Equality, Dignity and Solidarity: The Pillars of Our Labor Movement
Equality, Dignity and Solidarity: The Pillars of Our Labor Movement
Greetings, MTA members,
Last summer, Loretta Ross, a professor at Smith College and a noted activist for reproductive rights, gave a keynote talk at our summer conference at UMass Amherst. She opened her talk by noting the eight categories of human rights, highlighting that what should unite us in the progressive movement, including our unions and organizations, is a quest to build a world in which everyone enjoys those rights. This is what animates her trainings on building a “calling in” culture, against what she sees as a destructive “calling out” culture.
Last Saturday was the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is worth reading Article 23, which deals with the rights of workers. These principles continue to animate our work in the MTA and across the labor movement, in this country and around the world:
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Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
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Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
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Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for [themself] and [their] family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
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Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of [their] interests.
MTA Events and Solidarity Actions
[please include the language and link to the actions spreadsheet and form to submit – can we get someone from F and O to be the point person to fill in this action sheet?]
School Buildings and Climate Change
We are part of the AFL-CIO’s Climate Jobs Massachusetts coalition to win a sustainable and just future for the Commonwealth. It includes an important piece of legislation to promote green and healthy schools and colleges that also protect worker rights and create good union jobs.
Here is a useful toolkit for school committee members and union leaders on how to jumpstart green building efforts in our schools.
Legislation Supporting our Retired Members
The MTA is firmly committed to ensuring a fair and dignified retirement for educators – both for those who are already retired and for those who are still in the classroom but planning for the future. To that end, we are supporting several legislative efforts at the state and federal levels that, if passed, could significantly strengthen retirement benefits moving forward. Specifically, we need your help to let state and federal lawmakers know that educators across the Commonwealth are counting on them to take action on these three proposals.
School Counselors
The MTA is supporting legislation that would address the urgent demand for more school counselors in the Commonwealth’s public school districts. The academic, social, emotional and mental health needs of our students have only increased in recent years, and it is time for the state to provide them with the critical support they deserve. Please email your legislators right away and urge them to support and co-sponsor this MTA-backed legislation.
Organizing for Strikes and Community Actions
Consider signing up for this webinar, featuring Bargaining for the Common Good and Minnesota educators, about collective power and the possibility of mass strikes in the country.
Portland Strike Victory!
Congratulations to our union comrades in Portland, who won a terrific contract after a two-week strike.
Conference Opportunities for MTA Members
The MTA and NEA are accepting applications for members to participate in next year’s conferences, scheduled from January through July 2024. This is a great opportunity for members to immerse themselves in union education and job-specific education and engage with members across the country. You will have the opportunity to learn from renowned leaders, share stories with other members and learn from one other. Both MTA and NEA provide funding for these conferences. Space is very limited. If you are interested in applying to one or more of these opportunities, please fill out this survey form.
MTA Education Support Professionals Conference
When: April 5 - 6, 2024
Where: Sea Crest Beach Hotel, 350 Quaker Road, North Falmouth
Go here to get links to submit a workshop proposal, nominate a first-time participant to receive a scholarship, or submit a candidate for ESP of the Year. Conference registration will open in February.
State Budget Letter
Here is what our Government Relations department has sent to Governor Maura Healey as our top priorities for the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. Yes, it's that time again! In late January, Healey will present her budget proposal, starting the months-long debate on Beacon Hill about next year’s budget.
Concerns with the Department of Labor and the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB)
We have expressed our deep concern about some of the decisions and conflicts of interest of the state Department of Labor when it comes to grievances and rulings around strikes, as well its overall underfunding and lack of speed in responding to our locals’ grievances. Here’s the letter we sent to Governor Healey.
Delegate Nominations
Positions are open for Delegates to the NEA RA, Regional and Retired Ethnic Minority Delegates to the 2024 MTA Annual Meeting and Statewide Retired District Delegates to the MTA Annual Meeting. Please click here to learn more.
Political Education
Thanks again to all the members – in preK-12 and higher ed – who helped the Legislature do its job last week and fund contracts for members in higher ed, as well as for 50,000 other state workers. And just last Friday, members in higher ed won another victory – confirmation that raises and retroactive pay will be in their Dec. 22 paychecks, even though campus officials told members they would have to wait until January.
Just as that struggle for the higher ed contracts was going on, American Prospect magazine published a scathing review of the legislative culture on Beacon Hill. It is worth reading to understand why it can be so hard to get progressive legislation passed, even though we have an overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature, a Democratic governor, as well as other Democratic statewide officers. The piece notes how Connecticut and Minnesota have achieved gains that progressives have been unable to win here in the Commonwealth.
In solidarity,
Max and Deb