Category Archives: InCity Letters

Worcester City Council: Steal Randy’s idea!

June 22, 2018 admin

By Rosalie Tirella

As Jett, Lilac and I tool around Worcester in my jalopy, …

Ol’ Jett, Rose’s backseat boy! pics: R.T.

… running CECELIA/my newz-biz, we often drive by Notre Dame church – the wrecking ball and cranes breathing down its elegant neck.

It’s the only really beautiful building in “Main Middle,” that stretch of our downtown that former Worcester City Councilor Juan Gomez once claimed gets no aesthetic boost from City Hall cuz it was minority-inhabited and catered to people of color/the poor. No big, gorgeous murals for this neck of our urban woods, so workaday blah compared to other stretches of our “revitalized,” colorful, chi chi downtown. Yeah, the “luxury” plywood apartments are up here, but they’ll be gone in 35 years. Their fate sealed in the quick, sharp pop pop pop of the nail guns.

Too bad the Worcester City Council is willing to throw Notre Dame – the one Main Middle edifice with architectural staying power – under a WRTA bus, however sporadically it’ll be running!

Our group of elected officials, comprised of good people with ZERO vision, are blind to the almost 100-year-old beauty staring them in the face: NOTRE DAME CHURCH.

The City Council and Worcester City Manager Ed Augustus are cowed by the beneficence of our civic do-gooders/downtown saviors, Hanover Insurance, the owners of all the City Square redevelopments and Notre Dame. Augustus and city councilors don’t want to get Hanover mad, make this piece of their redevelopment project tougher and more expensive. They want it hurdle-hassle-free for our rich benefactors – even if it means leaving Notre Dame in ruins!! Ashes to ashes…dust to dust…

Their reasons? Many are legitimate. A few stupid. But the main one is political: BE NICE TO HANOVER.

Understandable…

But local legal beagle Randy Feldman and the Save Notre Dame Alliance folks have A GREAT PROPOSAL:

TURN NOTRE DAME INTO A DOWNTOWN BANCROFT TOWER. Empty, free of tenants or businesses, so there’s no worry of redevelopment, tenants, installing furnaces, etc… But, like the big old stone church in Boylston, a hollow but GORGEOUS BACKDROP WHERE TOURISTS AND LOCALS CAN TAKE THEIR WEDDING PHOTOS, FAMILY REUNION PICS, EXPLORE WORCESTER’S HISTORY. And…While we’re at it: why not a farmers markets outside the building? Why not botanical gardens maintained by Worcester Technical High School botany or small biz students? Why not bring our technical high school students with internships in the life sciences aboard? Why not have them plan and plant the flowers, bushes and trees? Why not have the culinary students cater the wedding photo sessions or weddings? Prepare, sell or offer platters of goodies before the gorgeous, spiritual, uplifting edifice in warmer months – al fresco dining in the heart of downtown. Eating a meal before a truly beautiful backdrop. A money maker for the City.

The Hanover folks will give Notre Dame to the City of Worcester! – a freebie! Catnip to us Worcesterites! – IF THE CITY DOESN’T FLIP IT and Notre Dame’s reincarnation fits in with Hanover’s urban renewal dreams.

This USE is the perfect fit.

The lovely building is saved.

It’s not a money pit for the city – infact, it’s a tourist attraction.

Maybe even a money maker. To pay for its maintenance…

Our Worcester Public School students learn new skills while helping to keep Notre Dame a vital part of our community.

Hanover is given back the back area, BEHIND the church. The City gets the church. Hanover is HAPPY!😁😄😚 Worcester taxpayers are not disgruntled.

Notre Dame church, built by French Canadian immigrants during a time (early 20th century) when every Worcester blue-collar neighborhood was home to three or four Catholic immigrant churches. They ran the gamut: from cute (St. Anthony’s at Kelley Square) to majestic (Notre Dame and Our Lady of Mount Carmel off Shrewsbury Street, also fighting for its life these days). Most of these churches disappeared as our Catholic immigrants realized, thanks to our factories, the American Dream, and left the old neighborhoods for greener pastures 😎. Only a few of our cool old immigrant churches remain – times change, we know. But we also shouldn’t forget our history – relinquish our two great beautiful immigrant churches, the ones beautifully designed and built, stone by stone, tear drop by tear drop, by our stoic, stalwart immigrants! We must never forget their – my grandparents and perhaps yours! – signifying: WE ARE HERE, AMERICA! WE ARE SO THANKFUL AND JOYFUL AND HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY TO YOU!

Notre Dame and Mt. Carmel churches remind ALL Worcesterites of our great (and grubby) urban STORY! Remind all Americans – especially our President Trump!! – how aspirational and inspired poor, illiterate inhabitants from “shit hole countries” can be!

Love you, Notre Dame!💜

Animal Issues, InCity Letters

Save Notre Dame!

June 20, 2018 admin

💒💒💒. pics: R.T.

“Keep me in your heart”🎶🎶 …

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

From the SAVE NOTRE DAME CHURCH alliance …

UPDATE:

We are back in court today appealing Judge Gavin Reardon’s decision to allow Hanover’s continued destruction of Notre Dame.

We don’t know the timeline for a ruling, but we will keep you posted as things unfold.

We strongly urge you to visit Notre Dame and rejoice in its majesty…

Stay in touch:

website: savenotredamealliance.com

facebook.com/savenotredamealliance

“I don’t want to fade away🎶🎶”

💒gofundme.com/dgq2r-viva-la-notre-dame-worcester

And THANKS for any help you can give!💜

– Ted Conna and Barbara Haller for Save Notre Dame Alliance

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Letters

Ron parked in Rose’s space: Worcester Lodging House Conversions – I have to speak out against this proposal!

April 12, 2018 admin

Worcester three deckers: Green Island. pic: R.T.

Worcester Lodging House Conversions – I have to speak out against this proposal!

By Ron O’Clair

I have to speak out against the proposal brought before the Worcester City Council to tamper with the law that currently only allows 3 unrelated people/tenants from occupying rental units in favor of increasing that number to 4 unrelated people/tenants.

As it stands right now, it is illegal for property owners to allow more than 3 unrelated people to rent a single apartment without having a lodging house license. Apartments that were designed to house a single family are being rented out on a room basis to unrelated people without having any type of standards enforced on existing electrical, heating and plumbing requirements. A landlord/developer will simply rent each person a bedroom of their own and have them all share kitchen and bath facilities.

When the 4th roomer comes into the picture … under the current rooming house laws, there are increased safeguards put in place, such as the requirement that a working sprinkler system be installed. Also, fire alarms must be brought up to code for a Licensed Lodging House – which is really the heart of the matter.

By bypassing this element of the existing lodging house laws, three decker owners will in effect be allowed to establish “rooming houses” that do NOT have to comply with the same standards that all Worcester “rooming houses” must comply with currently.

I see this as a dangerous move away from safety in favor of profitability.

When Worcester’s three deckers were built, they were designed to house families with multiple bedrooms. Their electrical systems were not designed to handle the increased amounts of power that typically would happen if 4 unrelated people occupy a dwelling designed for a single family.

Many of these systems are old, inefficient and prone to overloads, which can heat up the internal wiring throughout the building. This can – and often does! – result in an electrical fire, such as the one I remember that happened shortly after Christmas on Providence Street near Aetna Street, due to having a huge, power-hungry television. The TV set was the proverbial straw that broke that particular antiquated electrical system’s camel’s back and caused the house to catch on fire.

Picture this: You have an older house that had a long history of many families occupying the three floors and suddenly a new owner comes in, evicts the families, and converts the flats to SRO, or single-room occupancy so they can charge each person singly instead of one family at a more affordable rate. Now you have each person move in with one bathroom and kitchen to share and sole possession of their individual room.

Each person then brings their own air conditioner and perhaps room heater, along with their power-hungry, huge televisions, computers, lamps, fans, etc.

The load on the existing electrical system in that situation dramatically rises to the point that the existing system can’t handle the power being used, creating a potentially deadly situation which is bad enough times 3, but times 4 just might be the straw that breaks the back of that building’s existing electrical service!

In a worst case scenario, you will end up with couples in each bedroom unit and perhaps even some with minor children – all crammed into that unit.

Each person will want to cook their own meals, and it is inevitable there will be hot plates, toaster ovens, microwave ovens, refrigerators, coffee pots in the individual bedrooms, as well further stressing an already overextended electrical system. The potential for a deadly catastrophe rises exponentially in the process, until someone ends up dead because of what boils down to greed on the part of the landlord.

Then, of course, by modifying the rule to 4 unrelated renters instead of 3 unrelated renters, you will have negated the requirement that a working Sprinkler System and functional Hard Wired Alarm System be installed, so the fire created would spread quickly out of control with nothing to slow or stop it.

I think it is dangerous to ignore the conventional wisdom that was used in the promulgation of the existing regulation in favor of increased profits to landlords, speculators who would undoubtedly rush to increase the electrical loads on existing antiquated systems in their quest for additional revenue, without regard to the safety of the people inside their dwellings.

Then too is the additional amount of parking spaces that will undoubtedly be required as the building designed for 3 families with perhaps 6 automobiles, now is housing an unrelated 12 tenancies, in which many of those may be couples living in one room. This further adds to the census of how many people now reside in, and rely upon, an antiquated electrical system to power up all their various gadgets.
Parking is bad enough in crowded neighborhoods: it would become even more problematic in such a scenario as I outline above.

I say leave the law the way it is, and if an owner wants to have 4 or more unrelated tenants, then require the installation of a working sprinkler system, working hard wired fire alarms and, in fact, upgraded electrical systems that are designed to handle the additional load created by changing the demographic of the apartment. Perhaps each separate Unit (Bedroom) can have its own 20 Amp service with breakers to prevent overloading antiquated systems not designed to handle the increased loads being put upon them by renting/subletting the same apartments to various people with various power requirements.

Plus, you have the fact that each apartment so sublet, makes one less apartment available for a family to have for a reasonable amount of money.

How can anyone expect a struggling family to pay upwards of $1,400 per month for a housing unit on the wages that exist today?

I happen to believe this housing proposal will increase the shortage of available housing for struggling families, as more and more several bedroom units are converted to mini-rooming houses which will not have to comply with existing laws regarding the safety of the tenants!

All in all, I think the existing laws were put in place for many of the reasons I describe and should be left intact from a safety standpoint.

I have managed a Licensed Lodging House since 16 June 2003 and have some experience in these matters.

At the very least, if somehow our City Council supports this initiative of Councilor Morris “Moe” Bergman – a Worcester landlord who, ironically, ran his first political campaign on the promise of helping landlords remove problem tenants more efficiently – there should be a requirement to have the affected properties’ electrical systems thoroughly tested and inspected to ensure they will be able to handle the increased amounts of power that could potentially result in a building conflagration, as crumbling and overheated wires installed during their construction fail to meet the new demands of the new demographics of these units. Placed upon them in the rush for more profits …

Any comments? You may reach the author at: ronaldoclair@hotmail.com 📧📧📧

Animal Issues, InCity Letters

😘Brad Wyatt!

May 15, 2017 admin

Reading the sweetest letter:

Rosalie,

Just read your note, and the latest (last) [issue of] InCity Times. I wanted to thank you for delivering a community paper. Especially now that I’ve sold the Osgood Bradley Building, and my ties to the Canal District are less and less, I really enjoy all the references to my old stomping grounds.

I still enjoy bringing my kids to Golemo’s and buying the pickled beets that taste like my grandmother used to make, and letting them pick out a chocolate treat that you wouldn’t find in the large, corporate stores.

And, at Christmas, going to QuoVadis and visiting the PNI.

Your paper was always a terrific, welcome reminder in a busy world, of my Polish heritage combined with family memories of the canal district – trips with my grandmother to Maurice the Pants Man and the Broadway diner, among others.

I wish you the best in your future endeavors,

Brad Wyatt

Our editor replies:

Thank you, Brad!

InCity Letters, InCity Voices

From Main South’s REC!

November 28, 2015 admin

We’re thankful for you!

This Holiday Season, we’re so thankful that you’re involved with the REC. Over the past 44 years, thousands of people like you have helped build a powerful organization for community change. Thank you for volunteering, donating, supporting, and working together with us. You are making a difference every day in the lives of Worcester and Central MA residents. Together we are making a healthier, more sustainable and more just community.

We’re so glad that you are part of the REC.

Steve Fischer, executive director
Regional Environmental Council

InCity Letters, InCity Voices

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Enough with the pink — go green!!

October 5, 2015 admin

By Michelle Kretzer

It’s October, which means that every store we stroll into and every website we visit is going to bombard us with pink tchotchkes “for the cure.” Well, forgive me if my home décor isn’t in the style of Barbie’s Dreamhouse®. It’s not that I don’t give a hoot about breast cancer—quite the contrary. My beloved grandmother lost her fight with breast cancer at just 64 years old, and other women in my family have battled the disease, too, so stopping breast cancer is a cause close to my heart. But I know there are much better ways for me to help save women’s lives than by going to the mall—such as by going to the farmer’s market.

The strong evidence linking meat and dairy products to cancer can’t be ignored.

Animal-derived foods are full of saturated fat, excess protein, hormones and other harmful substances that can raise a person’s risk for breast cancer. According to Dr. Jane Plant, a British scientist, cancer survivor and author of The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program, “Undoubtedly, the best anti-cancer diet would be to go completely vegan.”

It’s telling that in countries such as the U.S., where people get a high percentage of their calories from meat and dairy products, there are a lot more cases of breast cancer. By contrast, in Japan, people get far fewer calories from animal-derived foods, and breast cancer rates are low. But when Japanese girls are raised on Western diets, their breast cancer rates surge.

According to Dr. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University and director of the China Project, the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted, “[No] chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein.” Large studies of vegetarians in Germany and England found that vegetarians were about 40 percent less likely to develop cancer than their meat-eating counterparts.

That’s why many nutritionists recommend what dietician and author Julieanna Hever calls The Vegiterranean Diet in her book of the same name: all the colorful, varied, whole, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains, with none of the cancer-causing meat and dairy products.

I’ve discovered that cancer prevention is just one of many benefits to going vegan. Since I ditched all animal-derived foods, I don’t have to struggle so much to maintain my desired weight, my skin looks clearer and I have more energy. I’ve also learned that when you stop centering your meals on meat, you start incorporating a much wider variety of foods and open yourself up to a whole new world of flavors.

And there’s another reason to “go green” rather than pink this month. As the watchdog group Think Before You Pink points out, “[I]f shopping could cure breast cancer, it would be cured by now.” But many companies throw a pittance at a breast cancer charity in order to slap a pink ribbon on their products and rake in huge profits. Worse, many of the organizations they support waste that money on antiquated experiments on animals that in more than four decades haven’t produced a cure. Funding patient services for poor families, education and vital research that does not rely on animal models would be a much better use of that money.

Because of my family history, I’m considered at high risk for breast cancer, and reducing that risk is important to me. So this October, you’ll find me in the produce section, not strolling the mall looking like I washed a red towel with all my whites. I invite other women to join me in combating breast cancer by investing in effective cruelty-free charities and in their own health.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices

Green Island’s Crompton Park was a “donation”?

October 1, 2015 admin

Lorraine Laurie’s article about Crompton Park [InCity Times, August 7, 2015] was excellent.

However, I was surprised and somewhat shocked to learn that the land [for Crompton Park] was purchased.

I always thought it was donated, hence the naming after the Crompton family.

This is what that purchase price of $44K+ is worth today:

$44,350 of 1888 dollars would be worth $1,108,750.00 in 2015

$44,350 of 2015 dollars would be worth $1,774.00 in 1888.

I don’t know if this was the great philanthropic deal it was made out to be, or I mistakenly thought it was for all these years.

True, the City of Worcester paid for it, and Green Island was definitely the beneficiary; but wasn’t it swampland?

I’m not sure what the current asking price for the Wymann Gordon parcel is, but wasn’t it around the same amount, plus clean up fees?

Maureen Schwab
via the Internet

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Feature, InCity Letters, Rosalie's Blog

Go, Gordon Davis, go!!!!!

September 28, 2015 admin

The Pope, Reform and Revolution

By Gordon Davis

There was a forum in Worcester on Saturday (9/26) regarding reforms of society similar to that spoken about by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The reforms included Basic Income, Education and Discrimination Law. There was also a discussion of whether these reforms could be achieved without fundamental changes in the economic and political systems.

Ruth Rodriguez, an Administrator for Opt-Out National, told the audience of about 20 people that the public education system in the United States has been hijacked by large corporations such as the Bill Gates Foundation and Walmart. These wealthy entities have passed legislation through a lobbying group called ALEC that have harmed the education of children in public schools. She pointed out that the standardized testing industry has not helped children to learn but has harmed children by creating conditions that cause the children to fail; these conditions being especially harmful to low-income children and children of color.

Ms. Rodriquez also said that the money needed for public schools was being drained away by charter schools. “Charter schools did not have a better record of teaching children than public schoolThe Pope, Reform, and Revolution

On September 26, 2015 there was a forum in Worcester regarding reforms of society similar to that spoken about by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The reforms included Basic Income, Education, and Discrimination Law. There was also a discussion of whether these reforms could be achieved without fundamental changes in the economic and political systems.

Ruth Rodriguez, an Administrator for Opt-Out National, told the audience of about twenty people that the public education systems in the United States has been hijacked by large corporations such as the Bill Gates Foundation and Walmart. These wealthy entities have passed legislation through a lobbying group called ALEC that have harmed the education of children in public schools. She pointed out that the standardized testing industry has not helped children to learn but has harmed children by creating conditions that cause the children to fail; these conditions being especially harmful to low-income children and children of color.

Ms. Rodriquez also said the money needed for public schools was being drained away by charter schools. “Charter schools did not have a better record of teaching children than public schools,” Ms. Rodriguez asserted. She called for fully funded public schools and an end to the present policy of standardized testing.

Dr. Jason Burke Murphy, a college professor, described the program called “Basic Income.” The concept is every person would receive an amount of money that would be above the poverty level unconditionally. He said this would be an effective way of reducing poverty and actually saving government money. By “unconditional” Dr. Murphy explained that there would be no income qualifications (nor income qualification bureaucracy), no length of time worked qualifications (such as with Social Security) and no income tax qualifications (such with earned income credits).

There was a good back and forth on the proposal of Basic Income. Several people wanted to know where the money would come from. Dr. Murphy explained that the money was not dependent on the profits of corporations as corporations pay little or no taxes. The money would come from the savings in the reduction of bureaucracy and the reduction of redundant military hardware.

Gwen Davis, a member of the Progressive Labor Party which co-hosted the forum with the Massachusetts Human Rights Committee, spoke on Black Lives Matter and the need to fight racism and sexism. She stated that modern day racism has its origins in capitalism and there was a need to abolish the profit systems and establish an egalitarian communist world where wage slavery is abolished. Ms. Davis also talked about fighting racism in Worcester and indicated that the policy of arresting children by the police while at school has been found to be harmful to the children. She asserted that the practice was a part of the racist “school- to- prison- pipeline.” Ms. Davis said she was disappointed that Pope Francis did not address the issue of racism directly.

A member of Massachusetts Human Rights Committee told the audience that it was working to change the policy of the City of Worcester so that no child should be placed in handcuffs or arrested while at school unless there was clear and immediate danger of harm. The school administrators know where each child lives and her parents; if there is a need for intervention by the criminal justice system, the intervention should take place outside of school. The parents and child could then be summoned to court. The Mass. Human Rights Committee asked people to sign the petition to the Worcester City Council and the Worcester School Committee generally disallowing the arrest of children at school.

I am happy Pope Francis is speaking out on many issues, including his criticism of the misery caused by capitalism. He has certainly upset the right wing in the United States and elsewhere. Pope Francis has not spoken about the details of how to end the misery and other forms of oppression. I hope it is more than just talk-talk. I suppose we have to depend on Dr. Murphy, Ms. Rodriguez, and Ms. Davis to do more than just talk for us in Worcesters”, Ms. Rodriguez asserted. She called for fully funded public schools and an end to the present policy of standardized testing.

Dr. Jason Burke Murphy, a college professor, described the program called “Basic Income”. The concept is every person would receive an amount of money that would be above the poverty level unconditionally. He said this would be an effective way of reducing poverty and actually saving government money. By “unconditional” Dr. Murphy explained that there would be no income qualifications (nor income qualification bureaucracy), no length of time worked qualifications (such as with Social Security) and no income tax qualifications (such with earned income credits).

There was a good back and forth on the proposal of Basic Income. Several people wanted to know where the money would come from. Dr. Murphy explained that the money was not dependent on the profits of corporations as corporations pay little or no taxes. The money would come from the savings in the reduction of bureaucracy and the reduction of redundant military hardware.

Gwen Davis, a member of the Progressive Labor Party which co hosted the forum with the Massachusetts Human Rights Committee, spoke on BlackLives Matter and the need to fight racism and sexism. She stated that modern day racism has its origins in capitalism and there was a need to abolish the profit systems and establish an egalitarian communist world where wage slavery is abolished. Ms. Davis also talked about fighting racism in Worcester and indicated that the policy of arresting children by the police while at school has been found to be harmful to the children. She asserted that the practice was a part of the racist “school- to- prison- pipeline”. Ms. Davis said she was disappointed that Pope Francis did not address the issue of racism directly.

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Feature, InCity Letters, Neighborhood Roundup, Rosalie's Blog

Go, Gordon Davis, go!!!!!!!!

September 21, 2015 admin

STOP Arresting Kids at School! … and THE REAL RACE DIALOGUES

By Gordon Davis

In September 2015 there were reports of two fights between kids at North High School in Worcester. The details of the fights are sketchy, but it appears that the first fight was between two female students. That fight was broken up and the students taken to the office where while still upset they refused to comply with instructions given to them. Instead of being sent home and having them return with their parents, the two girls were arrested. Something similar happened with two male students.

When I went to high school I got into fights, but the police were never called and the disputes were handled administratively.

In both cases at North High School there were charges that nine staffers were assaulted but not injured or harmed when they tried to break up the respective fights. How the staffers were assaulted was not described in the news story. An assault is defined as a threat or an attempt to injury without actually injury. Battery is the charge for injury or harm intentionally inflicted.

It might have been better for all concerned for the students not to have been arrested at school. Arresting kids in the heat of the moment when there is no immediate clear and present danger will, more likely than not, lead to bad decisions by the staff and the police, as well as be harmful to the kids. The schools know who the kids are and where they live; there is no chance that they will flee the state. There is no need for arrests.

Should there be a need for legal actions then this should be decided after the emotions of the event have passed. The child and parent could be summoned to court. The whole concept of putting children in handcuffs and having them booked at the police is not good pedagogy.

On September 19, 2015, a new group called Men of Color Think Tank organized what it called “Real Race Dialogues.” The Men of Color Think Tank seems to be an outgrowth of the BlackLives Matter new civil rights movement. Its membership is multi-racial, but some people are called “white allies” instead of members.

Michael Jerry one of the organizers of the event and apparent spokes person for Men of Color Think Tank gave an inspirational introduction to the Real Race Dialogues.

Although enthusiastic, many of the things he spoke about have a history in Worcester. For example, Mr. Jerry thought the best way to get a person of color elected was to have a slate of candidates. It is generally accepted that bullet voting is the better way to get a candidate elected. It is bullet voting that is thought to allow the top vote getters to get the most votes. Mr. Jerry’s enthusiasm and seeming ability to look at new ideas will go a long way to help the organization and its goals.

At the so called Real Race dialogues there was a table at which the participants discussed education. My impression is that there was honest and creative talk about racial issues in Worcester. Our table included parents, teachers, students, and other people sincere in their desire to end racial disparities in schools.

Several issues came to be discussed: the development of a school to job pipeline, the coordinating of organizations working with children to ensure that each child at risk has a mentor, alternative curriculum and after school programs, and the ways of reversing the false perception of North High Schools as “bad” kids.

The issue of North High School took up most of the discussion time and some concrete plans were made including changing school policies such that no kids are arrested at school. Although this no arresting kids at school policy makes good pedagogy and common sense, expelling the criminal justice system out of the schools will be a difficult task as many people still fear Black and Latino and poor kids . These misguided people, some of whom are racists, want to use the power of the state to “control” the dark skin people they fear.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices

Labor Day! President Obama arrives for a appearance at the 2015 Labor Day breakfast organized by the Greater Boston Labor Council (AFL-CIO)! Yay!!!!

September 4, 2015 admin

The Mass. Minimum Wage is $9/hour. pic: R.T.

Presidential Labor Day visit follows wave of union victories!

Across industries, workers in Mass. make gains through organizing in new and traditional sectors!

Support for unions in America and union organizing in Bay State both trending upwards!

BOSTON – The Massachusetts labor movement will have plenty to celebrate Monday as President Barack Obama arrives for a confirmed appearance at the 2015 Labor Day breakfast organized by the Greater Boston Labor Council (AFL-CIO).

WHO: President of the United States Barack Obama, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator Edward Markey, City of Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey, Mass. AFL-CIO President Steve Tolman, GBLC President Lou Mandarini, GBLC Exec. Sec-Treas. Rich Rogers, AFL-CIO, Regional Dir. Jim Snow, along with union members and their supporters from throughout Greater Boston.

WHAT: 2015 Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Day Breakfast

WHEN: Monday, September 7, 2015, 8:30 a.m. Union members and leaders will be available for interviews upon request beginning Thursday afternoon through Monday. A labor-community rally and march is also slated to begin at the Boston Common bandstand around Noon following the conclusion of the breakfast.

WHERE: Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza, Boston, MA, 02116.

According to a recent Gallup poll, support for unions continues to rise nationally to its highest point in years.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts labor movement has achieved a series of recent victories in partnership with community allies that are raising standards for workers across every major industry in the state.

MINIMUM WAGE

Through the innovative “Raise Up” coalition forged with religious and neighborhood advocates, Massachusetts unions won legislation that raised the statewide minimum wage to $9.00/hour on January 1, 2015 and will raise the minimum wage again to $10.00/hour in 2016 and $11.00/ hour in 2017.

EARNED SICK TIME

Union members also played a key role in securing new Earned Sick Time rights for workers, implemented on July 1, 2015, through the overwhelming passage of a ballot initiative in the most recent statewide elections. For the first time, the new law provides all workers in the Bay State the protected ability to accrue sick time to use when they are ill or need to care for a sick child or family member. Advocates hailed the passage of the sick time law as a victory not just for workers, but also for public health and consumers.

DOMESTIC WORKERS’ BILL OF RIGHTS

A growing industry of domestic workers won a range of new protections, implemented on April 1, 2015, under a labor-backed bill that aims to protect domestic workers from exploitation. The bill strengthens domestic workers’ rights and empowers the Attorney General and Mass Coalition Against Discrimination to enforce new regulations pertaining to wages, hours, sexual harassment, human trafficking, and more.

ORGANIZING AND CONTRACT VICTORIES ACROSS INDUSTRIES

Meanwhile, nearly every major Massachusetts employment sector has seen an increase in organizing activity as more workers vote to join area unions and as workers secure new contract victories in growing parts of the local economy, such as hospitality, construction, healthcare, and more.

HOSPITALITY

This summer, workers at the Hilton Back Bay hotel became the latest in a series of hospitality employees to join Unite Here Local 26. Additionally, food service workers at Emerson College, located just steps from the Park Plaza where President Obama will speak on Monday, recently secured their first contract after voting to join Local 26.

CONSTRUCTION

The Building and Construction Trades Council of the Metropolitan District (Metro BTC) continues to secure good jobs for Boston area residents through a range of new development projects. The Metro BTC has been heralded for their continued expansion of multiple pathways out of poverty from recruitment to organizing drives, pre-apprenticeship programs to additional wrap-around services to promote social and economic justice at a community level while promoting fairness, justice and equity in the construction industry. Through the innovative “Building Pathways” and “Operation Exit” programs, the Trades Council has graduated and placed hundreds of residents from low-income communities into family-sustaining union construction careers since 2011. City of Boston Mayor Walsh launched Building Pathways in 2011 while head of the Building Trades; and partnered with the Building Trades in 2013 to launch Operation Exit, which provides additional pathways out of poverty to communities in Boston. Meanwhile, the Metro BTC continues to support Helmets to Hardhats to support returning veterans and enable them to put their skills to use in a rewarding career in the construction trades.

HEALTHCARE

Home health aides employed by Medical Resource Home Health Corp., owned by one of the nation’s largest private equity groups, became the first Massachusetts private agency home care workers to form a union in June. That victory was announced on the same day that Massachusetts’ 35,000 Personal Care Attendants secured a pathway to $15/hour as part of the national Fight for $15 campaign. Meanwhile, nurses and other hospital staff continue to secure new contracts in the state’s largest employment sector.

EDUCATION

A tidal wave of successful organizing votes among adjunct and contingent faculty in the Greater Boston area has brought thousands of new workers into the union ranks including at Bentley University, Boston University, Lesley University, Northeastern University and Tufts University. Meanwhile, para-professionals and classroom aides have continued to join the Teachers unions.

RETAIL & TRANSPORTATION

An unprecedented series of strikes at area fast food restaurants and amongst Logan Airport cleaners and support staff have helped spur new categories of unorganized workers into the movement and have shone a spotlight on increasing wage inequality. Parking lot attendants throughout the Boston area are organizing to join unions for the first time. Massachusetts unions and community partners have won major settlements holding corporations accountable as part of a coordinated campaign against wage theft violations in the retail sector and other industries.

STATEMENTS FROM UNION LEADERS

“We are honored that the President will be joining us to celebrate a labor movement that is needed now more than ever. Workers have achieved several major victories to advance fairness and dignity in Massachusetts this year – victories such as earned sick time, an increased minimum wage, a domestic workers’ bill of rights, and other accomplishments that are inspiring workers across the nation. For the President to be joining us in Boston on Labor Day following such a momentous year is a great honor and we look forward to celebrating our shared commitment to raising standards for all working people.” – Rich Rogers, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council

“We are truly honored to have President Barack Obama celebrating Labor Day with the hard working people of Massachusetts. Americans are recognizing labor’s important role in our economy. With income inequality at crisis levels, working people in the Commonwealth have been fighting back and winning because we know that unions will help level the playing field. Unions are good for families, good for Massachusetts, and good for the nation. All of our recent victories are building towards a new day in Massachusetts. We will continue to fight privatization and income inequality and defend decent pay for an honest day’s work.” – Steve Tolman, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO

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The Greater Boston Labor Council is the regional arm of the AFL-CIO. Its membership is comprised of 161 local unions representing 90,000 members throughout its twenty-four-community jurisdiction in Greater Boston. Chartered by the National AFL-CIO, the Greater Boston Labor Council’s mission is to improve the lives of working families. Our goal is to build a movement of unions and workers to advocate for working family issues in cities and towns throughout Greater Boston.

The Greater Boston Labor Council also seeks to reach out to progressive allies within our communities to form coalitions to advance the cause of economic justice.

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