by ISG members in the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)
MTA educators, members of the largest union in New England representing 115,000 members in 400 locals, are fighting back through a wave of contract battles and illegal strikes against underfunding, inadequate staffing levels, and wages that trail behind record-high levels of inflation and student debt. ISG union members, including our MTA members, are consistently organizing in our workplaces and unions to help win good contracts, improve conditions, and reclaim our unions as democratic, fighting organizations of the working class.
ISG members have discussed ways to address educators’ issues at recent educator rallies and strikes. In the past few months, members stood with NRT bus drivers (Marlborough District), striking for union recognition with Teamsters Local 170 and a first contract. We worked with strike leaders to try to mobilize Marlborough and other union educators to join the picket line. ISG joined rallies and picket lines with Brookline, Cambridge, Woburn, Watertown, Wellesley, Worcester, and Newton educators, as well as a picket protest in June with Medford Teamsters, firefighters, and educators.
Our educators, in their locals and the statewide union, are bringing effective workplace tactics into discussions and planning meetings with educators who are ready to fight back but aren’t sure how to. An ISG Educational Support Professional (ESP) in the Wellesley Educator Association (WEA) was heavily involved in the recent public 7-month-long union campaign for a fair contract.
Wellesley Contract Battle
Our member talked to many coworkers in their building and others about fighting for serious gains in a new contract and the need to mobilize to win them. They helped organize walk-ins, rallies that drew 200-300 educators and supporters, and other actions through the Contract Action Team (CAT).
Our educators and other union comrades spoke at multiple rallies about the need to unite all the locals fighting across the state on the same issues, for joint and militant action, and for unions to defend and improve public services. Our Wellesley educator advocated for the WEA to link up with surrounding locals in negotiations like Weston and Wayland for united rallies. After the union leadership called off a planned strike vote and pushed through a weak contract, our members raised the need for democratic and accountable union leadership with frustrated coworkers, especially ESPs, who were heavily betrayed in the new contract.
MTA Annual Meeting
As part of organizing for a more powerful fightback statewide, our members in the MTA put forward three proposals to delegates during the 2023 MTA Annual Meeting in April (resolutions at independentsocialistgroup.org). Our proposals aimed to demonstrate what the union should do to win and to meet educators who see the need for improved wages and working conditions, better funding and staffing for schools, the ability to retain and recruit current and future educators, and a stronger, more unified labor movement.
We Won’t Accept Less than $40k
The first resolution would commit the union to fight statewide for annual wages of no less than $40,000 for all MTA members as a step toward a living wage. The MTA needs to campaign statewide, not town by town, for serious wage increases above the inflation rate. The recent record-high rise in cost-of-living especially affects Educational Support Professionals (ESPs), often the lowest-paid education workers (80% of ESPs make under $30k/yr). Unions shouldn’t come to the table ready to concede on what they “think they can win” but instead demand what their members need.
Overturn the Public Sector Strike Ban!
ISG educators also raised the importance of overturning the statewide public-sector strike ban and winning the right to strike without restrictions. The MTA is lobbying for “right to strike” legislation that includes a mandatory 6-month wait period, guaranteeing school committees, mayors, and the governor time to organize against union activity. This approach can stifle momentum by forcing the union into mediation, targeting union activists, and waging a campaign to intimidate and confuse union members, supporters, and the public. The MTA needs to organize statewide protests and strikes for this basic right without restriction.
Our resolution also called to end all forms of endorsement and financial support for the Democratic and Republican Parties. MTA-endorsed Governor Maura Healey publicly opposes public sector workers’ right to strike. Healey’s bipartisan Tax Relief Plan included almost $400 million in tax breaks for the wealthy by cutting the short-term capital gains tax by 7% and eliminating the estate tax for estates worth up to $3 million. This undermines the recent Fair Share Amendment legislation taxing the rich to fund public education and transit, which the MTA initiated and won by referendum in 2022.
We won’t win the right to strike or full funding and staffing for public education by lobbying. The MTA needs to organize one massive statewide strike. Such an action must be combined with running and supporting independent labor candidates for public office to promote union rights, including the unfettered right to strike and building a new party to represent workers.
Real Solidarity with UPS Teamsters
The third proposal would commit the MTA and members to organize real solidarity with the 350,000 UPS workers unionized with the Teamsters who are also going through a crucial contract fight. Like education workers, UPS workers face understaffing, low wages, and unsafe working conditions (read more on page 6). They elected new leadership in 2021 on the promise of a “no-concessions contract or strike on August 1.” Like many educators, UPS Teamsters have dealt with decades of bad contracts and are ready to fight for more. Rank-and-file activists in both unions need to campaign for the unions to use militant tactics in their struggles and support of other key labor battles. The MTA must stand in solidarity with other unionized workers to build the labor movement and a more confident, fighting working class.
A victory or defeat at UPS will affect the whole labor movement. We argued for the MTA to donate to the Teamsters’ strike fund and refuse to cross the picket line if they go on strike. The MTA could educate members about the contract battle, mobilize the rank-and-file to attend solidarity actions, and, if UPS Teamsters go on strike, turn out members to picket lines, donate to the strike fund, and refuse to send or receive any UPS packages at workplaces.
The boldness of all three proposals energized fellow delegates. Despite maneuvering by the union leadership, including preventing the UPS resolution from reaching the floor, we won 20-35% of the vote for the resolutions from among the 500 delegates. These resolutions helped prompt serious discussions about what tactics are needed to fight the tide of worsening conditions for all working people. By raising the need for cross-local and statewide unity and solidarity actions and proposing the way forward with rallies and joint efforts, our members brought fighting socialist politics to the conference for union activists looking for a way forward.
Members of ISG take a leading role in our workplaces and will continue to fight for a more militant labor movement that can collectively act in the interest of its members. ISG stands with all education workers in their contract struggles and supports cross-local union solidarity within the MTA and the broader labor movement.
Independent Socialist Group 