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Massachusetts

School Bus Workers Win Strike In Marlborough, Ratify Contract

May 27, 2023 International Brotherhood of Teamsters. , , ,
Marlborough, Massachusetts – Following a three-day strike, bus workers at North Reading Transportation (NRT) have overwhelmingly voted to ratify their first Teamster contract. These bus workers are represented by Teamsters Local 170 and provide student transportation for Marlborough Public Schools. The agreement covers 65 workers and includes wage increases, Teamsters 401(k) with company contributions, and holiday and attendance bonuses. “What happened here in Marlborough is yet another clear indication that strikes work,” said Shannon George, Local 170 Secretary-Treasurer.

Sprinfielgd Anti-Pipeline March: ‘No More Sacrifice Zones’

May 22, 2023 Springfield Climate Justice Coalition. , , ,
Despite changing the date due to rain, a lively crowd of over 170 people rallied at Stearns Square on Sunday and marched from there to Bliss Street Regulator Station. A diverse and enthusiastic group, they joined Springfield residents and included representatives from the 153 organizations across Massachusetts that co-sponsored the action. The focus of this event was twofold: (1) to amplify the voices of the growing movement to stop the Eversource’s proposed pipeline in Springfield and Longmeadow and (2) to call on the Healey administration to put a halt to new gas system expansions until we have a concrete plan for a just and rapid transition to the clean energy future we need for a livable ecosystem.

Fisheries Workers, Cut For Organizing, File Labor Board Charges

May 2, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
A hundred immigrant seafood processing workers in New Bedford, Massachusetts, lost their jobs March 31 when their employer abruptly terminated its contract with the temp agency that placed them. Workers say it was retaliation for organizing. Their fight will be a test case of new protections for immigrants who organize on the job. The company invited the fired workers to apply for their old jobs, but only a handful were actually rehired. “When the workers got the news, they started crying, worried about how they are going to pay their rent and bills,” said Ruth Castro, who has worked for five years at the plant and almost 20 years in the industry.

Healthcare Activists Demand: Restore Covid-19 Protections Now!

April 12, 2023 Will Hodgkinson, Workers World. , , ,
Boston, Massachusetts - The Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity (Mass. CHE) held an online press conference on April 5 to demand the state keep protections against COVID-19 in place to safeguard health care workers, people with disabilities and the general population during the continuing pandemic. The conference was a response to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy’s decision to comply with the Biden administration’s decision to terminate the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) on May 11. Ending the PHE, which was initially declared by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in January 2020, will allow bosses at medical facilities in the U.S. privatized health care system to strip millions of health care workers and patients of safety measures, including masking, social distancing and surveillance testing.

Rally In Solidarity With Resistance To Cop City In Avon, Massachusetts

March 7, 2023 IGD Worldwide, It's Going Down. , , , , , ,
The Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta is the proposed site of a massive police training facility, known to most as “Cop City.” Cop City is the logical outgrowth of violent, racialized capitalism in the United States. Corporations and wealthy Atlantans believe that they need a large and well-equipped police force to tamp down “crime” in the city they are working to gentrify, and have thus contributed financially to this project. As landlords and cops push Black residents out, wealthy, mostly white neighborhoods like Buckhead demand ever more police intervention to keep them and their ill-gotten wealth “safe.” With all their militarized training, equipment, and qualified immunity from prosecution, police murder thousands of people per year — disproportionately Black, Brown, and Indigenous.

Setting Our Sights On The Equality Of Women

March 5, 2023 Patricia Hynes, Portside. , , ,
Boston, Massachusetts - A month ago, I heard on the news that Boston public schools would be closed on February 3 because of the severe Arctic cold and wind chill forecast for that day and the next.  My first thought was: what if the students’ mothers are working single mothers, what if they cannot take off or cannot afford to lose the pay – given inflation of food, energy and rents and the impoverishing impact of Covid? Boston is a severely unequal city with an extremely segregated public school system: 80 percent of children in public school are low income; 90 percent are students of color, mainly Latino and Black; higher income families with children leave for suburbs when their children become of school age, according to the Dorchester Reporter. 

Most ‘Progressive’ Police Force In US Slammed For Response To Police Killing

March 2, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Cambridge, Massachusetts - Over 200 students from over seven universities, and dozens of local residents poured into the City Hall of Cambridge, Massachusetts on the evening of February 27, holding a demonstration with chanting, singing, and speeches. Demonstrators chanted, “No good cop in a racist system!” and “One solution, revolution!” The occupation was initiated to demand justice for Arif Sayed Faisal (20), a Bangladeshi immigrant student killed by Cambridge police on January 4 as he was having a mental health crisis. “We are engaged in the critical struggle of demanding justice for Arif Sayed Faisal, our fellow student who was murdered by the police,” said Emerson College student Daven McQueen.

Northampton Protesters Denounce Sending US Tanks To Ukraine

January 27, 2023 Alexander MacDougall, Daily Hampshire Gazette. , , , ,
Northampton, Massachusetts - Around 20 demonstrators gathered in front of the Northampton office of U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern on Thursday evening to protest the recent decision by the U.S. government to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The Biden administration announced the decision to send 31 Abrams tanks on Wednesday, as fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces approaches one year of conflict. Germany also announced on the same day that it would send 14 Leopard 2 tanks on the same day, with 62 tanks in total being sent from NATO-allied nations to support Ukraine, as reported by the Associated Press. The protesters gathered in front of McGovern’s office on Thursday to denounce the decision, saying the U.S. should focus on diplomacy and negotiations instead.

Boston University Historic Union Win For Graduate Workers

December 26, 2022 Steve Gillis, Workers World. , , , , ,
Boston, Massachusetts - Over 3,000 new members of the Boston University Graduate Workers Union (BUGWU), Service Employees (SEIU) Local 509, celebrated a 98.1% NLRB election victory Dec. 7, which was months in the organizing. To punctuate that 2022 has been a wildly successful year of rank-and-file union organizing in the U.S., some labor researchers have characterized the 1,414 to 28 vote as “the most lopsided NLRB election win ever by a bargaining unit [of] more than 1,000 people.” (@dskamper, @gradworkersofBU, Twitter) Speaking at a Dec. 9 Boston rally marking the one-year anniversary of the first victory for Starbucks Workers United, rank-and-file BUGWU organizer Wu Nairan credited “the inspiration and solidarity of [this summer’s 64-day] strike of Boston Starbucks Workers United on the BU campus” with propelling BUGWU’s win.

Indigenous People Push Back Against US ‘Thanksgiving Mythology’

November 25, 2022 Jessica Corbett, Commondreams. , , ,
The United American Indians of New England and allies gathered at noon Thursday at Cole's Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts for the 53rd National Day of Mourning—an annual tradition that serves as "a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide." "We don't have any issues with people sitting down with their family and giving thanks," Kisha James—who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and is also Oglala Lakota—told BBC. "What we do object to is the Thanksgiving mythology." In a Thursday speech, James—whose grandfather founded the National Day of Mourning in 1970—challenged the lies of "mythmakers" and history books, instead highlighting "genocide, the theft of our lands, the destruction of our traditional ways of life, slavery, starvation, and never-ending oppression."

Undaunted By Fines, Massachusetts Teachers Defy Strike Ban

November 15, 2022 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. , , ,
Massachusetts - Two more illegal strikes have hit Massachusetts! On October 14, members of the Haverhill Educators Association voted to strike. Malden educators voted to strike just a few hours later. After four days out, Haverhill educators won their demands for school safety and commitment for diverse hiring; those in Malden settled their contract with a one-day strike. The school committee in Haverhill had dragged its feet and walked away from the table again and again. On the last night of the strike, hundreds of striking teachers, along with students, parents, and educators from nearby districts, stood outside city hall chanting “Do your job” and “Settle this now.”

In Massachusetts, Unions Beat Billionaires To Pass A Tax On The Rich

November 13, 2022 Paul Prescod, Jacobin. , , ,
Massachusetts - While the Democrats’ worst fears of a “red wave” did not materialize, the midterms also didn’t feature many clear affirmative wins for the Left. But in Massachusetts, working people scored a major victory with a ballot measure to tax the rich and fund public investment. Supported by a broad labor-community coalition, the passage of the Fair Share Amendment can serve as a model for ballot initiative campaigns nationwide. The Fair Share Amendment will create a 4 percent tax on annual income above $1 million. The funds raised from this measure are mandated to be spent on public education, transportation, and infrastructure repair. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the amendment will generate over $2 billion every year for the state.

Massachusetts Educators’ Joint Strike Wins Historic Common Good Demands

October 28, 2022 Yaakov Rav, Liberation News. , , , ,
Members of the Malden Education Association and the Haverhill Education Association have ratified new contracts won through a simultaneous strike last week. After one day on the picket line in Malden and four days in Haverhill, educators secured significant gains including higher wages, increased parental leave and commitments to housing justice. Students, community members, and workers came together in the hundreds to support striking educators across Massachusetts. Although public sector strikes are illegal in 39 states, including Massachusetts, teacher unions have been pushed to risk breaking the law to address the dire issues in public schools that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated. 

Ahead Of Halloween, Sysco Teamsters Give Corporate Ghouls Heebie-Jeebies

October 26, 2022 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Plympton, Massachusetts - Teamsters in Plympton, Massachusetts, won their strike at America's largest wholesale food distributor with an old-fashioned militant tactic: the mass picket line. The Sysco strike broke out on October 1. At first there were 100 workers, each with a picket sign, walking a little circle in the driveway leading to the warehouse. But in the early morning of Monday, October 17, a throng of fellow Teamsters swelled the crowd to 400. A dozen positioned their tractor-trailers athwart exits to block scabs from leaving and entering. Thirteen workers got arrested. And three days later, Teamster Local 653 members ratified a new contract, 215-2, with an $11 boost in pay over five years, improved retirement, and untouched health insurance benefits.

Harvard/MIT Students Shut Down Exxon Recruiting Event

October 13, 2022 Divest Harvard. , , , , ,
Cambridge, Massachusetts - On Wednesday, around 30 members of the Harvard and MIT communities disrupted a recruiting event by ExxonMobil. The presentation, which was held in the offices of the MIT Earth and Planetary Sciences department and advertised to Harvard science students, was intended to convince students to participate in the company’s hiring process. Students at the event, however, sent a message loud and clear: So long as Exxon is undermining young people’s futures, it won’t be welcome on campus. The disruption — and a similar one, also this week at Brown — come in the wake of Exxon’s track record of exploiting vulnerable peoples and environments for its oil and gas development, while lying to the public about its ostensible pivot to greener initiatives.
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