Independent Labor News
LATEST ARTICLES
OPINION: Fighting for Puerto Rican Independence is Local Work, Especially in Massachusetts
By: Dom S LAWRENCE, LOWELL, LYNN – As the national co-chair of the DSA’s Puerto Rico Working Group, I often hear the question from other organization members: “Why should a socialist here care about the territorial status of Puerto Rico?” My answer: “As an American citizen, it is your Congress who holds absolute control over…
OPINION: Healey’s Abundance Agenda Relies on Institutions Keeping Us in Scarcity
By: B. Greer The terms “abundance” and “supply” are unavoidable in the housing affordability debate. The Healey administration’s plan to address the housing crisis, “Achieve a State of Housing Abundance” confidently states that a “lack of supply is the root cause of our housing cost crisis.” The state is correct that Massachusetts needs more homes,…
Mass Community College Faculty and Staff, Suffering Low Pay and Hostility, Face Off with Board of Higher Ed
By: Jason M, Jake S WORCESTER – Teachers and staff organized under the Massachusetts Community College Council (MCCC) have been engaged in contract negotiations with the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education for the last few months. Despite Massachusetts offering free community college through the MassEducate program, faculty at community colleges across the state face conditions…
They Tried to Cut Off the Head: School Bus Workers in Central Mass Confront Private Equity
By: Cayla Dodd MARLBOROUGH- A union contract campaign among school bus drivers and monitors has developed into something much larger than a dispute over wages and benefits. What is unfolding reveals in stark clarity the architecture of privatization – how private equity reshapes essential services, how union-busting operates under contemporary labor relations, and why even…
This year’s ballot question is dead. Rent control should not be.
By: Timothy Scalona This was originally published in The Boston Globe on July 21, 2026. I had just finished middle school in 2012 when a sheriff came to my front door carrying an eviction notice — an enveloped piece of paper that threatened to force us out and trash the decades worth of memories that…
Supreme Court’s TPS Decision Threatens Millions, Precipitates Mass. Healthcare Staffing Collapse
By: Matt Wolfinger BOSTON – Last month, the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a long-sought victory, setting the stage for the mass deportation of roughly 356,000 people out of the United States. The landmark decision paves the way for the cancelation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The TPS program…
“Union-busting” Law Firm and Business-Backed Trustees Face MGB Nurses in Largest Nurses’ Strike in State History
By: Chris Brady BOSTON – Healthcare is in a private-equity induced freefall. But after a historic strike and ongoing negotiations, including a lock-out confrontation with the bosses, nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital stand in between the Commonwealth’s healthcare unions and coordinated management destruction. On Wednesday, July 8, 4,700 Mass General Brigham (MGB) nurses and…
Notes from Organizing a Union at Best Buy
By: Reid J DEDHAM – In September 2025, broke and desperate, I was running food deliveries for the richest neighborhoods in Waltham while trying to get my resumé in the door anywhere and everywhere when Best Buy hired me. A friend was already working there and helped me get on the sales team with a…
From Mold to Force: How Tenants of a Dracut Textile Mill Organized An Association
By: Travis Wayne DRACUT – In Beaver Brook Village, organizing began with mold. Beaver Brook Village is a restored textile mill named for the waterway that bisects the town, over which the complex’s tower looms, upstream and across the Merrimack River from Lowell. Now an apartment complex, the renovated mill was originally celebrated for its…
The Wilson Cuts: Somerville Mayor Lays Off Union Organizers, ‘Disappears’ Mental Health Counselors
By: Chris Brady SOMERVILLE – On May 20, Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson joined the Greater Boston Labor Council (GBLC) for their municipal legislative breakfast at the Somerville Armory. There, he gave a speech supporting unions. Somerville worker Kate Bossingham testified during a May 28 City Council meeting that after the breakfast, which was presumably paid…
Militant Rank-and-File Stays in Leadership of Massachusetts’ Largest Labor Union
By: Nicholas W BOSTON – On May 8-9, 2026, the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) held its 181st Annual Meeting at the Hynes Convention Center. The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) is the largest union in Massachusetts and the state affiliate of the National Education Association. Alongside 36 fellow delegates elected from the Cambridge Education Association, we…
The Dungeon Over Lowell: How the Data Center Boom Divided One City’s Working People
By: Matt Wolfinger LOWELL – In the Sacred Heart neighborhood, a massive black box looms over the surrounding homes. The building, called ‘the Dungeon’ by some locals, is the largest data center in Massachusetts. Lowell residents have been living in the shadow of Markley Group’s 352,000-square-foot data center for more than a decade. The center’s…
Shawn Fain’s UAW Is Facing Strong Headwinds
By: Nelson Lichtenstein This article was originally published in New Labor Forum. These positions are the authors’ own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass. Original Editor’s Note: This article appears as the United Auto Workers (UAW) union prepares for its 39th UAW Constitutional Convention, scheduled for June 15-18, 2026. The strength of a union…
Intellectual Homelessness: The Adjunct and the Disappearing University
By: Ashraf Hazeyen Every semester, the adjunct professor walks into the classroom carrying the full symbolic weight of the university while possessing almost none of its protections. They enter with a syllabus, readings, assignments, office hours, and the responsibility of making a discipline feel alive to students who may never know the terms of their…
Greenfield Nurses Prepared to Strike At Franklin County’s Only Hospital
By: Mary Ann Sheppard GREENFIELD – On April 7, 2026, unionized nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center staged an informational picket to advocate for better wages and staffing. The picket, organized by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), was attended by nurses, community members, and supporters of the labor movement outside of Franklin County’s only hospital. …
May Day is Turning Mainstream Again
By: Chris Brady, James N, Dan Albright, Mitch Gayns MASSACHUSETTS – Working people and unionists coalesced in May Day events throughout Massachusetts on May 1, 2026, which is likely to be seen as a moment of a historic cultural revival for the holiday in the United States. Also known as International Workers Day, May Day…
OPINION: Cambridge, Take Action To Oppose the Cuba Blockade
By: Siobhan McDonough The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass. CAMBRIDGE — Last Monday, community members crowded into Cambridge City Hall to voice our support for a proposed resolution calling for an end to the U.S.’s devastating Cuba blockade. Cambridge City Councillors…
Harvard Faces Grad Workers’ Strike as Discontent with the University Swells From Below
By: Frederick Reiber CAMBRIDGE — Harvard students are in their reading period in advance of finals as Harvard’s graduate union representing workers in around sixty programs surge to the end of their third week on a historic strike at the world’s richest university. Seeking to continue escalating pressure following a 79% turnout with 96% of…
Somerville City Workers, Facing Opaque Pay and Austerity, Unionize with AFSCME 93
By: Travis Wayne SOMERVILLE – Somerville and its new mayor face a test from organized labor as the city’s executive sits across from a burgeoning municipal workers’ union: Somerville Workers United (SWU) – AFSCME 93, whose members are joining a union representing 45,000 state, county, and municipal workers across New England. The new city workers’…
UMass Nurses Sound Alarm of Depraved Working Conditions Amidst Contract Fight
By: Jake S WORCESTER COUNTY – On Thursday, March 26, UMass workers organized within the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) — the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth with over 26,000 members — held informational pickets for their contract fight across five hospital campuses: in Worcester, at Memorial, University, and Hahnemann; in Clinton, at…
