Summer Actions!

Greetings,

The summer is heating up, and so are union activities across the state. Here are a few for those of you not at the beach.

Support the Educational Association of Worcester
The Educational Association of Worcester is in a tough contract fight. The district is offering a ZERO percent increase. Our sisters and brothers need your support. Please join them from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Monday, July 17, at EAW headquarters, 397 Grove St., Worcester, to rally for a fair contract. Wear green and spread the word.

MTA Stands with Tufts Nurses
Hundreds of nurses at Tufts Medical Center in Boston walked out for a one-day strike on Wednesday, July 12, to demand a fair contract. The nurses are members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 1,200 nurses at the hospital. The nurses are scheduled to walk back in at 7 a.m. on Thursday, July 13, but management has threatened to lock them out. Please join the nurses at 7 a.m. Thursday to show your support, as well as in the days ahead if there is a lockout. Many thanks to the MTA members who were on hand Wednesday to support the strikers. Go here for more information. Don't forget to wear your union colors!

MTA Summer Conference: Build Your Union Muscle
Looking to get in shape this summer? Sign up for the Union Academy at this year's MTA Summer Conference. Go here for more information and here to sign up for the conference.

MTA at the NEA RA
The NEA Representative Assembly was held in Boston last week - and MTA members did Massachusetts proud. A stellar Host Committee and hundreds of volunteers made for a smooth and welcoming event. EAW and MTA member Saul Ramos gave a moving speech as NEA's ESP of the Year, and MTA members took to the convention floor to move New Business Items that, among other things:

• Require the NEA president and RA Committee to address hate speech by the anti-gay caucus and the "alternative facts" of the creationist teacher caucus and exhibitors.
• Require the NEA to develop coalitions and live up to its promise to actively support efforts to bring more men of color into education.
• Require the NEA to research and report on personalized and competency-based programs in education and their dehumanization of education.
• Offer national support for the Boston Teachers Union and EAW in their contract struggles.
• Further, MTA members spoke to and had referred - after considerable conversation to pressure for action:
• A motion to add $1.5 million to the organizing division with the purpose of hiring organizers to be assigned to support work regionally.
• An organizing plan for a Windfall Elimination Provision and Social Security offset repeal effort that is more than "support legislation," but rather offers a systematic approach to pressuring Congress through members doing the work.

MTA members also joined mobilizations to:

• Support the Vermont organizing group Migrant Justice, which was a recipient of an NEA Human and Civil Rights award, and help raise funds to aid in Migrant Justice's legal defense. The group's two leaders had been unjustly detained by immigration agents.
• Joined an action to protest Santander Bank's undermining of the people, students and schools of Puerto Rico. Learn more here.

MTA members also took to the convention floor to add a Massachusetts perspective to the NEA's new charter policy.

In solidarity,
Barbara