BOSTON/East Boston - Nearly 100 people crowded into East Boston’s Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church Tuesday night, lending their voices to the growing cacophony of the underemployed, disenfranchised, uninsured and overworked who say they are part of the 99 percent.
Cambridge, Mass. - Over 500 union members and allies held a Labor Day March between Cambridge City Hall and the Cambridge Common via Harvard Yard on Monday. The event was organized by Service Employees International Union Local 615 and several other labor unions, together with area community and religious organizations.
BOSTON/South Boston - Over 80 temp workers and their community and labor allies rallied in South Boston on Thursday to draw attention to the exploitation of Massachusetts’ growing low-wage temporary workforce, just ahead of the Labor Day holiday.
Cambridge, MA - Several people, including students and members of at least three local unions, participated in an informational picket today at the Verizon Wireless store in Harvard Square. The action was one of dozens of similar pickets that have been organized outside Verizon Wireless stores in support of the strike against Verizon by over 45,000 of its unionized workers that began on August 6th.
BOSTON/State House - Dozens of labor and community activists showed up in support of a green jobs bill at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Energy and Natural Resources at the Massachusetts State House on Thursday. The bill, H. 1774, An Act Regarding Community Access to Energy Efficiency Programs and Green Jobs would require that all utility companies operating in the Commonwealth provide data showing what populations their energy efficiency programs are reaching, and expand access to energy efficiency services by establishing new weatherization goals.
BOSTON/State House - Supporters and opponents of a bill that would change the way temporary agencies do business in Massachusetts squared off in front of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development on Thursday in Gardiner Auditorium at the State House. Advocates for the Act Updating and Streamlining the Employment Agency Law (House Bill 1393) - which they dub the “Reform Employment Agency Law” or the “REAL bill" - made the case that bottom feeders in the temp industry are operating outside existing labor law and exploiting workers due to a lack of regulation.
BOSTON/State House - Over 200 union members, allies, and family members representing the 47 Massachusetts workers who died on the job over the last year gathered in front of the Mass. State House yesterday to commemorate Workers' Memorial Day. Many attendees carried placards that read “Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living” - paraphrasing the early 20th century labor leader Mother Jones.
BOSTON/Financial District - Over 500 union members and community allies held a protest on the Rose Kennedy Greenway adjacent to the 1 International Place complex on Thursday April 14th to protest corporate tax breaks and demand a progressive tax system and job creation programs in Massachusetts. Organizers said they held the event near International Place because it houses or is near the Boston headquarters of State Street Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Barclays.
BOSTON - Union leaders rallied with some 300 supporters outside the Massachusetts Republican Party headquarters in Boston on Monday April 4th to recall the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and stand in solidarity with public sector workers. It was the 43rd anniversary of King's assassination. The rally was one of over 1,200 events nationwide coordinated by the union sponsored We Are One campaign.
BOSTON/Brighton - Over 75 members of the Association of Employees of the Educational Foundation/Communication Workers of America Local 1300 and allies from the Greater Boston Labor Council and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice held a rally outside the offices of WGBH on Tuesday to protest the public television station's unilateral imposition of its final contract offer in the current round of collective bargaining negotiations with a large group of its unionized employees.
