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.

Standing Against Sexual Harassment of Airport Workers

Earlier this week Rosa, an airport worker at Ready Jet, filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination at 1 Ashburton Place. JetBlue contracts Ready Jet to cleans its airplanes. U.S. Representative Katherine Clark spoke at a press conference about sexual harassment and workers' rights as Rosa filed her complaint.

The New England Jewish Labor Committee stands with Rosa and all workers who have experienced sexual harassment. On Thursday, May 17th at 9:00 a.m. we participated in a community delegation led by Dalida Rocha of SEIU 32BJ to visit JetBlue management, asking them to require better working conditions at Ready Jet. Rabbi Mike Rothbaum was there representing the New England Jewish Labor Committee. 

Tufts Dining Workers Vote YES To Form a Union!

About 150 dining hall workers have joined UNITE HERE Local 26 after an overwhelming vote in favor of unionization: 127 to 19.

Following the NLRB vote, Tufts University dining hall workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 26 and can begin negotiating their first contract with Tufts.

"My time at Tufts has been filled with job insecurity," said dining hall worker, Tsering Ngodup who has been classified as a temp for over five years. "But this journey to a union has shown me that the Tufts community is behind us."

Earlier this April, 500 students joined workers as they formally announced their union, demanding recognition from Tufts University. Since then, 77 student groups have joined a coalition backing the food service worker's union.

To read more from UNITE HERE's statement, click HERE!

Harvard University Graduate Students Form a Union!

We are so excited that after months of hard work, Harvard Graduate students have voted to join a union.

The Boston Globe says "Harvard University graduate students have voted to join the United Auto Workers, part of a wave of teaching and research assistants on private college campuses embracing the labor movement." To read more about this victory, click HERE!

We are particularly happy to share in this victory with UAW organizer Jenna Grady, a former New England Jewish Labor Committee Program Associate.  We look forward to seeing the union grow and thrive!

JLC LABOR SEDER IN MEMPHIS FOR 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF SANITATION WORKERS STRIKE AND ASSASSINATION OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

In celebration of Dr. King Jr.'s Work and his commitment to bringing Civil Rights and Labor activists together,

the JLC, AFSCME and the I AM 2018 Coalition hosted a National Faith-Labor Leadership Passover Seder on Wednesday April 4th.

This year, the Jewish holiday of Passover falls at the same time as the anniversary of Dr. King, Jr.'s death. The Passover imagery and themes of the Exodus often imbued Dr. King, Jr.'s words. The National Faith-Labor Leadership Seder combined the traditional celebration of Passover with a rededication to the work, the words, and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fifty years ago, Dr. King, Jr. traveled to Memphis to lend his voice to the city sanitation workers' growing "I AM A MAN" strike, which began after two workers were crushed to death by faulty equipment. Dr. King, Jr. went to meet with strikers for a march on April 8, 1968 at the, Clayborn Temple at Hernando Street in Memphis, where the JLC Seder will be held.

The night before Dr. King, Jr.'s death, he told an overflow crowd at nearby Mason Temple that if he could travel through history, "I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt...across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, on toward the Promised Land." Dr. King, Jr. also noted, that, like Moses, "I may not get there with you." Dr. King, Jr. had already accepted an invitation for less than two weeks later to celebrate that Passover with the renowned rabbi and civil rights advocate Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

The seder was timed to be an hour after what is known as the "6:01" ceremony at the Lorraine Motel, denoting the felling of Dr. King, Jr. by an assassin's bullet, and was held at the very meeting place where Dr. King and the Memphis sanitation workers gathered to secure the right to organize and bargain collectively.

Thank You for Coming to the 18th Annual Labor Seder

Thank you to everyone who participated in our 18th Annual Labor Seder!It was a great evening of celebration, new connection, and honoring the hard work of many in our communities this year. We heard from our special honorees, Frank Callahan of the Mass Building Trades Council, and Rabbi Toba Spitzer of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, both of whom are incredible longtime defenders of workers rights.We took time to recognize the Nurses at Tufts Medical Center, who undertook a historic strike to fight for a fair contract, the first group of nurses to strike in Boston in over 30 years. Together, we also recognized the Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers, who have been fighting tirelessly for law and action ensuring safe and fair working conditions for domestic workers through the D0mestic Workers' Bill of Right. The Coalition has supported the JLC to conduct employer education in synagogues to help implement these legal protections.A big thank you from the New England JLC to all who came and supported -- see you next year!