Two years ago, I was elected as your Vice President, along with Merrie Najimy as your President, to lead the MTA in reclaiming professional respect for educators, building stronger locals and joining with allies to win victories for our schools and our Commonwealth. We promised to center economic and racial justice in this work.
In the past two years, with 116,000 MTA members, we have advanced the cause of public education and continued to achieve a more just community.
Merrie and I arrived in office immediately after the Janus decision and the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to throw the Fair Share Amendment (the millionaires’ tax) off the ballot. Undaunted, we got to work and launched the Fund Our Future campaign. We engaged members from across the Commonwealth to sign petitions, speak to legislators and rally at the State House.
And we won. Approximately $2 billion is being reinvested in our public schools, especially those that have been most deprived for the past quarter century. It was an unprecedented victory for school funding. Let’s be clear: The Student Opportunity Act passed because of the activism of MTA members.
We have had other legislative victories as well, including passage of a bill to ease the destructive impact of the Janus decision. We galvanized the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition to pursue progressive revenues for transportation and are on the way to increasing taxes on global corporations.
But what is most exciting, and makes me most optimistic about the future, is the member activism at the local level. Across the state, MTA members are accessing their power to demand fair contracts — even striking to win these demands. MTA members are standing up to bullying principals, stopping charter expansion, and banding together to insist that ESPs get a fair wage. We are building these campaigns with parents and the broader community.
Our local and statewide victories are why members are so committed to the MTA — so committed that membership numbers have grown by more than 1,000. We are larger and stronger than ever.
The power of our Student Opportunity Act victory, and the wave of principled collective action in cities and towns across the state, bode well for the coming years.
We will access this collective power to:
- Win strong contracts that show the respect and autonomy members deserve through open bargaining, regional bargaining networks and bargaining for the common good.
- Pass the Cherish Act for public higher education to secure justice for adjunct faculty and staff and to win investment in full-time faculty and staff.
- Win living wages and good working conditions for our ESP members.
- Intensify the fight to end high-stakes testing.
- Win debt-free public higher education for every resident in Massachusetts.
As the largest union in New England, we will lead the fight against climate change and for a green new deal.
We have more work to do, and I would be honored to serve another term as your Vice President.
