Greetings, MTA members,
This union, our nearly 400 locals, and our 117,000 members do remarkable work every day. I tend to want to lift up local and statewide victories, even amid all that is wrong in the world.
But this week has been hard.
Yet another school shooting that gets a shrug. ICE swarms through our communities arresting students and parents. A political activist is murdered followed by organized bullying and doxxing of our members. The violence is unacceptable. So is the vicious aftermath. In our statement on this issue we reiterated our commitment to protecting our members and their rights, and contrary to claims by critics of our union, in no way justify the tragic loss of life under any circumstance.
Despair is understandable, fury justified.
But as the old saying goes, don’t agonize, organize.
Organize your contract campaigns with members engaged in democratized bargaining, like our members are doing in Belmont, Holyoke, Foxborough, Chicopee, Haverhill, Winchester and dozens of other districts. Show up to testify on behalf of good bills and against bad bills – for adjunct justice and retiree cost of living adjustments and fair wages, and against a misguided literacy bill. Stand up for your students and parents being pursued by ICE, as our members are doing in Milford and Worcester and across the state.
And defend your public schools and colleges at all costs. In a nation increasingly controlled by billionaire oligarchs, it is an essential task to defend an institution that has the seeds of a different world in it, a democratic world, governed by mutual support, committed to lifting up each member of the community, cherishing differences and demanding justice. It won’t be enough to do right inside our buildings. But that is the foundation on which we will reclaim the country.
MTA Events, Opportunities and Solidarity Actions
All Presidents’ Meeting – Please Note the New Location!
When: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20 (Breakfast starts at 8 a.m. Lunch will be at the end of the meeting.) Where: AC Marriott Hotel, 125 Front St., Worcester
Please join us as we celebrate some recent victories and continue to build stronger locals and a stronger MTA!
The MTA ESP Leadership program
This is a four-weekend course focused on leadership and communication strategies, strengthening interpersonal skills and supporting emerging ESP leaders. Learn more & register. The deadline to sign up is Sept. 30.
Membership cards are on their way
The wait is over for MTA membership cards! Because of a delay from NEA, membership cards did not go out at their usual time. Keep an eye on your mail later this week or early next week and remember to carry your 2025-26 MTA union membership card in your wallet.
Ballot initiatives
The MTA Board has not yet taken positions on any of the 44 approved ballot initiatives. A few will be considered at the October 3-4 Board meeting. However, we have supported regular legislation very similar to a few of these initiatives. Here is information for members who want to get involved in signature collection this fall.
Rent Control
If interested, please join the efforts to get 75,000 certified signatures across the state by joining the campaign - there are pick up / drop off locations to get petitions in each region and we need all hands on deck to stabilize housing and support families in our communities. To get involved, go to keepmasshome.com to sign up to volunteer or email keepmasshome@gmail.com to find out how you can pick up petitions.
Political Education
Next week, I’ll be spending two days at an invitation-only conference on debt and its impact on our public schools. (Because of our good work of taking on big fights, MTA is one of just a handful of unions being asked to participate). The K12 Budget Institute sponsored by the Debt Collective aims to reveal the unseen vice that is worsening the fiscal crisis in our public schools. The fact that our schools – and especially those in working-class districts – are forced to take on debt to pay for buildings or even operations, and that students and families are beset by all kinds of debt (for school meals, for health care, for higher education) creates greater inequality and can set educators against community members. Bowing before credit agencies to have the right to pay interest to Wall Street banks for the privilege of maintaining schools and colleges is not natural, not right, nor is it inevitable. This Institute will look to understand the problem in order to upend it.
Look at the articles from this issue of Rethinking Schools to start to understand Wall Street’s stranglehold on our municipalities and our schools and colleges.
In solidarity,
Max
