Celebrate Our Victories and Fight for Public Education on Labor Day
Celebrate Our Victories and Fight for Public Education on Labor Day
What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed. Samuel Gompers, 1903
Yes, the summer is coming to a close. Some of you started this week; everyone else after Sept. 1. Let’s launch this new year in a righteous defense of unions and public education with a powerful Labor Day parade. In Boston, we’ll march from the State House down School Street, where we will raucously highlight the site of the first public school in the United States and the birthplace of our centuries-long tradition of leading the nation in public education. In Holyoke, Labor Day marchers will gather at Holyoke City Hall and march to Veterans Park.
We can never remind ourselves too often of the few fundamental principles of what we do as educators and unionists:
– You are some of the most respected people in your communities. You educate, care for and inspire every community’s children, effectively raising our youth in partnership with parents. That is an unbreakable bond.
– You have won tremendous local victories one contract at a time – living wages for ESPs, paid family and medical leave, greater longevity pay, more school counselors, and on and on. Each victory is for yourselves and all future educators in your community.
– Together we have ended the high-stakes graduation tests; brought in $3 billion for public education and transportation from the multimillionaires and billionaires; won overrides; increased pay for ESPs; elected pro-public education candidates; and much more. This year we will advocate together and win a fix to RetirementPlus; protections for our public higher education staff and faculty; and more money to address the preK-12 fiscal crisis.
– With our national union, the National Education Association, and union allies, we will do nothing less than defend democracy against those who are intent on cementing an authoritarian regime in Washington. Without a strong labor movement with educators at the front, the assault on democracy will likely succeed; with it, we can reverse democratic backsliding.
MTA Events, Opportunities and Solidarity Actions
Labor Day Solidarity Parade (Boston)
When: Monday, Sept. 1, 9:30 a.m.
Where: Boston Common, at the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial near intersection of Beacon and Park streets
Just as all of you and millions across the country showed up for rallies and marches for May Day and No Kings Day, we need to do so again. Protests alone won’t stop rising authoritarianism, but they are necessary to demonstrate that we will defend our democracy. The MTA will be anchoring a stop along the parade on none other than School Street, where the first public school in the United States – Boston Latin – once stood. Please bring signs from your local contract fights, or any other signs you want to show to the thousands passing by the education stop on the parade route.
Labor Day March and Gathering (Holyoke)
When: Monday, Sept. 1, 10:30 a.m.
Where: Holyoke City Hall
Join the Holyoke Teachers Association, Springfield Education Association and other labor allies and friends in a Labor Day March and Gathering, starting from Holyoke City Hall and ending at Veterans Park with a speaking program, food trucks and a picnic. Register here.
All Presidents’ Meeting
When: Saturday, Sept. 20, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Breakfast starts at 8 a.m. Lunch will follow when the meeting ends.)
Where: Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center, 1657 Worcester Road, Framingham
Please join us as we celebrate some recent victories and continue to build stronger locals and a stronger MTA! Registration ends on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Register today for the September 2025 All Presidents’ Meeting.
Note: Each local president should have received a unique registration link — please email MTAGovernance@massteacher.org if you have not. The link allows you to add guests of your choice – we urge you to invite a few local leaders/activists. If you are a member who would like to attend, ask your local president.
Fiscal Crisis Action Team Meeting
When: 5 - 6 p.m. on Sept. 15, Oct. 20, Nov. 17 and Dec. 8
Where: Virtual
Join MTA members, parents, students, community activists and municipal leaders from across the Commonwealth as we take strategic action to win legislative and budgetary fixes to the growing fiscal crisis impacting public schools and colleges across the Commonwealth.
All are welcome! Registration is open now.
Attend a Raise Up Massachusetts Town Hall
When: Sept. 18 through Oct. 28
Where: Regional meetings
Our Raise Up Massachusetts coalition is convening town hall meetings around the state this fall to discuss how we can fight back against federal cuts. These meetings will bring together unions, community leaders and legislators to strategize about how we can tap the state’s rainy day fund and pass Corporate Fair Share legislation to protect education and other key public services. RSVP to attend a town hall in your area. Meetings begin Sept. 18 in Hyannis for the Cape and Islands region, and continue through October.
Educators, Share Your Stories on Transgender Rights and Inclusion
With the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear important cases this fall on transgender rights and inclusion in student athletics, the NEA is interested in hearing from educators in preK-12 and higher education who have expertise on student athletics and can speak to the importance of inclusion and support for transgender and other gender non-conforming students; the role of athletics in a supportive education environment and students’ sense of belonging; and the positive benefits for all student athletes. The NEA also is interested in speaking with educators who have witnessed the effects of athletics bans on transgender students. Learn more and please share your stories.
Political Education
The start of the school year is a good time for all of us in the MTA to be reminded of the critical importance of unions, for our individual economic security, but equally for broader justice in our workplaces and communities.
A new Economic Policy Institute report documents the strong correlation between higher levels of unionization and a range of economic, personal and democratic well-being measures. In the same way that unions give workers a voice at work, with a direct impact on wages and working conditions, the data suggest that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities. Where workers have this power, states have more equitable economic, social and democratic structures.
If you are fired up about that report, keep reading! Check out another report from the EPI. It is a sad state of affairs that EPI needed to make clear, once again, what you all already know: Money matters in public education. Austerity — inflicted on us by both sides of the aisle — is killing public education. We fight back by demanding full funding of our public schools.
In Solidarity
Max and Deb