Victory for National Grid Workers of United Steel Workers, Locals 12012 and 12003

1,250 National Grid Steelworkers were locked out of their jobs for six months. Yesterday they ratified a new contract, ending the lockout and making significant gains.

Mazel tov to the courageous United Steel Workers of Locals 12012 and 12003. The JLC is proud to have stood with them.

From the article, "National Grid union workers OK contract, ending lockout in the Boston Globe",  January 7, 2019:

"We feel good," said John Buonopane, the president of Local 12012, one of the two United Steelworkers locals involved in the lockout. "We did something that we think was unprecedented. We stood up to a multinational, multibillion-dollar corporation that has more money than a lot of countries in the world. . . . "

They did it! Victory for Marriott Hotel Workers!

The New England JLC is proud to have stood on the picket lines with the Marriott Hotel workers, who have been fighting hard on strike for nearly six weeks.

Read all about it in  The Boston Globe:

"Striking Marriott employees will return to work Wednesday after members of the union representing the workers overwhelmingly approved a new contract Saturday with the hotel chain...

The new contract met the union's goals, [Brian Lang, President of Unite Here Local 26] said, including higher wages and ensuring employees are being scheduled to work enough hours to make a viable living...

The new contract will also include better sexual harassment protections for women, paid parental leave, and other improvements in working conditions."

Protections for Trans People Upheld in MA!

Massachusetts voted to uphold legal protections for trans people! This was a necessary win to make sure that trans people in our communities have a legal right to be free from discrimination.Read more about the win here!The New England JLC was proud to stand up against discrimination by supporting this ballot measure and bringing our Jewish and labor communities along with us in our connected fights for fairness and protection.

Brandeis Graduate Students Have Won a Contract!

Brandeis Graduate Students Have Won a Contract!!!

The JLC is proud to have supported this effort!

From the Boston Globe, 8/27/18: "Brandeis and its teaching assistants agree on a union contract"

By Katie Johnston GLOBE STAFF AUGUST 27, 2018

Graduate students at Brandeis University have reached a contract agreement with the administration, positioning them to be the first group of teaching assistants at a private higher-ed institution in New England - and only the second in the country - with a collective bargaining agreement.

The contract with the Service Employees International Union Local 509, which still needs to be ratified by the students next month, would boost more than 200 graduate assistants' pay by between 16 and 56 percent per course over the three-year agreement, put caps on their workload, and give them more freedom to work with students outside of class and provide curriculum input. Read more here.

Tisha B'av - A Public Lament for our Broken Immigration System

On the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, when we fast in remembrance of destruction and exile, our community came together at the ICE office in Burlington to mourn the brokenness of our American immigration system.  As children are separated from parents-not just on the southern border, but every time a parent is put in detention for months on end, we lament. As people who seek asylum from violence and economic devastation are denied refuge, we lament.  As Muslims are denied access to their family members in the U.S. simply because of their national origin, we lament. In the face of the fear and uncertainty plaguing our immigrant communities, we lament.

Together we shared stories, sang laments, offered support to those most impacted, and called for a new vision of healing and justice.

Fight for $15 and Paid Family Medical Leave Victories!

Last Thursday, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill that includes a strongly progressive Paid Family and Medical Leave program and increases the minimum wage to $15 an hour over 5 years!

This is an enormous victory for working people in Massachusetts, and it only happened because all of us worked hard to collect 350,000 signatures, lobby the legislature, and organized to win these changes.

The paid leave legislation passed by the Legislature is a historic victory for every single worker in Massachusetts who will now be able to take job-protected paid time off from work to take care of themselves or a family member after a medical emergency or the birth or adoption of a new child!

It's a strongly progressive bill that will make Massachusetts the national leader in providing paid leave and supporting working families, with more job-protected leave than any other state provides (12 weeks of family leave and 20 weeks of medical leave); a progressive wage replacement system that especially helps low-wage workers; and the most progressive cost-sharing system of any state paid leave program, with costs split effectively 50-50 between employers and employees. Yesterday, our grassroots committee voted that we will not take our paid family and medical leave question to the ballot if the Governor signs this legislation.

The minimum wage legislation passed by the Legislature is a victory for the nearly one million Massachusetts workers who will see their wages go up as the minimum wage gradually increases to $15 an hour by 2023. We estimate that this bill will raise the wages of nearly 1 million Massachusetts workers, more than a quarter of the state's workforce. We also campaigned strongly against proposals to create a teen sub-minimum wage, and we beat them back!

However, we are troubled by the size of the increase in the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, which doesn't go as far as our proposed ballot question. We are seriously concerned that the minimum wage legislation passed by the Legislature would not cover all workers, including some public employees. Our coalition is also strongly opposed to the Legislature's decision to eliminate Sunday time-and-a-half pay and cut wages for thousands of workers who are working on Sundays to pay their bills, which they did in order to avoid the Retailers Association's ballot question that would have cut the sales tax and reduced state revenues by $1.25 billion.

Over the next several days, we will continue having conversations among our coalition and expect to reach a decision on whether to take our minimum wage question to the ballot early next week.

The legislation passed yesterday will make Massachusetts only the third state, after California and New York, to adopt both Paid Family and Medical Leave and a $15 minimum wage. Since Raise Up Massachusetts came together in 2013, we have won major, lasting improvements to the lives of millions of working families.

We will continue to do this work until every worker in Massachusetts has a livable wage, family-supporting benefits, and a transportation and education system that lifts people up. Our victories on paid leave and $15 are enormous, but we're only getting started.

CONGRATULATIONS AND THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO COLLECTED SOME OF THE 350,000 SIGNATURES ON THE PETITIONS AND ORGANIZED PEOPLE TO PRESS LEGISLATORS TO PASS THIS. TOGETHER WE DID IT!!!

SOME 943,000 low wage earners will get a Minimum Wage increase!!!  The Fight for $15 has been won!!!

Many millions of people in our state will have the benefit and support for paid time off for serious illness to themselves or to family members who need their care from this Paid FamilyMedical Leave law we got passed!!!

Only two other states have both a path to $15 Minimum Wage and Paid Family Medical Leave.  And our PFML law is the strongest in the United States.