On November 8, Massachusetts voters decisively chose to keep the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts by voting no on question two by a margin of 62.1% to 37.9%. Congratulations to everyone who worked tirelessly to keep money in our public schools! We won this victory by bringing together teachers, parents, students, unions, and community allies to fight privatization efforts from big-money and out of state donors.
Save Our Public Schools: Vote No On 2
In August, the NE JLC endorsed "No on 2" because of the devastating impact this ballot initiative would have on our public education system. Question 2 would allow for the massive expansion of charter schools in Massachusetts. Charter schools already take $450 million per year statewide out of the regular public school budget. The loss of funding to traditional public schools hurts high-needs students the most by draining money used for necessary and important support services. Question 2 negatively affects teachers' unions and their right to collectively bargain for better conditions for teachers and students.
Boston Public School junior Gabby speaking at a No on 2 rally on Tuesday. Read her story here. Photo credit: Jeremy Shenk
Why No on 2?
"SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL" EDUCATION
- Charter schools siphon money from high-needs students. Charter schools receive higher funding in districts with more high-needs students, despite providing education to a far lower percentage of these students than traditional public schools. Tradition public schools are left struggling to fund and provide ESL students and students with special needs with the support services they need and deserve.
- According to the NAACP, charter schools increase segregation within public schools. They also point to research that documents increased punitive and exclusionary disciplinary practices in charter schools. The NAACP opposes the expansion of charter schools for just these reasons.
LOST FUNDING
- See how much your town loses to charter schools from its public school budget here. Money lost to charters could instead go to arts, music, and special education programs that all students can access.
NO LOCAL ACCOUNTABILITY
- Charter schools lack local accountability, and are not overseen by local school boards. They are publicly funded but privately managed. More than 60% of charter schools in Massachusetts lack a single parent representative on their boards.
Interfaith Statement Against Islamophobia
We are proud to have helped organize over 100 faith leaders from across religions and denominations to sign on to the interfaith statement below condemning Islamophobia and the extremist anti-Muslim speakers scheduled to present in Stoughton today (November 2). Among the Jewish leaders for the interfaith statement are Rabbi Or Rose of Hebrew College; active NE JLC participants Rabbi Ronne Friedman of Temple Israel and Michael Felsen of Workman's Circle; and NE JLC active participants and last year's NE JLC Labor Seder honorees Rabbi David Lerner of Temple Emunah and President of Mass Board of Rabbis, and Rabbi Victor Reinstein of Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue (in image).
Rejecting Hate: Statement of Interfaith Solidarity Against Islamophobia in Massachusetts
As Boston-area religious and cultural leaders, we are committed to building a community that embraces people of different beliefs and practices, including our Muslim neighbors and friends. This work is particularly important in the present political climate, in which some public figures are voicing messages of intolerance and xenophobia, pitting segments of the American populace against one another.
It is for this reason that we are deeply concerned to learn of an event scheduled for November 2nd in Stoughton featuring three speakers whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as anti-Muslim extremists or hate group leaders. Jerry Boykin, Frank Gaffney, and Tom Trento cast Islam as an inherently immoral faith, and spread conspiracy theories that Muslims are secretly infiltrating US and European governments as a “fifth column.”
For example, Mr. Gaffney has claimed that “most of the Muslim-American groups of any prominence in America are now known to be, as a matter of fact, hostile to the United States and its Constitution,” and Mr. Boykin has argued that “We need to realize that Islam itself is not just a religion - it is a totalitarian way of life. ... It should not be protected under the First Amendment, particularly given that those following the dictates of the Quran are under an obligation to destroy our Constitution and replace it with Sharia law.” This inflammatory rhetoric has no factual basis and directly fuels anti-Muslim discrimination and hate crimes.
Our houses of worship should be spaces for prayer, reflection, study, and community building. While free political debate is a vital element in our democracy, voices that demonize ethnic, racial, or faith groups have no place in our sanctuaries.
As clergy and organizational leaders seeking to cultivate a shared ethos of interreligious and cross-cultural cooperation, we the undersigned reach out to and call on Congregation Ahavath Torah to revoke their invitation to these individuals, all known purveyors of vitriol and acrimony. They, and the gross misinformation in which they traffic, are not deserving of a platform in our community.
In Peace,
Rev. Lois Adams - First Baptist Church of Sharon
Professor Rachel Adelman - Hebrew College
Fr. Jack Ahern – St. Mary Parish in Randolph
Rev. John Allen - First Congregational Church of Milton
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen - Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Dean, The Rabbinical School of Hebrew College
Rev. Dr. Jim Antal - Minister and President, Massachusetts Conference, UCC
Marya Axner - New England Jewish Labor Committee
Dr. Angela Bauer-Levesque, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean; Harvey H. Guthrie Jr. Professor of Bible, Culture, and Interpretation Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Rabbi Howard A. Berman, Central Reform Temple, Boston
Rev. Eliza Blanchard - First Parish of Brookline
Rev. Beverly Boke – First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton
Rev. Dr. Christian Brocato - Rector, Saint Peter's Episcopal Church, Cambridge
Rev. Jeffrey Brown – Twelfth Baptist Church
Sister Marie-Thérèse Browne, SCN, Roman Catholic Sister
Rev. Rebecca Bryan - First Parish in Brookline
Rev. Dr. Karin Case - First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC
Rev. Arrington Chambliss - Executive Director, Episcopal City Mission
Rev. Rebecca Cho - First United Methodist Church, Stoughton, MA
Fr. Brian Clary - Saint Mary of the Assumption, Brookline
Rev. Rainey G. Dankel - Associate Rector, Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Rev. Dr. Christopher Duraisingh - Professor Emeritus, Episcopal Divinity School
Rev. John Edgerton – Old South Church, Boston
Cantor Roy Einhorn - Temple Israel, Boston
Michael Felson - Executive Director Emeritus, Boston Workmen’s Circle
Rev. Kent French, Senior Pastor, The United Parish in Brookline
Rabbi Ronne Friedman - Senior Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Israel of Boston
Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman - Temple Sinai of Brookline
Joseph Gerson - American Friends Service Committee, New England Region
Rev Marlene Gil - Associate Executive Minister for Church Relations, American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts
Rabbi Neal Gold - Temple Shir Tikva
Rabbi Eric Gurvis – Senior Rabbi, Temple Shalom
Rev. Dr. Ray A. Hammond - Senior Pastor, Bethel AME Church
Rev. Wendy Vander Hart, Associate Conference Minister, MA Conference, United Church of Christ
Rev. Kim K. Crawford Harvie - Senior Minister, Arlington Street Church (Unitarian Universalist)
Rabbi/Cantor Anne Heath - Congregation Agudath Achim
Rabbi Suzie Jacobson - Temple Israel, Boston
Rabbi David Jaffe, The Kirva Institute, Sharon, MA
Rabbi Howard L. Jaffe - Temple Isaiah, Lexington
Rev. Laura Ruth Jarrett - Senior Pastor, Hope Central Church, Jamaica Plain
Rev. Edwin Johnson – St. Mary's Episcopal Church of Dorchester
Rabbi Randy Kafka - Temple Kol Tikvah, Sharon
Alice Kidder, Clerk, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Rev. Dr. David A. Killian - President, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Jen Kiok – Executive Director, Boston Workmen’s Circle
Idit Klein, Executive Director, Keshet
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman - Temple Beth Zion, Brookline
Rabbi Judith Kummer - Jewish Chaplaincy Council of Massachusetts
Rabbi Allan Lehmann - Hebrew College
Rabbi Ben Lanckton - Community Tikkun Leil Shavuot
Rabbi David Lerner, Temple Emunah, Lexington; President, Massachusetts Board of Rabbis
Rev. Rosemary Lloyd – The Conversation Project
Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd - Rector, Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Rev. Rob Mark - Church of the Covenant, Boston
Rabbi Emily Mathis - Temple Beth Avodah
Rev. Michael McGarry, C.S.P. - Director, The Paulist Center
Rev. Kathleen McTigue – UU College of Social Justice
Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman, Senior Scholar, Temple Israel, Boston,
Rabbi Margot Meitner - The Meeting Point, Jamaica Plain
Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello, Rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Brookline
Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison - Temple Israel of Boston
Fr. Jerry Morrow SCP -- Rector, Saint John's Episcopal Church, Sharon
Dr. Vito Nicastro, A.D., E.&I. - Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Professor Padraic O’Hare – Founder, Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations at Merrimack College
Rev. Gerald J. Osterman – Immaculate Conception Parish
Riva Pearson - President, Boston Workmen’s Circle
Rabbi Barbara Penzner - Temple Hillel B'nai Torah
Rev. Mary Perry – First Congregational Church of Stoughton, UCC
Rev. Oscar J. Pratt, II - St. Katharine Drexel Parish
Fr. Rocco Puopolo, s.x. - Xaverian Missionaries
Rev. Cristina Rathbone - Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston
Rabbi Victor Reinstein – Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue
Rev. Don Remick, Associate Conference Minister, Massachusetts Conference UCC
Rev. Doug Robinson–Johnson – United Parish of Auburndale
Rev. Dr. Rodney Petersen – Executive Director, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Rabbi Or Rose – Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership, Hebrew College
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman - Temple Ohabei Shalom
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy - Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker Community
Rabbi Rachel Schoenfeld - Shir Hadash
Rabbi Michael Shire - Hebrew College
Rev. Dr. Paul Shupe, Hancock United Church of Christ (Congregational), Lexington
Rev. Daniel Smith, Senior Minister, First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC
Rabbi Matthew Soffer - Associate Rabbi, Temple Israel, Boston
Rabbi Toba Spitzer - Vice President of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis
Rev. Burns Stanfield - President, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, South Boston
Rabbi Keith Stern, Temple Beth Avodah
The Very Rev. John P. Streit, Jr. - Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston
Cantor Jodi Sufrin - Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley
Rev. Stacy Swain - Union Church in Waban
Rev. Nancy Taylor – Senior Minister and CEO, Old South Church, Boston
Rabbi David Thomas - Congregation Beth El
Rabbi Andrew Vogel – Temple Sinai Brookline
Rabbi Moshe Waldoks - Temple Beth Zion
Rev. Liz Walker – Roxbury Presbyterian Church
Joanna Ware - Director of Special Projects, Keshet
Rev. Gretchen Weis – Murray Unitarian Universalist Church
Rev. Margaret L. Weis – Bell Street Chapel
Rabbi Ora Weiss - Congregation Beth Hatikvah
Rev. Dr. Donald A. Wells - Theologian in Residence, Old South Church, Boston
Rev. Joseph M. White - St Joseph Catholic, Boston
Sr. Ann Whittaker - Sister of Charity of Nazareth
Rev. Elizabeth Williams - Pastor, Wollaston Congregational Church, United Church of Christ
Rev. Jay Williams - Union United Methodist Church, Boston
Rabbi Elaine Zecher - Senior Rabbi, Temple Israel, Boston
Tufts Janitors Reach Tentative Agreement, Avoid Strike
By Kathleen Contivia The Boston GlobeAfter a 12-hour marathon bargaining session and with just two hours before a midnight deadline for a threatened janitors’ strike, the workers who clean Tufts University and the school’s maintenance contractor reached a four-year tentative agreement Monday night.About 200 Tufts janitors will see their hourly wages increase to $21.55 from $19.35 over the next four years, if the janitors ratify the contract. The workers’ union also received a commitment from contractor C&W Services to create more full-time positions over the life of the contract.
The Newton-based maintenance contractor also agreed to increases to the workers’ pension and training funds, and to provide health insurance at no additional cost to members who work full time, according to a spokesman for 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers.The janitors are scheduled to vote on the agreement Wednesday.
“This is a good agreement that opens a path to the middle class for hardworking men and women who are an indispensable part of the Tufts community,” said Roxana Rivera, vice president of 32BJ SEIU.C&W Services, a division of brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement they are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the union.“We’ve bargained in good faith and offered a fair and comprehensive package to our employees,” the company said in a statement. “We are pleased that the Union leadership has accepted this offer and will present it to their membership for ratification.”
A spokesman for Tufts, which was not involved in the negotiations, said in a statement that the school is thankful a tentative agreement “that is fair for all parties” was reached.“As always, we value C&W janitors’ contributions to our community, and we look forward to their continued presence on our campus,” said spokesman Patrick Collins.Last week, the janitors unanimously voted to authorize a strike if an agreement with C&W Services wasn’t reached by the end of Monday, when their contract was set to expire. The tentative agreement averted a strike that could have potentially started Tuesday. Tufts announced it had a contingency plan in place if its janitors walked off the job.The agreement does not include language the union sought that would have addressed workers’ concerns over excessive workloads they said were caused by a restructuring of services at the university last year that resulted in the layoffs of nine custodians and moving other workers to weekend shifts.Eugenio Villasante, spokesman for 32BJ SEIU, said while they will continue to make sure the janitors have a fair workload, the union considers C&W’s “strong commitment to create full time jobs” a victory for the workers.About 60 percent of the janitors who maintain the campus straddling Somerville and Medford work full-time, according to 32BJ SEIU.The two sides had been in negotiations since August.
Victory at Harvard! Workers Settle Strike with a Winning Contract
HUDS workers celebrate their new contract. Photo Credit: UNITE HERE Local 26
After a three week long strike, over 700 Harvard dining workers settled their contract with the Harvard University on October 25, 2016. After months of negotiations, over 700 Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 26 went on strike at 6AM on October 5, 2016. HUDS workers’ new contract meets all of their demands: a $35,000 per year base salary for full-time workers, no increases in healthcare costs, and more opportunities for year-round work. For more on the contract, please the WBUR interview with Brian Lang here.
The NE JLC was active in supporting HUDS workers throughout their fight. We joined workers on the picket line, rallied, and supported students organizing in solidarity with workers. NE JLC Campus Initiative Fellow Grace Evans and former Fellow Gabe Hodgkins helped lead the solidarity efforts of the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM). Our annual community meeting focused on the HUDS strike, where we were honored to hear from three HUDS workers, Aaron Ducket, Annabella Pappas, and Chris Pappas, as well as from Brian Lang, President of Local 26. We collected almost $400 for the HUDS strike assistance fund. NE JLC Board Co-Chair Don Siegel wrote a letter for The Harvard Crimson in support of the strike.
Harvard and Dining Workers Reach 'Tentative Agreement'
Union supporters gather outside of 124 Mount Auburn St. during the Monday's protests. Photo Credit: Thomas W. FranckBy BRANDON J. DIXON, HANNAH NATANSON, and LEAH S. YARED, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERSUPDATED: October 25, 2016, at 2:59 a.m.Harvard and its dining workers reached a “tentative agreement” around 1:05 a.m. Tuesday morning—the closest the two parties have come to a contract settlement during months of tense negotiations.Brian Lang, president of UNITE HERE Local 26—the Boston-based union that represents Harvard’s dining workers—said the accord “accomplished all of our goals.” The deal is yet to be ratified; it must first be sent to a 30-member bargaining subcommittee Tuesday, Lang added, before the full membership of dining workers in the union vote on the deal Wednesday.Though he declined to provide specific details on the agreement, Lang said HUDS employees could return to work as early as Thursday. According to an email sent last week by College Dean for Finance and Administration Sheila C. Thimba, it will take at most two days from the official end of the strike before the University’s dining halls can resume “normal operations.”University spokesperson Tania deLuzuriaga wrote in an email that further details about the agreement would be forthcoming Tuesday morning.Protesters greeted news of the tentative deal with cheers and jubilation outside 124 Mt. Auburn St., the Harvard office building where Monday’s negotiations took place.“I’m feeling great about it, everything feels good,” dining services worker William H. Sawyer, who participated in the negotiation process, said at around 1:30 a.m. as he prepared to bike home. “The students and everyone behind us [have] been really inspirational… they kept us up, up, up, up and alive about this.”“Even right now, they still here,” he added, pointing to the handful of students—all members of the Student Labor Action Movement—who remained outside the building, shouting and jumping up and down in celebration in the wee hours of the morning. “Everybody else gone home.”In early October, HUDS workers launched an unprecedented strike—their first to take place during the academic year—calling on the University to increase wages and to maintain the current health benefits package it offers to dining hall employees. The last HUDS strike occurred more than 30 years ago.The tentative agreement came after a day of intense picketing and rallying by both HUDS workers and student supporters. More than 500 students walked out of class—the second walkout of the strike—before marching to 124 Mt. Auburn St. for a sit-in that lasted late into the night, wrapping up around 10:30 p.m. at the urging of police officers.By the time Harvard affiliates and union negotiators announced their tentative agreement, only a small cohort of students remained outside the building, along with a few HUDS workers. At one point during the night, students and strikers joined hands and marched in a circle, singing “We Shall Overcome.”Abhinav Reddy, a School of Public Health student and graduate student union organizer, described the final moments of the night. Local 26’s bargaining team joined the demonstrators remaining outside, he said, and “everyone gathered back up and started chanting.”“You could just see it on their faces before they even said anything,” Reddy said. “And everybody was like screaming and yelling, and then they said ‘we won, we got it.’”SLAM member Grace F. Evans ’19, also present at the negotiations’ conclusion, said workers came out of the building visibly emotional before Lang announced to the assembled crowd of supporters that the union had “won.”“It was a really emotional moment,” she said. “The workers were crying but Brian Lang was smiling, so we knew it was good news.”Reflecting on the day’s events, Evans said she felt students had been important to HUDS workers’ success, a sentiment some workers echoed.“It was definitely powerful that we were here,” Evans said, referring to the earlier lobby sit-in. “The negotiators looked down and they saw that.”Hundreds of students and HUDS supporters marched into 124 Mount Auburn Street, home to several Harvard offices, where negotiations over contracts continue Monday afternoon. Communication between Harvard and UNITE HERE Local 26 is being facilitated through mediators.The nearly three-week long strike shook Harvard’s campus, led to multiple dining hall closures, and spurred waves of student activism and nation-wide support. At the largest strike event Saturday, more than 1,000 HUDS workers and supporters marched to Cambridge City Hall.Edward B. Childs, a dining services workers who picketed from 7 a.m Monday morning until around 1 a.m Tuesday, said he had suspected Monday’s negotiation session would be fruitful.“Well, with the escalation we had this weekend and today, I was expecting something,” Childs said. “I knew something had to break.”
Hundreds of students and HUDS supporters marched into 124 Mount Auburn Street, home to several Harvard offices, where negotiations over contracts continue Monday afternoon. Communication between Harvard and UNITE HERE Local 26 is being facilitated through mediators. Photo Credit: Thomas W. Franck via The Harvard Crimson