MTA Union News: gearing up for a major victory
MTA Union News: gearing up for a major victory
Greetings, MTA Members!
Today we launch the first of a series of ads that will be on major media platforms, including television, on behalf of the Fair Share Amendment. Several of our members are being featured in these spots — which follow social media ads that have been up since earlier this summer.
The ads — along with the canvassing that has brought our members and staff to more than 60,000 doors and the phone banks that have generated hundreds of thousands of calls — give us great momentum as we head into the sprint to victory for the Fair Share Amendment on Nov. 8.
We are 84 days away from Election Day. But we can’t count on winning without your help. Your magic power is that you are more trusted on education issues than any other group of people in the state. Your conversation with a friend at the beach or at a Labor Day barbecue, your phone call to a fellow MTA member or someone else in your community, or your email to family members: all will have an outsized impact.
Please sign up here for a door-to-door campaign canvass with the general public. Or find out here how to get your own local engaged in a canvass in your town or around your school.
MTA Events
Let us know (by emailing MTAGovernance@massteacher.org) if you’d like the two of us to come to an opening day event for the school year.
- Mark your calendars for Sept. 10 — the date of the All Presidents’ Meeting, which will be followed by an afternoon workshop on building more bold and strike-ready locals. Ask your local president if you’d like to attend. Registration information is coming soon.
- The Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander Educator Mentorship Program — offered through an NEA grant — is looking for AAPI educators looking to build a community of support for one another. AAPI educators who are chosen will receive PDPs through UMass Lowell for their full participation. The deadline to apply is Aug. 26.
Solidarity Actions and Victories
- The HEArt of Haverhill, the Haverhill Education Association, is holding a rally to kick off work to rule at 4 p.m. on Sept. 1 at Haverhill City Hall in response to the failure of the School Committee to negotiate a fair contract. Join HEA members (and us) to show broad support for members of the local and their students.
- The National Education Association has released its Title IX Action Page! The NEA supports the proposed Title IX Rule to Prevent Sex Discrimination and Sex-Based Harassment — and we need your help to tell the U.S. Department of Education that you support safe and welcoming learning environments. Please send a letter in support.
Political Education
We both read a terrific, if disturbing, book, The Privatization of Everything, about how privatization has taken over so much of what once was considered the public good: schools, colleges, transportation, water, sewers, parks, Social Security — even the weather! (See Chapter 24 if you are wondering what we are talking about!). Here’s a hopeful quote from the conclusion, on Page 283:
“But the central lesson shouldn’t be simply that private corporations have too much power and control over public goods. And the central point shouldn’t be simply that we’ve starved government of revenue, acquiesced to wholesale deregulation, and agreed to wild experiments that privatized our public goods. All of these small decisions transferred real power to real businesspeople. The most important lesson of this book is that, because we gave private interests that power, we can take it back.”
In solidarity,
Max and Deb