Member in the Spotlight: Joe Guarini

by Laurie Lynch

When I asked Joseph Guarini if he could travel back in time, what point would he choose, and why, he thought about the question, and then apologized. “If given the choice, I’d really prefer to go to the future instead. I’d really like to see how the technology has advanced. The flying cars . . .” he began.

Joseph, known to his friends and co-workers as Joe, is a kind conversationalist, and his curiosity is apparent. His history has brought him through a variety of jobs and interests. In all of his experiences, he has found it important to demonstrate his dedicated work ethic.

Joe grew up and has spent most of his life in the town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He has a younger brother who has two children, and they also live in Shrewsbury. Growing up, Joe and his family took several trips, including a memorable one to Disney World, and another, with his paternal grandmother, to Canada.

One of Joseph Guarini’s favorite hobbies as a child was looking at the stars, moon, and planets through his telescope, which he received as a gift from his parents. The telescope, along with Joe’s favorite television show, “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” with Carl Sagan, inspired a lifelong interest in astronomy. Joe was given a copy of the companion book to the series for his 14th birthday, and it remains a personal favorite. After receiving his high school diploma from Shrewsbury High School, Joe was accepted at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He lived on campus while earning his degree in Astronomy.

After completing his undergraduate degree, and working at the retail store Caldor for some time, Joe decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Library Science. Joe attended SUNY (State University of New York) Albany, NY and obtained his degree. After that, Joe returned to Caldor while pursuing a library job.  In fact, he worked at that Caldor in Westborough for a number of years, until the store closed. He then worked at Radio Shack for two years. He also volunteered at the Shrewsbury Public Library, where he updated the cataloging system for the books there from Dewey Decimal 19 to DD 20. He also volunteered at a local public radio station (WICN in Worcester, station 90.5 FM) where he did data entry from information on classical CD’s.

In May of 2001, Joe began working here, in the Lamar Soutter Library. His favorite thing about working at the library is the people he gets to work with. I asked Joe how he feels about being part of a union. “I think people, even at the professional levels, would be better off with a union,” he said. “Unions are good for most people, and I like being part of one.”

20 Random Fun Facts about Joseph Guarini:

• Favorite color – Red (Joe drives a red car.)
• Favorite season – Summer (Although he likes them all.)
• Beach or woods – Beach
• Chocolate or vanilla – Vanilla
• Dream vacation – Greece to see the Ruins
• Favorite style of music – 50’s rock and roll (Especially Buddy Holly and Elvis)
• If you could only eat 1 meal for the rest of your life, what would it be – Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. (Joe used to order this every Friday night when he and his family went out for dinner in Webster Square.) 
• Do you have any pets – No (However, Joe had a dog named Buddy growing up.)
• Do you blow dry your hair, or just let it dry on its own, or towel dry – Towel dry
• Do you untie your shoes when you take them off – Untie
• Favorite book – Companion Book to the Cosmos by John Gribbin
• Last thing you bought –Breakfast, but if not food related it was Star Trek: the Original Series on DVD
• Favorite day of the week – Sunday - for relaxing
• T.V. shows you secretly enjoy – 2 Broke Girls, Big Bang Theory, and Supergirl
• Favorite potato chip flavor – Plain Kettle Cooked Cape Cod Chips
• Do you play a musical instrument – Trombone in his high school band and now he plays keyboard in a band with some of his coworkers from the library
• What's your worst pet peeve – Being rushed
• Do you have dream car – Classic Rolls-Royce . . . or a new Prius
• Who named you and why – His father because his parents decided if he was a boy, his dad would get to name him and if he was a girl his mother would
• Do you have a favorite life motto – "Don’t try for perfection, just try for improvement."

Scholarship Opportunities

SHARE's parent organization, AFSCME, earlier this week published to their blog the following information about scholarships. As members of AFSCME, all SHARE members qualify. Please note that the application deadlines are rapidly approaching!

Many families are struggling with the costs of college tuition — or paying off college loans. AFSCME members and their children or dependents can apply for scholarships that could substantially reduce college costs. Here are two scholarship options currently accepting applications:

The Gerald W. McEntee Scholarship is a one-time award of $5,000 granted to one AFSCME member each year.  The scholarship is given to the member who best exemplifies the former president’s commitment to strengthening our union through organizing, building political power for working families, defending workers’ rights and supporting public services. The application deadline is Jan. 31.

The AFSCME Family Scholarship is an award of $2,000, renewable for up to four years, granted to 10 rising high school seniors each year. Any senior whose parent or legal guardian is an active AFSCME member may apply. The application deadline is Dec. 31.

Visit AFSCME.org/members/scholarships to learn more and download application materials.

Already graduated? AFSCME is committed to helping union members navigate the student loan process. You may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program or Income-Driven Loan repayment, which can help dramatically reduce your monthly payments. You can find out more at AFSCME.org/student-debt.

Five-Tidbit Friday: November 20, 2015

GRATITUDE IS GOOD for YOU

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving may only come once a year, but there's mounting scientific evidence about the benefits of developing thankful habits. Researcher Glenn Fox at the University of Southern California has been researching how gratitude alters the brain. “A lot of people conflate gratitude with the simple emotion of receiving a nice thing. What we found was something a little more interesting,” says Fox. “The pattern of [brain] activity we see shows that gratitude is a complex social emotion that is really built around how others seek to benefit us.” As you gear up for the big feast, here is some advice to help you and your family be truly thankful at Thanksgiving.

HAVE YOU ORDERED YOUR BUSTARD YET?

Although copyrighted by celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme in 1986, the Turducken (a kind of “Russian Doll Roast”) traces its roots back to at least medieval times, when animals might be stuffed within other animals for the sake of spectacle. (See also,  “illusion foods,” or “incredible foods.”)

Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany includes this example of a Russian Doll Roast involving way too many birds: “stuff a large OLIVE with CAPERS and a CLOVE,” and so on, it says. The directions continue stuffing birds, including a bec-figue, ortolan, lark, thrush, quail, plover, lapwing, partridge, woodcock, teal, fowl, duck, chicken, pheasant, goose, and turkey, until ultimately we’re told to “place the TURKEY inside an enormous BUSTARD.”

An EATER’S HISTORY of THANKSGIVING: AMERICA’S MOST IMPORTANT HOLIDAY

According to Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Food, at Sea and Ashore, in the Nineteenth Century, Thanksgiving used to be a bigger deal. For roughly the first half of our nation’s history, Thanksgiving reigned as the premier holiday among the Europeans who came to America, and their descendents. (Celebrating Christmas was too “churchy” for the Puritans.) For a fascinating tour of Thanksgiving meals through the ages, including the "Turducken," be sure to check out foodtimeline.org.

JINGLE BELLS, the THANKSGIVING DAY CLASSIC

Did you know that Jingle Bells was originally written as a song to celebrate Thanksgiving Day? James Lord Pierpont wrote it, quite possibly right here in Massachusetts, some time in the 1850’s, almost certainly at a time when one might expect the heavy snows to begin as early as November.

Placard Commemorating the composition of  "Jingle Bells" in Medford, Massachusetts

HELP CREATE a HUNGER-FREE COMMUNITY

Probably all of us have driven along Route 9 in Shrewsbury, past the Worcester County Food Bank. On their website, you can quickly identify the nearest food pantry, learn where to donate funds and food for the hungry, volunteer to help with the distribution process, and learn how to advocate for the hungry in your community.

See you here in two weeks. Hope you have a decent weekend, and a very wonderful Thanksgiving!

Five-Tidbit Friday: November 13th, 2015

RAISING MEN’S HEALTH AWARENESS

Röntgen and his beard

It’s Movember! Both the “No Shave November” and “Movember” movements encourage men to abstain from the razor for thirty days in order to raise men’s health and cancer awareness. Unfortunately, it’s getting harder to tell which hair is charitable, and which is just garden-variety facial fluff.  

ROENTGENIUM

On November 8th, 1895, German physicist William Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays. National Radiologic Technology Week is celebrated each year during the week of the anniversary of this discovery. Röntgen’s own unruly chin-growth predated the UK’s Decembeard event.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE in MASSACHUSETTS

According to the Boston Globe, the Massachusetts State Legislature’s Labor and Workforce Development Committee has put forward a bill to increase the minimum wage to fifteen dollars per hour. The introduction of the bill coincided with Fight for $15 demonstrations in over 270 cities, involving thousands of workers across the country. The bill still requires approval by the House, Senate, and Governor Charlie Baker.

HONORING VETERANS

Veterans’ Day was observed this week in Worcester and around the country. President Obama’s Veteran’s Day speech focused on jobs, as Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post writes:

“We’re in the midst of a new wave of American veterans,” said Obama, referring to a generation of men and women who have weathered the longest stretch of war in U.S. history. Those veterans have struggled in recent years to get care from an overwhelmed Department of Veterans Affairs. They’ve faced a higher unemployment rate than their civilian peers and an increase in suicides.

Here in Central Massachusetts, many work continually to honor the service of our Veterans, and to help them find ways to serve their country at home. The Worcester Veterans’ Services Division aims to supply local veterans with immediate financial aid, medical assistance, and referral services on issues such as housing, employment opportunities, health, and education. Notably, four of our area colleges and universities--Worcester State University, Fitchburg, Nichols College, and Mount Wachusett Community College--have been designated “military friendly” institutions.  

REMEMBERING VETERANS with PAUL JULIAN

Describing one particularly personal commemoration of our country’s veterans, former SHARE-UMMS president and UMMS Library Assistant Paul Julian writes: “On July 9, while on a walk, I stopped to read a Veteran's monument on Upsala Street in Worcester. I had read others on my walks, but this was special, because Richard Leo Jandron , for whom the memorial was erected, died from his wounds sustained in Cherbourg, France exactly 71 years before. I said a prayer for Gunner Mate Jandron, and it occurred to me that I should do this for every veteran who is so honored here in Worcester. Working with two lists, I learned that there were 237 such monuments here in Worcester. I decided to seek them out so that I could pray and reflect on the sacrifices these brave veterans made. I aimed to walk to all 237 monuments. Today, the day before Veterans Day, I journeyed to the last one on my list for Lt. Paul Adams, which is located on Sunderland Road here in Worcester. I have found this to be both a moving and illuminating experience. We owe so much to our veterans. May their sacrifices always be appreciated by us.”

See you here next Friday. Hope you have a very decent weekend . . .

Member in the Spotlight: Delia Perez

Delia Perez

Interviewed by Laurie Lynch

Delia is a bright, outgoing, hardworking woman who always has a smile on her face and is always willing to help out her co-workers. Delia Perez began work as an Intake Assistant for the University in the department of Coverage Enhancement and Appeals Programs in July of 2014. In her day to-day-work, she handles and processes important paperwork for organizations such as The Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA). She loves her co-workers, and recently joined the Diversity Committee at UMass.

Delia grew up in Worcester and graduated from North High School. She also spent a lot of time in New York, where some of her aunts lived, during school vacations and summers. Her mother has fifteen siblings, and her father has twelve! Delia has two brothers, one older and one younger.   

Delia holds her family to be incredibly important. In fact, many members of her family were instrumental in naming her. In her family, they believe a family tradition can predict the sex of a baby. The prediction is made by hanging a chain with a charm over the pregnant mother's belly; the direction it swings tells you if the baby will be a boy (swings back and forward) or a girl (swings in a circular motion). Her grandmother performed this tradition and it told Delia’s family that she would be a boy. However, Delia’s aunt (also named Delia) was the only one who said the chain was wrong. So, Delia’s mother and aunt made a bet that if Delia was born a girl, she had to be named after her aunt. (No one remembers what her mother would have won if Delia had been born a boy.) At 5:15, on October 22, Delia’s aunt won the bet.

In the future, Delia hopes to become a teacher and work with children with special needs, specifically children who are blind, deaf, or mute. She plans to continue with her education at Worcester State University, where she has already completed two years of her undergraduate degree.

25 Fun Facts about Delia Perez:

• Favorite color – Orange (She is wearing a beautiful orange scarf today.)
• Favorite season – Autumn (She loves the foliage and all the pumpkin flavored goodies.)
• Beach or woods – Beach (She is scared of bugs.)
• Chocolate or vanilla – Chocolate (100% chocolate girl!)
• Do you have any pets – No (She did have a wonderful Pitbull named Jada. But, due to Delia's schedule, Jada now lives with one of her uncles.)
• Dream vacation – Africa or Thailand (She has always wanted to go to Africa, and Thailand is so beautiful she would love to go and experience the culture.)
• Favorite style of music – Very eclectic (Depends on her mood; likes Classical to Hip Hop and everything in between.)
• Favorite food – Anything Spanish
• Do you blow dry your hair, let it dry on its own, or towel dry – Towel then air dry
• Do you untie your shoes when you take them off – No, leave them tied
• Favorite book – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Blubber by Judy Bloom (Delia and her mother used to read these books together growing up.)
• Last thing you bought – Italian bread (Made garlic bread with it, to go with her dinner last night.)
• Favorite day of the week – Friday (End of the work week.)
• T.V. shows you secretly enjoy – Once Upon a Time and The Mindy Project
• Favorite Potato Chips flavor – Wachusett Barbecue (She puts them on everything she can, including her sandwiches.)
• Do you play a musical instrument – Flute (When she was in grade school, she thought she was really good, but now knows she was really bad!)
• What's your biggest pet peeve – People who chew like cows
• Do you have dream car – Range Rover, olive green with cream leather interior
• If you could only eat 1 meal for the rest of your life, what would it be – Mofongo (A fried plantain-based dish, typically made with fried green plantains mashed together in a pilón, with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings or bits of bacon.)
• If you could go back in time, when would you go to and why – To before her grandparents passed. They helped raise her and although she told them how thankful she was and how much she loved them all the time, she would love the chance to tell them again.
• If you got stranded on a deserted island with no power source, what 5 items would you bring – A good book, big notebook, pen or pencil, thread with an attached needle and a pot
• What languages do you speak – English, Spanish, and learning Arabic
• Favorite hobbies – Knitting and cooking (She loves to experiment with new recipes. She just found a recipe for Jamaican Patties that she plan on making soon.)   
• Fun fact that not everyone knows about you – Aunt is a published author (Maggie Millet)
• Do you have a favorite life motto – “A closed mouth don’t get fed”

Five-Tidbit Friday: November 6, 2015

FOLLOWING SHARE ONLINE

We’ve gotten some helpful feedback about the SHARE blog recently. We apologize that the “Sign-Up by Email” feature is not available on all web browsers. If you’d like to receive updates in your inbox, and don’t see the sign-up box in the upper-right corner of your screen, please send an email to kirk.davis@theshareunion.org  

FREE CLASSES, IT’S TRUE

More details have been requested about the recent tidbit touting free online classes through edX.org.

• The project was founded by Harvard University and MIT, and a number of colleges and universities have since joined in.
• New courses are continually being offered.
• The program does not adhere to a traditional academic calendar.
• At any given moment, a few million students are enrolled in the courses, and the website promotes a variety of ways of interacting with other students in your class, wherever in the world they may be.
• EdX offers certificates of successful completion, but does not offer course credit. Whether or not a college or university offers credit for an edX course is within the sole discretion of that school.

Signing up for a class is just about as simple as registering for the edX site and clicking on the course(s) you want to take. The EdX site has a useful video explaining how it works. (A couple of years back, I signed up for Harvard’s “Food and Science” course. Signing up was fairly simple and straightforward. Keeping up with the course-load after work, however, was trickier. But when else can you use your kitchen as a laboratory?)

REAL FAMILIES vs. WISTFUL SYSTEMS

This week, the Pew Research Center released a report about work-family balance in households that include a mother and a father. This prompted the Huffington Post to wonder why so many government policies and employers are stuck in “Leave It to Beaver” mode--notably highlighting that the US is the only developed country that does not offer paid family leave to new mothers. (Additionally, the article points out that “Almost 40 percent of kids in the U.S. live in a home with a single parent or no parent at all (for example, a grandparent's in charge), according to a different Pew study.”)

PAID SICK LEAVE at the POLLS

It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that new government regulations on paid sick leave went over well on ballots around the country.

WE’RE NOT THE ONLY ONES

. . . keeping an eye on the labor-management partnership at Kaiser Permanente. In his address at the recent White House Summit on Worker Voice, President Obama stated, “Kaiser Permanente works with 28 different unions to provide good pay and benefits, but also educational programs, and avenues for employees to help improve quality and care throughout the company — which is why they’re considered one of the premier health organizations in the country.”

See you here next Friday! Hope you have a great weekend . . .

Five-Tidbit Frightday: October 30, 2015

Happy Halloween! This week's random roundup has a bit of a theme . . .

WHAT IS a HEALTHY DIET?

Halloween candy is bad for you. Vegetables, on the other hand, are good for you. Beyond these generally accepted facts, there’s a lot of conflicting dietary information out there. This week, the World Health Organization released a report saying definitively that processed meats cause cancer, and that, probably, red meat does, too. Related reports argue that you don’t need to give up those meats altogether. Fortunately, when you’re trying to figure out how to make sense of the varying and contradictory information, the Harvard School of Public Health offers this guide to deciphering media stories about diet.

NOT HEALTHY, BUT SAFE?

You know those stories about random, unsuspecting trick-or-treaters being poisoned (or worse) by tainted Halloween goodies? They’re all urban legends, every single one. Or so contends Dr. Joel Best, the world's leading expert on Halloween hostility, in this podcast.  

MAKING HALLOWEEN SAFER

Need ideas for getting creative to make your kids visible to car traffic? Also, if you plan to offer candies that are free of allergens and cross-contamination, don’t forget to review this year’s list of allergen-friendly candies, especially if you’re participating in the Teal-Pumpkin Project.

WHAT'S this CANDY WORTH?

This irreverent video guide to trading Halloween candy sums up the Halloween barter system pretty nicely.

HALLOWEEN AFTER-PARTY

And, finally, after you’ve applied the “Mom and Dad Tax” to the kids’ candy stash, and they’re tucked away in bed, you can consult this infographic for pairing candy and wine. (There are still a few studies that hold to the idea that the resveratrol in wine might be good for you, after all.)

See you here next Friday! Hope you have a great weekend.

SHARE Leaders Elected

Congratulations to the 2015-2016 SHARE Leaders!

Nominations closed for SHARE Area Representatives and SHARE Executive Board Members with no contested elections (i.e., we did not have any roles with more candidates than positions), so the candidates are now considered to be elected. 

Many thanks to those who served last year as SHARE reps and executive board members and have since stepped down because of promotions, new jobs, and other responsibilities. And congratulations to new and continuing reps and executive board members.

Executive Board
Sherry Nguyen, DES -- Co-President
Dianne Williams, Psychiatry -- Co-President
Kathleen Bateman, Pathology -- Treasurer
Holly St. Jean, Psych CCU -- Secretary
Christine Carrion, Dept Comm Svcs -- At-large Executive Board Member
Matt Gurinian, Psych CCU -- At-large Executive Board Member

Valerie Mount, Animal Medicine -- At-large Executive Board Member

Erika Rios, DES-OH -- At-large Executive Board Member

Area Reps
Christopher Barry, Animal Medicine -- Main Campus
Tammy Brailey, MaPS -- Main Campus
Karen Lekas, Biochem & Molec Pharm -- Main Campus
Tina Pierce, Office of Undergrad Med Ed -- Main Campus
Belinda O'Brien, DES-OH -- South Street
Stephanie Therrien, Medicare Appeals -- South Street
Trisha Fortin, Clinical Pharmacy Services -- South Street
Lidia Miranda, DES -- South Street
A. J. Iaconi, Psych -- CCU

An Area Rep keeps in touch with up to fifty co-workers in their area, helping to make sure that members' questions are answered and their opinions and concerns are heard. If you would like to be involved, please let us know -- extra volunteers are always welcome.

Executive Board members help keep in touch with co-workers in their area too, but they also meet monthly about what is going on in the whole union, make decisions about issues facing the union, and participate in contract negotiations when they are happening.

Five-Tidbit Friday: October 9, 2015

FREE CLASSES

Did you know you could take free online courses, many of them for credit, from other leading universities such as MIT, Harvard, BU, Columbia, Berkeley, and Berklee at edx.org?

WATCH THIS

In this video, Margaret Heffernan makes a compelling case for getting rid of the pecking order, ditching “the superchicken model,” and helping one another at work.

OPEN ENROLLMENT

Don't forget! The Fall Open Enrollment period has opened and runs through November 6th. (Please note that the SHARE Child Care Fund and Adoption Subsidy differs from the one mentioned in the Open Enrollment literature. The deadline for SHARE applications is November 2nd.)

WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY

Earlier this week, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced The Workplace Democracy Act, an amendment to the National Labor Relations Act designed to undo “Right-to-Work” laws and other barriers to unions. Meanwhile, the White House hosted the Summit on Worker Voice.

INSPIRATIONAL WISDOM

See you here next Friday! Hope you have a great weekend.

Five-Tidbit Friday: October 2, 2015

This is the third installment of Five Tidbit Friday, and this week we’ve got news items ranging from near to far and back again.

• CANCER WALK Congratulations to participants of this year’s cancer walk! The roughly thirteen thousand participants this year have raised nearly $400,000 for cancer research and care.

• RETIREE BENEFITS in the NEWS You may remember the now-defeated House Bill H59, which was designed to cut pension benefits from State Employees. That bill did not pass. However, we’ve been watching a similar situation in Rhode Island for employees of the state there, to better understand potential threats to public employee retirement plans. This week, the New York Times describes how that dispute played out, and the settlement between unions and the State.
• FREE SPEECH at WORK In national news, an NLRB complaint against Quicken Loans could redefine the rules of free speech in the workplace, reports the Detroit Free Press. The case is likely to have implications for social media. The ruling is expected to uphold current standards, including that "employees have a ... right to discuss wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with fellow employees, as well as with non-employees, such as union representatives." Meanwhile, the US Department of Labor has continued its emphasis on employee rights with a Worker Voice Summit, which will underscore the value of worker organizing and collective bargaining, as a new #starttheconvo initiative invites frontline voices from around the country into that conversation.
• INNOVATIONS in HEALTHCARE The Legal Services Corporation recently announced that Community Legal Aid in Worcester, Massachusetts will receive a 24-month $209,524 Pro Bono Innovation Fund grant to develop a partnership with UMass Memorial Medical Center. The model will address legal needs that can negatively impact the health of low-income and minority communities and interfere with healthcare providers’ ability to improve the health of these patients.
• MOOSE! We hear that a moose has been recently seen on our local Worcester streets. Drive safe!

See you here next Friday. Hope you have a great weekend.

Five-Tidbit Friday: September 25, 2015

Welcome to Fall! For SHARE-UMMS, Summer closed out in a lovely way. Altogether, over a thousand members of our community participated in last week’s Chocolate Day, including SHARE members, other hospital and university employees, medical students, senior administrators, and even a few children. But now, it is time for another Tidbit roundup. Here are five notable and timely items:

• This week, UMMHC and UMMS have been screening The Connection, a film about the science of mindfulness. UMass Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness has long been at the forefront of this research. The CFM provides an eight week stress-reduction program, which several SHARE members have attended. SHARE-UMMS Treasurer Kathy Bateman says she loved the program, and would attend again. “I learned ways to relieve stress right at my desk. I’d recommend it to anyone,” she says.
• Employers are starting to catch up with the value of the research being done at UMMS. Internet-search giant Google (considered by some to be the best employer in the country) has even developed its own in-house emotional intelligence training program called “Search Inside Yourself” (Get it? It’s Google, after all.)
• Any list of Tidbits would be insufficient to tackle an issue as serious as mental health. That said, please know that there are many free and low-cost mental health tools available. We recently came across this useful (if somewhat glib) resource list. The list begins with a series of apps, most of which are designed to help build grit and brain muscles, and moves through to a valuable collection of hotlines and support groups. For more local services, please see this list of mental health providers in Worcester.
• Mindfulness and self-care are only part of the equation toward improving what we do, of course. Right now, the work confronting almost every SHARE member is unnecessarily complicated, difficult, and frustrating. We want to eliminate needless headaches. We know that frontline employees need to be the ones to design work-systems. Too often our work requires heroic effort to do a good job, and there are too many pitfalls along the way. Our union is working to enable SHARE members to develop structures that minimize the likelihood of error, and make it easier at the end of the day to see more good outcomes coming from our hard work.
• On a lighter note, you might, given its popularity, have already seen this related talk by researcher Shawn Achor. But in case you’ve missed it, here’s a link to “The Happy Secret to Better Work.” It’s funny and smart, and only a little over twelve minutes long.

The weather report looks beautiful for the next few days. Good time to get outside and move around.  It’s not too late to register for The UMass Medicine Cancer Walk, which has been an effective fundraiser for cancer research at UMass, and a meaningful event for cancer patients, their friends, and their families, including many SHARE members. See you here next Friday. Hope you have a great weekend.  

Free Film Screening: The Connection

Over the next week, UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Hospital will be screening The Connection, a documentary film about "the remarkable link between your mind, body & health." For a preview, you can watch the official trailer, or the first fifteen minutes of the film free online. For more information about the screenings, see the information from the event flyer below.

• Learn more about the practice of mindfulness and the numerous resources available at our academic medical center.
• After viewing the 70- minute video, participate in an interactive discussion and learn about mindfulness programming and new resources to continue or adopt a mindfulness practice. 
• We encourage you to take the time to learn about the benefits of mindfulness for yourself and our patients.

University Campus

• Monday, September 21, 12:00 pm (Lazare Auditorium)
• Friday, September 25, 12:00 pm (Lazare Auditorium)

South Street Campus

• Monday, September 21, 3:00 pm (Amphitheater)
• Tuesday, September 22, 3:00 pm (Amphitheater)

Memorial Campus

• Monday, September 21, 3pm (Amphitheater)
• Wednesday, September 23, 3pm (Amphitheater)

Hahnemann Campus

• Monday, September 21, 11:00am (Ann Nemitz Room)
• Monday, September 21, 12:30 pm (Ann Nemitz Room)

HealthAlliance-Burbank

• Wednesday, September 30, 6:30 pm (Simonds-Hurd Complementary Care Center)

New to the SHARE Blog: Five Tidbit Friday

Welcome to the first installment in a new SHARE blogging experiment: Five Tidbit Friday, five observations about SHARE members and our community, and about the broader world of higher education, healthcare, personal health, labor, workplace issues, etc.

The recent Labor Day holiday yielded a bumper crop of media pieces about work and unions, (including an opinion piece by US Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, published in the Boston Globe on the occasion of his visit with President Obama to the 2015 Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Day Breakfast.) Accordingly, the inaugural Five Tidbit Friday rounds up some recent worthwhile reads (and a video) about wage inequality, the minimum wage, the decline of the middle class, and what we can do about these things.

• In this video, economist and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explains why Americans need stronger unions.

• In “America Doesn’t Need a Raise, We Need a New National Norm for Wage Growth”  MIT Professor of Work and Employment Research and Engineering Systems, Thomas Kochan, makes a call to “reverse three decades of wage stagnation and rising income inequality,” pointing out that “analysts have begun to recognize that the long-term decline in unions and worker bargaining power accounts for a sizable portion of the problem.” He encourages readers to “rally around a simple norm that all workers should share fairly in the economic growth they help produce.”

• This recent Op-Ed piece published in the LA Daily News, “Americans Should Think Bigger than $15 an Hour for this Labor Day” was written by Cherri Senders. (Senders serves as founder and publisher of www.labor411.org, a consumer guide to goods and services whose employers treat their workers fairly with good wages, benefits and working conditions.) Although there are lots of good reasons to increase the national minimum wage, Senders argues that “a $15 minimum wage is hardly a panacea for a country whose middle class has been declining for more than 30 years.”

• Here, Ralph Nader gives his explanation of “Why Labor Day Matters,” claiming that “commercialists have transformed Labor Day into a reason for shopping. The fact that Labor Day was conceived as an occasion dedicated to America's workers and what they have endured is sadly under-acknowledged and unappreciated.”

• And, finally, this longread. “Can Millennials Save Unions,” which appeared in a recent issue of The Atlantic, speculates about the future of labor by looking closely at events in the news right now. It’s worth the time. But, if you want a quick summary, we’ll just mention that this article . . .
• Traces recent union organizing at Gawker and Salon, in the NCAA, and at NYU.
• Describes how millennials’ values overlap those of unions. (Speaking about a large-scale survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the article claims that "Without discussing unions at all, the firm . . . found that younger workers share concerns for some of the very things that unions have sought for generations.")
• Explains that lack of work experience, and particularly experience with unions, leaves millennials with questions about unionization, and skepticism about established union hierarchies.
• Points out that, "In general, if you ask the majority of workers, ‘If you could have a union, would you like that?’ they say yes, but the opportunity to do that is rather limited” because of broken labor laws and widespread employer opposition.
• And, too, goes on to predict challenges to the future of organized labor.

If you'd like to give a shout out to a fellow SHARE member in a future blog post, let us know! We'd love to recognize them here. Send an email to kirk.davis@theshareunion.org, or call 508-929-4020, and let's share the kudos. See you here next Friday. Hope you have a great weekend.

SHARE Chocolate Day: A History

Happy Chocolate Day! Tomorrow, we’ll publish the first installment in a new SHARE blogging experiment: Five Tidbit Friday. Each week, we’ll post five news items regarding our union, our work, and our workplace, as well as other workplaces, unions, higher education, medical research, etc. In the meanwhile, on this festive occasion, for your reading pleasure, in an even more exaggerated spirit of freewheeling randomness, we provide an essay on the history of SHARE’s Chocolate Day . . .

SHARE

CHOCOLATE DAY

A History

Why does SHARE celebrate with chocolate? Chocolate was selected for its status as the most dignified, if not regal, of the candies, one that has been celebrated since the beginnings of UMass Medical School as a potent emblem of health and vitality.

Actually? SHARE Chocolate Day was first celebrated in 2004. The story of its origins has clouded, obscured as though by a fine dusting of cocoa powder. It is generally accepted that the event began as something of a lark, a harmless piece of mischief, chocolate for chocolate’s sake, and an excuse to get together and smile.

Also, because brownies.

Of course, the earliest human interactions with chocolate actually date back much further. The Aztecs and Mayans were known to use cocoa beans as currency as far back as 600 CE; the rich among them turned the beans into a drink, and literally drank their wealth. In 1652, the drink came to England, when the country’s first coffee house began serving cups of coffee, tea, and--most expensively--chocolate.

According to The History of Chocolate, a person living in Tlaxcala, Mexico in 1545 could buy the following with their cocoa beans:

• One rabbit (30 beans)
• One avocado, newly picked (3 beans)
• One avocado, fully ripe (1 bean)
• One large tomato (1 bean)
• One fish wrapped in maize husks (3 beans)

First advertised as an annual event, SHARE Chocolate Day has become roughly that, with a year or three missed along the way. Nothing about the event is fixed. Sometimes it happens on, say, the fifth of May (aka, “Choco de Mayo”), and, in years such as the current one, closer to Labor Day.

In various years, SHARE has collaborated to host Chocolate Day with various others, including Human Resources at UMMS, our sister SHARE union in the hospital, and with nearby local union and community groups. In some years, we’ve held door prizes and bake-offs, and raised money for charity. It has always been a community-wide, community-building event, open to all comers.

When chocolate reached the Spanish Royal Court in the seventeenth century, it was believed to cure fevers, cool the body in hot weather, and relieve stomach pain.

Current studies show that the health benefits of the oleic acids in chocolate might outweigh the negative impacts of its palmitic acid, thus resulting in a net positive effect on chocolate’s regulation of cholesterol levels. In addition, chocolate contains healthful anti-oxidants. (One hundred grams of unsweetened cacao contain 13,120 ORAC units, representing a respectable amount of Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.)

Of course, we know, too, that chocolate holds some culpability in the current obesity epidemic, which is associated with spikes in rates of heart disease, chronic inflammation, some cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Because, in part, unfortunately, brownies.

Processed chocolate first came to America in 1765 through its first chocolate factory, here in Massachusetts. The factory was operated by The Baker Chocolate Company, where, in 1938, chocolate workers formed Federal Labor Union No. 21243 of Dorchester Lower Mills. We don’t know how labor relations there evolved over time, although we do know that the factory owners and the union collaborated in the construction of a memorial dedicated to Baker’s employees who gave up their lives in WWII. (Incidentally, The Bakery and Confectionery Workers' International Union of America Local 464, which also formed in 1938, continues to bargain collectively, and to work with community and higher education organizations in and around Hershey, Pennsylvania.)

The chocolate coin has many sides. The issues that touch us seem to unfold in nearly infinite ways. Although we applaud current-day Massachusetts confectioners for reviving artisanal Mexican chocolate-making methods and employing fair trade practices, we also know that even now you don’t have to look far to find almost unimaginable working conditions.

SHARE Chocolate Day festivities have developed an odd tendency to associate chocolate with wisdom. Recently, participants have been invited to use the occasion to adopt a Zen-like and/or ridiculous motto for one’s self, such as:

• “Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together” (Goethe).
• Or, “Morning peevishness is a considerable emotional hazard” (Amundsen).
• Or, “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” (Maybe attributed to Confucius? Maybe George Bernard Shaw? Probably neither).

In all seriousness, through our silliness and our wisdom, SHARE is grateful for the prosperity of the union and of its members, and for the occasion to consume chocolate like Mayan kings and queens. We’re excited to work in this vibrant intellectual community, to learn and to share our learning. Still, we know that there’s a lot of work to do to make our Medical School, and our workplace, the best it can be. We’ve got a lot of connections to make, conversations to have, and things to do. And that, of course, calls for a very serious amount of chocolate. Including brownies.

2015 SHARE NOMINATIONS OPEN September 16th - October 1st.

All SHARE members should receive a postcard at home announcing that the 2015 nominations are open for SHARE Representatives and SHARE Executive Board.

The strength of our union lies in the active participation of it's members! 

There are lots of ways to participate: coming to union meetings, giving your input, reading the blog, keeping in touch with coworkers, signing petitions, asking questions, etc. 

SHARE Area Representatives (or Reps) are members who volunteer to help with communication - making sure that every SHARE member knows someone who is active with the union. Reps are elected for one-year terms, but can serve multiple terms. Ideally there would be at least one Rep in every department or area. As a minimum, we will elect one union Rep for every 50 SHARE members, to keep people connected in their area. The positions are: 5 for the main campus; 3 for South Street; 2 for CCU; 1 for all offsite locations together. Extra volunteers are always welcome.

SHARE Executive Board Members (or E-Board Members) have responsibility for the whole union.  Executive Board Members participate in contract negotiations when they are happening, and make decisions about the direction of our union. This year four Executive Board Members will be elected for 2-year terms: President; Secretary and two at-large Executive Board members.

To run for Rep or E-Board Member you must be nominated in writing, either by a co-worker or by yourself.  You must also have been a dues-paying SHARE member for at least the last 6 months. Nominations open Wednesday, September 16, 2015 and all nominations must arrive at the SHARE office by noon Thursday, October 1st, 2015.

Nominations should include:

• the name, department and phone number of the person you are nominating,
• the position for which you are nominating them, and 
• your name and phone number.  

You may send an email to share.elections@theshareunion.org or fax nominations to the SHARE office at 508-929-4040, but it is a good idea to call to confirm that your nomination arrived. The phone number at the SHARE office is 508-929-4020.

After the close of the nomination period, all nominees will be given the opportunity to decline the nomination.  If they do not decline, their name goes on the ballot. If there are more candidates than positions, we will hold an election on Wednesday, October 28 2015; times and locations for voting will be mailed to all SHARE members.

If you want to talk about what it would be like to be a SHARE Rep or to be on the Executive Board, or if you have questions, please call the SHARE office (508-929-4020) or talk to someone you know who is involved with SHARE. 

CHOCOLATE DAY!

Everyone welcome!  Pure chocolate festivity everywhere you look. 

Chocolate Day is a SHARE tradition, an open invitation to enjoy some tasty things. 

Now is an important time for SHARE. The two branches of our union include almost 3,200 members at UMMS and UMMHC, all of whom face new kinds of change. Medical research and healthcare delivery confront major technological and economic shifts. We all grapple with redesign of our work.

By itself, even the very richest, gooiest home-baked brownie isn’t going to make the challenges any smaller or farther away. We build our strength by sharing our stories with one another.

And so, we invite you to join us to share a couple cookies and some conversation. And to maybe swap a recipe or two.

Contact SHARE

Because the SHARE staff spends most of its time in the UMass Medical and UMass Memorial buildings, we aren't often by the phones in the SHARE office. If we miss you, we'll get back to you as quickly as possible when you call or email. If you don't know which staff organizer represents your work area, call our general voicemail number and we'll help you out.

SHARE general voicemail: 508-929-4020

SHARE office address: 50 Lake Ave, Worcester MA 01604-1168

SHARE staff phone extensions and email:

Organizer Name       Ext          Email

Andrea Caceres                29        andrea.caceres@theshareunion.org

Bobbi-Jo Lewis              22        bobbi-jo.lewis@theshareunion.org

Carol Hehir                  17         carol.hehir@theshareunion.org

Deb Pawlina             23         deb.pawlina@theshareunion.org

Debbie Engvall           15         deb.engvall@theshareunion.org

Elisabeth Szanto           14         elisabeth.szanto@theshareunion.org

Jana Hollingsworth     11         jana.hol@theshareunion.org

Janet Wilder                    13            janet.wilder@theshareunion.org

Kirk Davis                   18         kirk.davis@theshareunion.org

Laurie Lynch            19        laurie.lynch@theshareunion.org

Will Erickson              12         will.erickson@theshareunion.org

SHARE fax: 508-929-4040

SHARE Raise, Merit Award, Vacation Caps and July 4th Holiday

We hope that you are having a great summer so far! We wanted to remind you about a couple of things that are happening this month:

SHARE Raise

Your raise for 2015 has gone into effect June 28^th, 2015 and it will be reflected on your July 17^th paycheck. The raise is 2% or $0.40, whichever is higher for employees who have successfully completed their probationary period. The minimums and maximums of each grade increased by 1.5%.

SHARE Merit Award

This year as part of SHARE’s salary increase, employees with an “Exceeds” rating in their performance evaluation will receive an additional $100 lump sum, and those with an “Outstanding” rating will receive a $250 lump sum. The lump sum payout will be delivered in your July 17^th paycheck.

Vacation Caps

Vacation caps were lowered from 280 to 240 hours. If you had vacation accruals above the 240-hours cap, a one-time payout for the hours in excess of the cap will appear on your July 3^rd, 2015 paycheck.

July 4th Holiday
Most SHARE members will not have to work tomorrow, Friday July 3. Some SHARE members may be required to work in order to keep their department open that day. Those employees will have Monday, July 6 off. There is more information about the July 4th holiday posted here: Questions about July 3

If you have more questions about any of this, talk to a SHARE rep in your area, or call the SHARE office at 508-929-4020.

Happy Independence Day!

SHARE

Keep Moving!

Thank you to Janet Huehls, a Certified Wellness Coach and Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist here at UMMS, for the following insightful advice. And to SHARE Treasurer Kathy Bateman for sending it in to be posted on the blog!

This weekly email, provided by the exercise program at UMass Memorial Weight Center, is also blog: www.keepmovingweekly.wordpress.com

  Please become a subscriber to the blog by clicking the link above and sign up using the icon on the right side of the home page.  Once you sign up, email me and let me know you can be removed from the email list.  Friends and family are welcome to sign up for the blog as well. 

Thank you!

The term “sitting is the new smoking” is not an exaggeration.

“Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death.” James Levine, MD, PhD. Researcher Mayo Clinic and founder of N.E.A.T.

The human body is amazingly designed to move.  Each system works better when we move and suffers when we are inactive.  Even if you exercise regularly, prolonged sitting still puts you at risk.

This is powerful knowledge because anyone can improve health in this way.  If you can move, even in a small way, you can improve health by moving often.

Our current environment provides us with many reasons to sit and has led us to the newer science of inactivity.  Like opposite sides of the same coin, exercise physiology studies what happens in the body when we move and inactivity physiology studies what happens when we are still.  It turns out both studies are critical for understanding health.

The physiology of inactivity has discovered that when we don’t move, things start to back up in the cells. The process to deal with sugar and fats in the blood slows down or halts.  Sugar and fats in the blood accumulate and are triggers for disease.

The good news is that it does not take much movement to get the system working again. Simply moving from sitting to standing, taking a short walk, stretching – all activate the muscles’ ability to manage these triggers for disease.

Standing desks are one attempt to fix this problem, but standing still is not much better.  Imagine stagnant water, things accumulate.  Inactivity or simply stillness is the root of the problem.  We need to move to get the system working.

If you exercise regularly no one would call you a couch potato. But…you can be an active couch potato. The chair does not care if you exercise regularly or not – stillness will cause these changes in the body despite your fitness level.

The term lifestyle activity is used to describe how much we move during the day. Getting 10,000 steps a day on a pedometer all at once  does not have the same benefit as taking 5000 steps in one shot and then spreading the other 5000 out during the rest of the day.

When you are trying to lose weight or maintain weight loss add a goal for lifestyle activity in addition to exercise goals.  Often, lifestyle activity is a great first step if you are not ready to exercise yet and a great addition if you are exercising but the scale is not budging.

Bottom line – how often we move during the day is as important as how often we exercise in a week.

Keep Moving, Be Well,

Janet

These weekly emails are general guidelines. These guidelines apply to patients who are cleared by a physician for the type of exercise described.  Please contact your physician with any concerns or questions. Always report any symptoms associated with exercise, such as pain, irregular heartbeats, and dizziness or fainting, to your physician.  

Janet Huehls, MA, RCEP, CYT, CWCRegistered Clinical Exercise Physiologist

Certified Wellness Coach UMass Memorial Weight Center 774-443-3886

Questions about July 3

Q. Do SHARE members have to work on July 3?

A. Most SHARE members will not have to work on Friday, July 3. Some SHARE members may be required to work in order to keep their department open that day. Those employees will have Monday, July 6 off. 

Q. Do I have to use my own time to take July 3 off?

A. No. If you do not have to work July 3, you will be paid for the holiday.

Q. How will my time be counted if I work July 3 and take July 6 off?

A. If you do work July 3, you will earn holiday compensatory time, which you can use to take July 6 off. (For rules about what counts toward the calculation of overtime, see the section "Overtime" on page 24 of the SHARE contract.)

Q. How can I find out if I have to work on July 3?

A. If your department needs to be open on July 3, the department manager will make a plan for the necessary coverage and communicate that to any employees who will be asked to work that day. If you are not sure if you will be expected to work, check with your supervisor.


If you have more questions about any of this, talk to a SHARE rep in your area, or call the SHARE office at 508-929-4020.