News in Brief: March 18, 2014
This is Open Media Boston's News in Brief for March 18, 2014.
15Now
Calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour in a nationwide day of action, members and supporters of the Socialist Alternative-led group 15Now held a rally on Saturday. Beginning at the State House, and marching towards the site of Occupy Boston in Dewey Sq. the protestors stopped at low-wage employers along the way to demand a living wage.
Boston School Bus Drivers
Members of the United Steelworkers Union 8751 and drivers of Boston Public Schools’ buses picketed the offices of their employer, Veolia, on Wednesday. Four of the union’s leaders were given a grievance hearing with the company after they were terminated following a dispute with management last October that led to a work stoppage.
Quincy Caregivers
According to the Service Employee International Union, local 1199, healthcare workers at Quincy Medical Center are concerned that the city is in danger of losing its only hospital and its only emergency room. The workers say an affiliation deal between Granite Medical Group (GMG) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Milton that was announced in October 2012 is pushing Quincy’s only community hospital to the brink. As a result of that deal, caregivers say GMG referrals to Quincy’s only community hospital have been essentially choked off, bleeding the hospital of commercially insured patients and dealing a visible blow to overall patient volume.
Bring Them Home
The JFK Federal Building in Boston was picketed on Friday by supporters of the Bring Them Home campaign and Resist the Raids. The demonstrators were calling for the right of deported immigrants to the return to their homes in the US. Last Monday, dozens of deportees began taking direct action by crossing the Mexican border with the US.
Youth T Pass
The Youth Affordabili(T) Coalition held a rally on Wednesday, calling on the MBTA to issue a $10 youth pass to ride the T for students aged 12-21. Demonstrators also called on the MBTA to stop raising fares for student T-users, which are expected to rise again in July.
