - What what
SPEAKER22 - no. But thank you so much for Thank you.
KATIE STINCHON - MASSACHUSETTS BREWERS GUILD - Chairman Olivera, Chairman McMurtry, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today and introduce you to the Mass Brewers Guild. I'm Katie Stinchon, the Executive Director of the Non-profit Trade Association that promotes, protects, and strengthens craft brewing here in the Commonwealth. Founded in 2007 by a group of passionate brewers who understood that while they may compete for shelves and draft lines, they're stronger when they're united, and today, we proudly represent more than 230 operational breweries across the Commonwealth from the Berkshires to The Cape. Our members are small manufacturing businesses that create local jobs, attract tourism and economic development and invest in their communities. Craft brewing industry in Massachusetts employs more than 6,000 people statewide, contributes nearly $2,000,000,000 annually to the state's economy and operates in nearly every county in the Commonwealth.
Many breweries are located in gateway cities and rural communities, helping to revitalize main streets and bring manufacturing back to underinvested areas. Breweries are also workforce developers offering on the job training, career advancement opportunities, safety and compliance education. And like many industries, we're facing workforce challenges, particularly in filling skilled, technical and physically demanding roles. We're just excited to explore partnerships with the Commonwealth to support the training and development of the next generation of brewers, lab techs, operation managers, and hospitality staff. So, with that, I thank you for the opportunity to share more about our industry, to work collaboratively together, and just talk about the important role that we play at the Massachusetts workforce and economy. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have with the exception of what's my favorite brewery. We appreciate you keeping our collection of small business owners in mind as you navigate a challenging year.
MCMURTRY - Thank you, Katie. Did you say that the small brewers contribute $2,000,000,000 annually to the Commonwealth?
STINCHON - Correct.
MCMURTRY - Well, thank you for the work that you do on many levels. So, I appreciate you being here, being able to testify remotely. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER22 - Thank you so much. We appreciate it.
SPEAKER1 - Next is, joining us remotely as well, Greg Beeman from the Associated Builders of Contractors of Massachusetts. Mister Beeman, thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule to share with us, some important matters.
SPEAKER16 - Thank you very much. Can you can you hear me?
SPEAKER1 - We can. Go ahead.
GREG BEEMAN - ASSOCIATED BUILDERS & CONTRACTORS OF MASSACHUSETTS - Thank you, Chairman McMurtry, Chairman Oliveira, really appreciate the chance to speak to you, and not on a particular legislative matter, but, just to tell you briefly a little bit more about our organization. Associated Builders and Contractors represents commercial construction contractors, and that includes general contractors and subcontractors, as well as suppliers and other companies that support those contractors. We have 480 companies throughout Massachusetts, and those companies employ more than 25,000 workers. We're part of a national association that has 67 chapters and 20,000 member firms across the country. Our member contractors are open shop or non-union. They employ and develop their own company specific workforce, and our member companies work alongside their union counterparts regularly on public and private construction across the state.
We strongly believe the fact that here in Massachusetts, we have a strong union and open shop sector that both contribute to talents results in a real benefit for the Commonwealth. So, we look forward to working with this committee on a variety of matters throughout this session that will affect our industry. One of the most important things we do, and this certainly is reflected through a number of the bills that you see each year in this session on apprentice training, is the training we provide to our members. We have an educational affiliate called the Gould Construction Institute, and that's a licensed private school that provides apprenticeship, craft and management training to our member companies in the industry at large. This year, we have over 1,200 apprentices in various trades, and we are a sponsor of a registered apprenticeship program with the Mass Division of apprentice standards.
To help develop the future workforce that the industry really needs desperately, we have established Building Mass5206 Careers, which is a not5208 for profit affiliate of ours that promotes construction careers and pre apprenticeship programs that are an entry point into the industry. We're spending a lot more of our time doing this and meeting with young people and frankly, people of all ages. I think the efforts of our industry are now beginning to pay off as we're seeing some new interest in construction careers, whereas a few years ago that was not the case. Construction is a great industry with many career avenues to provide excellent family supporting salaries and rewarding work. I know that supporting this type of good jobs with rewarding careers is a priority of this committee, and we look forward to working with you in this important mission. Again, thanks for the opportunity to do this introduction today, we appreciate it. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Thank you for taking time out of your day to, give us an introduction of the associated builders and contractors. Appreciate you being here. Have a nice day.
SPEAKER16 - Thank you. You as well.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Next, we're going to have an in person introduction from, mister Ed Donga, Edward Donga from the Labor Relations Division of Construction Industries of Massachusetts. Thank you, sir. Thank you for being here, and thank you for being here in person.
SPEAKER23 - Thank you.
EDWARD DONGA - CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES OF MASSACHUSETTS - Good afternoon, Chair McMurtry, Chair Oliveira, and the rest of the members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here to speak today. My name is Attorney Eddie Donga, I'm with the firm O'Reilly, Grosso, Grosso and Jones, and I'm here today on behalf of the Construction Industries of Massachusetts Labor Relations Division or CIM-LRD for short. The CIM-LRD is comprised of union signatory contractors in Massachusetts. Our contractors build the roads, the bridges, the tunnels, the train stations, essentially the infrastructure that gets the citizens of the Commonwealth to and from where they need to go each day. We have several priority bills from the committee this session, including, most notably bills on the prevailing wage. We will be happy to offer testimony on those bills when they come to hearing. But, otherwise, we look forward to working with5341 the committee on our continued focuses, including workforce development, expanding the industry. We have an aging workforce5349 and making sure that we have the next generation coming up ready to slot into those roles because as I'm sure you're all well aware, construction in Massachusetts continues to be a pressing priority. So, we look forward to working with the committee to really continue to grow opportunities and expand opportunities to advance the industry. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Thank you. There are lots of opportunities. Really grateful that you took time out of your day to be here with us and to make an introduction.
SPEAKER23 - Alright. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Another, individual here to, make an introduction from the Massachusetts Workforce Association, Cole Angley.
COLE ANGLEY - MASSACHUSETTS WORKFORCE ASSOCIATION - Good afternoon, Chair Oliveira, Chair McMurtry, good to see you, members of the committee. My name is Cole Angley, I am the executive director of the Massachusetts Workforce Association. I hear a lot of conversation about the need for workforce and the MWA represents the public workforce infrastructure and system. We encompass an array of partners and stakeholders, most importantly, including the Mass Hire career centers and the workforce boards. The MWA provides a unified voice for the state's regionally led workforce development system to ensure that it is responsive to the dynamic demands of businesses, job seekers, incumbent workers, and youth throughout the Commonwealth. What I think a lot of folks are familiar with their workforce boards and their career centers. I know Senator Oliveira met with Pete Farkas out there at Hampton, I appreciate you taking the time to do that.
But our Mass Hire career centers and workforce boards really primarily serve two folks; job seekers and employers. For our job seekers, they provide job search assistance, skill assessment, job readiness, career counseling, referrals to GED programs and community and social partners, and training programs to name a few. For our employers and our businesses and across the Commonwealth, they provide statewide job posting, workforce needs and analysis, they provide labor market research for their 16 regions across the Commonwealth. They connect businesses to hiring incentives such as tax credits and grant programs, and they connect businesses through supporting apprenticeships and on the job training programs. Importantly, our workforce boards also administer our Youth Works and School to Career Connecting Activities program, which are state funded youth employment programs that put thousands of young adults and kids into summer and full time positions across the Commonwealth.
Something that I know is extremely important to this committee and to the Massachusetts Workforce Association. In FY24, there was over 124,000 individuals that were served through the Mass Hire Career Centers, including 11,000 active apprenticeships and over 15,000 business customers that were served through our career centers and our workforce boards. This is particularly important right now as we are seeing an uptick on the unemployment rate. 196,000 individuals are unemployed in the Commonwealth representing 5% unemployment rate in February in Massachusetts. Importantly, like many folks, we are seeing a reduction in federal funding. The public workforce system is created at the federal level and receives heavy federal funding, but, we do rely on state funding as well. We are seeing at least probably a 10% cut for this next program year and potentially even further, reduction in federal funding the following year.
On top of that, I did just want to mention on behalf of my friends at the Workforce Solutions Group, which the MWA is a proud member of. The Workforce Solutions Group is a statewide advocacy coalition that brings together business, labor, community, and workforce organizations to advance a clear and unified policy agenda for workforce development. We've reached out to many members on this committee to request meetings to go over our budget priorities for this year. WSG is just a great organization that really brings together businesses and workforce development professionals and to have that unified voice and an agenda for the workforce development across the Commonwealth. We really appreciate the partnership that we've had with this committee as well as the legislature. I think we've increased workforce development line items by over 200,000,000 over the past few years. That has gone a really, really far away in increasing workforce development and making it better here in the Commonwealth, which we know is a huge need, not only for our employers, but for our job seekers as well. So, we really appreciate the time and happy to take any questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Well, thank you, Cole. And on behalf of, MWA, appreciate you coming in to make a personal introduction. We look forward to working with you throughout the session.
SPEAKER7 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Have a good afternoon.
Next, in person is, Franklin Perlata, representative English for New Bostonians. Thank you so much, sir, for being here, making an introduction to the committee.
FRANKLIN PERALTA - ENGLISH FOR NEW BOSTONIANS - HB 2080 - SB 1326 - Thank you so much, Representative McMurtry, Senator Oliveira, nice to see you again, thank you to the members and the staff of the committee. My name is Franklin Peralta, I'm the executive director for business engagement and public policy at English for New Bostonians. I'm also here on behalf of the English for a Strong Economy Coalition, and I'm here to express my support for the bill, the House number 2080 and Senate 1326. This week I'm celebrating 18 years that I moved from The Dominican Republic to Massachusetts. I mentioned this because nobody welcomed me at the airport saying, hey, we heard that you have a master degree in education, here's how you can put that degree to good use in the state. It was the ESOL, the English teacher and the counselor at the community English program that I attended that showed me the way to find a good job in the education field. And like that, you know, we do workplace ESL classes when companies call us to come to the company and teach English to their employees.
The majority of the reason is because they want to promote these people, and the companies are making a direct investment. They have to pay the time that the workers are in training, and I'm not talking about an afternoon, I'm talking about between 80 to 150 hours of training because it takes a while to learn English, but they have to do this with funds from the state. And right now, the state is having two, three, four different funding sources, employers cannot handle that. So what this bill will do is to create a statewide ESOL coordinator who will bring these funding sources together to make sure that we have a system that is bringing English for employment. We need it and we are going to continue in it. To give you an example, one in every 10 workers in the state of Massachusetts is not fluent in English. In real number, we're talking about more than half a million workers. So, we need to take advantage that employers want to train the workers and teach the English that they need. But for that, we need that bill to pass and be able to have a coordinated system. Thank you so much, I'm happy to answer any question.
MCMURTRY - Well, frankly, I just want to make a comment, that you're certainly welcomed here today to the Massachusetts State House and it's really impressive that you've been motivated to help others. So, thank you for making an introduction and thank you for your advocacy on some important matters. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER2 - Matters. Absolutely. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Going to go back to a virtual introduction. Stuart Coleman and Mara Mann representing the Mass Staffing Association, believe adjourning us virtually. Mister Coleman and miss Mann, can you hear us?
Okay. Maybe they'll show up in person.
Next, we wanna welcome, in person, Jess Moore from the MAS Restaurant Association.
Hello.
SPEAKER24 - Are we still morning? No. We're afternoon.
JESSICA MOORE - MASSACHUSETTS REASTAURANT ASSOCIATION - Good afternoon, Chair McMurtry, Chair Oliveira, and other distinguished members of the committee on labor and workforce development. For those of you that I have not had the pleasure to meet yet, my name is Jessica Moore, and I serve as the director of government affairs for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. With over 16,000 restaurants in Massachusetts, it is no doubt that the restaurant industry is a very important part of our economy. The restaurant industry employs approximately one in every nine workers in some way, and that makes the industry the second largest private industry in the Commonwealth. Currently, restaurants are experiencing increased labor costs, sky high credit card fees, and we all know that inflation has affected the cost of commodities. Average wholesale food prices have increased 9.7% over the last year, which is the steepest annual income since the pandemic.
I'm not supposed to say that word anymore, right? And menu prices are not keeping up with wholesale food prices, barely growing over 2% over the past year. A close look at our very important meals tax collection rates will show that menu prices at business is being infected by inflation, as over the last year, from February 2024 to February 2025, meals tax collections have only5950 grown 1.2%. So, that has not kept up with inflation. We all know that meals tax collection is very important, not only to the5960 state as a whole, but to our state budget, which the House budget just came out, right? Go get your copy, and that's estimated about $1,600,000,000, this next year. So, even though there are many factors that are affecting the industry, our restaurants continue to work hard to provide a great experience for our guests, and I'm really here just to offer myself, and I look forward to working with you all over the legislative session and the the whole industry, we're happy to help with anything that we can, and, we really just hope that we can work together to make the restaurant industry continue to thrive. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Well, Jess, thanks for taking time out of your schedule to be here. We look forward to working with you in the important segment of the economy, you represent. And please send our best to, president Clark.
SPEAKER24 - I will.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you so much.
Thank you. Mister, Coluzzi Chris Coluzzi from the National Federation of Independent,
Businesses.
Thank you,
SPEAKER21 - mister chairman.
CHRISTOPHER CARLOZZI - NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES - Thank you, Chairman McMurtry, Chair Olivera and members of the committee. My name is Christopher Carlozzi, I'm the state director for the National Federation of Independent Business here in Massachusetts. We represent a wide range of business owners from every corner of the Commonwealth in a wide range of industries. We have retail, wholesale, service, hospitality, manufacturers, even agriculture. So, a wide range of businesses, many of which I know you've set foot in, been to these businesses, Chair Oliveira, you're just in one of our members who has a large entertainment facility, we appreciate your time. I know, Rep Sweezey has spent a lot of time in a small business in his time. Also, Mr. Chairman, I know you've spent a considerable amount of time in a small business. So, yes, by your reaction, I know you know what it's like to run one. So, those are the types of Main Street businesses that we represent here at NFIB.
I just wanted to address a couple of the very pressing issues that play into both Main Street competitiveness as well as affordability. Two, I'd say,6093 overarching themes we hear often as to how to make Massachusetts a better place. We've heard two letters quite a bit during this hearing, UI. I6103 mean, it's a major issue for our members. It's something that's very much on their radar screens. I heard the Secretary mentioned earlier a commitment to bringing solvency to the fund. We want to ensure that it's not on the backs of small business owners here in Massachusetts. They are already dealing with the after effects of a pandemic in which $2,700,000,000 was put on their backs for layoffs that were not their fault, that were as a result of the shutdowns and restrictions that were ordered by the state. Now they're paying back that $2,700,000,000. They're already dealing with a system that has some of the highest UI taxes in the nation right now, in which eligibility, our very lax eligibility, and our benefits, which are some of the highest in the nation, play into that.
So, they're dealing with that. And now they've had an added $2,100,000,000 put on their back that they're now going to have to pay back over the next decade. Those are the types of things that a business looking to come into the state or already existing in the state have to deal with. It's something that plays right into competitiveness, and when you have some of the highest UI taxes in the country, we can't have small business bear this burden going forward, making it more difficult for them to operate. So, happy to work with the committee on that issue when it comes up, and I'm sure it will. We also deal with labor cost issues. It is very expensive in Massachusetts to create and maintain jobs. We want to make sure that when a business has to absorb these labor costs, that you know that that gets passed along to both the business to have to deal with, which often means raising prices, which means that gets passed along to consumers in Massachusetts.
Whether it's a service, whether it's a product, that gets passed on to the consumer, and that plays right into affordability. We want to make Massachusetts affordable, we can't keep making it more expensive to create and maintain jobs here. We talk about labor mandates, we need to make sure that it's not hard for these small businesses to fully staff their operations. Right now, looking at NFIB's research, we have a research center, and our latest job report show 40% of small businesses are still looking for applicants, still looking for people to hire. It's very hard for them to fully staff, it's becoming increasingly difficult. We don't need to make some of our time off policies, make that even harder for them to do. So, these are the types of bills that we focus on as an organization. At the end of the day, we just want to make sure that every main street in this community, in Massachusetts, all across the Commonwealth, have vibrant thriving downtowns, and it's going to be small businesses who create these jobs that helps do that. So happy to always act as a resource, really looking forward to working with this committee. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, Chris. I appreciate that, NFIB has been a resource. I appreciate that you're here today in person to share some of the priorities and concerns, and we look forward to working with you. Thank you. Also want to, acknowledge and thank, some returning house members for coming back. Really appreciate the commitment, to coming back. I know we have many competing, issues today. But also back for some important testimony, not only mister Coluzzi, but, Ryan Kearney from, Ram is going to come up. Ryan, thank you. From the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, thanks for taking time to be here in person.
RYAN KEARNEY - RETAILERS ASSOCIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS - Thank you, Chair McMurtry, Chair Oliveira, appreciate the opportunity again, members of the committee as well to testify and give you a little introduction to myself and to the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. For the record, I am the general counsel of the association. We are a statewide trade association representing 4,000 member businesses across the Commonwealth in the retail restaurant and wholesale space of their retail industry. Our membership runs from individual owner operated, main street businesses all the way up to the regional and national chains, that you see at some of our major shopping malls. We have 928,000 jobs that the industry supports and about 73,000 locations, throughout Massachusetts. For this committee, we are tracking about 153 bills. The analysis that we typically do on any piece of legislation is how is this going to impact our member sales, and will that legislation increase our operational costs?
We recently surveyed our membership, and we had some troubling key findings. 91% of our members experienced an increase in operational costs since Covid, 76% of our members report business costs have risen faster than the rate of sales, which clearly is a recipe for disaster. As a result, 51% of our members are likely to sell their business within 5 years, and the reasons are retirement and high cost. So, if we're going to replace those types of businesses in the future with entrepreneurs, whether it's from homegrown or immigrant community, kind of hanging up a shingle and starting their businesses, we need to create an environment where they want to come here to Massachusetts and not go across the border in New Hampshire or one of the other states nearby, it's quite easy for them to do so. You know, with that, I'll leave you there, please consider us a resource as the session goes through. But, you know, with153 bills, I don't want to get into any one in particular, but again, ask you as you go through, to ask6415 yourself and consider how is this going to impact our businesses here in Massachusetts. Happy to answer any questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
6421 SPEAKER16421 -6421 Attorney6421 Kearney, thank you so much for6423 being here to, make, an6425 in person introduction of, the work that you do at Ram. Appreciate you being here. We look forward to working with you. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you, Will. And that is, again, we're welcoming back members. I appreciate it. To my host colleagues, we have completed both the you wanna come on. I was just going to say anyone else that we may have missed. So Locked out.
SPEAKER26 - Locked in.6449
6451 RICHARD6451 MARLIN6451 -6451 MASSACHUSETTS6451 BUILDING6451 TRADES6451 COUNCIL6451 -6451 Thank6451 you, Mr. Chairman McMurtry, Oliveira. For the record, my name is Rich Marlin, I'm the legislative director for the Mass Building Trade Unions. We represent over 70,000 construction workers across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts who work for over 3,000 contractors across the Commonwealth. Most of the issues that you're going to come before your committee of things are important to us, whether it's workers' compensation, prevailing wage. You've heard a lot about unemployment insurance. Unemployment is a lifeblood for our members because even when we have a full economy, our members take take two or three weeks between jobs, and so that unemployment is vital for them to be able to maintain and support their families. One of our priorities this year is going to be apprenticeship. You heard from the secretary of labor. We spend over $60,000,000 collectively with our employers training, right now about 9,000 apprentices across the Commonwealth.
I spoke to Chairman McMurtry the other day, and I'll put it out for you, Mr. Chairman. We'd love to take, and do a tour of some of our apprentice training programs with your committee so that you would actually see hands on what it looks like at these different facilities across the Commonwealth. Our apprentice programs run between three and five years depending on the program. For an apprentice to move from a first to a second year6530 apprentice, unlike going to school, they spend 200 to 300 hours in the classroom, they also have to work 1400 hours on the job in order to be able to move from a first year to a second or second to third. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances of what the construction industry looks like right now, we are taking one of the smaller class sizes across the state, because of the lack of construction jobs that are going on in6558 the Commonwealth. I testified the other day in6560 front of the transportation committee to house a cup of sub budget to put6564 some money into road work and the MBTA.
So we're going to be looking at legislation that's gonna increase opportunities for apprentices to get on public construction work. We've filed legislation which we have before your committee to require apprentices in all public construction. That is the only way we are going to be able to maintain the next generation of workforce. I can't go a week without reading a story about how, oh my God, there's a lack of construction workers, we can't get any work done. The only way we can ensure that's going to keep going on is to make sure that apprentices have opportunities to complete their work side as well as their educational side. So, without getting into a lot of details, I'll leave it at that. Again, we'd love to set up an arrangement, there's three or four in Boston. We could actually take a tour of three or four of them in one day, figuring out schedules when you're not going to have hearings and not going to have formal sessions. But, we'll work through the committee chairs to set something up for all of you to come see6625 what our facilities look like. We're very proud of6627 them. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Rich, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. You're certainly no stranger to this building. We also, appreciate the invitation for the committee to join the mass building. For mass of the6640
SPEAKER2 - West of the West
SPEAKER26 - I was gonna say.
SPEAKER1 - We can yeah. Make it convenient for senator Olivera. We appreciate it, and thank you. And, just
MCMURTRY - As we come close to concluding, is there anyone else that's here that6652 had hoped to share, enlighten, and, introduce themselves to the committee? If not, to the folks out there virtually and those who will find the information online, we welcome the opportunity to work together to collaborate not only with the administration, but with the stakeholders and the business community to move the agenda forward for the committee. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Senator Olivera, do you have anything to, say?
SPEAKER4 - The only thing that I wanna do is thank you, mister chairman. Thank your staff. Thank you, our court officer. Thank you, LIS. And I wanna introduce, which I failed to do at the beginning, Sumia, my legislative director, who'll be joining me at the rostrum at each 1 of these hearings.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you, mister chairman.
SPEAKER1 - Alrighty. Thank you, everyone. Have a good day. This hearing is concluded.
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