Right-click the above image to save it and add it to your email signature to demonstrate to the UMass Memorial community that you value the importance of the Juneteenth holiday.
June nineteenth recognizes an important event in realizing the full emancipation of slaves in the United States. Although the Emancipation Proclamation officially served to end slavery, it took over two years for the words of that statement to be fully enacted. June 19th, 1865 marks the day when, in Galveston, Texas, “union Army General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived to formally inform the enslaved Black and African American people of Galveston and Texas — about a quarter of a million people — that the Emancipation Proclamation had freed them.” (Learn more about the event here.)
Ever since, Juneteenth has been celebrated as a kind of second Independence Day, or Black Independence Day, with its earliest origins in black communities in the American South. The day became officially recognized in Massachusetts in 2007, and became a federal holiday in 2021. You can celebrate locally at events such as Worcester’s annual Black Heritage Festival.
Emancipation Day celebration, June 19, 1900 held in "East Woods" on East 24th Street in Austin. Credit: Austin History Center. Learn more at the The National Museum of African American History and Culture
SHARE values the importance of this day, recognizing the legacy of racism in our country, and the important ways that the labor movement and the rights of BIPOC people (black people, indigenous people, and people of color) have been intertwined, and we will continue to work toward policies, pay structures, and cultural values that foster racial equity in our community right here.
IMPORTANT EFFECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS’ JUNETEENTH OBSERVANCE
UMass Chan Medical School has already added the holiday to its list of official holidays. The State’s new legal designation also adds June 19th to the list of dates recognized under Massachusetts’ “Blue Laws,” thereby creating time-off and premium pay requirements for retail employers.
NO CHANGE TO HOLIDAY SCHEDULE AT UMASS MEMORIAL
Most employers, however, including our hospital, are not legally obligated to recognize the federal holiday. Although we urge the hospital to officially recognize this important day, government designations do not affect the current agreement that SHARE and UMass Memorial about the holiday schedule. (See Contract Page 56 for the holiday policy).
According to a memo from Dr. Brian Gibbs, UMass Memorial Chief Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Officer — sent to all caregivers on the occasion of Juneteenth 2022 — “we are exploring all options to celebrate this important holiday in the future.” During contract negotiations last year, SHARE proposed that Juneteenth to be added to the list of holidays for SHARE members as part of our contract agreement. The hospital turned down the SHARE proposal, and told the SHARE Negotiating Team that they continue to evaluate the possibility of establishing the day as a paid holiday for the entire UMass Memorial community.