Informational Picketing Planned At UMass Dartmouth

Members of four labor unions at UMass Dartmouth will stage an informational picket Saturday at the University. That's on a day when parents and prospective students are scheduled to visit the campus. Members of AFSCME Council 93 are demanding they be paid just over a million dollars in wage increases that have been negotiated. University officials say they do not have the money.

During a meeting Wednesday in the University auditorium, the union's Political Action Director Jim Durkin told WBSM News, the unions want to see the matter resolved. Durkin says the legislature has done its job, and so has the governor, and now the union needs the university to step up and pay its employees.

UMass Dartmouth spokesman John Hoey says the University has a different view about the issue. Hoey says the University does not have the money, and officials will keep working with the legislature to receive more funding.

The informational picket is scheduled from 8:30 to 10:30 on Saturday.