A few of the things your contributions have already done in 2018: Director’s Report Summer of 2018
Dear Brothers, Sisters, and Cousins:
This year, despite attacks from all sides, working people in Massachusetts are still fighting back… and still winning!
Just a few of the things your contributions have already done this year
In addition to sitting on the Steering Committee of the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition, we collected 23,000 signatures to get a $15/hr minimum wage and Paid Family & Medical Leave on the ballot in 2018.
We mobilized thousands for May Day marches across the Commonwealth, standing up for immigrant workers against attacks from the Trump and Baker administrations.
When Lucio Perez, a Guatemalan immigrant currently living in sanctuary in a church in Amherst, was forced to leave sanctuary to have his appendix removed at an area hospital, we came together to form a caravan to protect him from intervention by ICE.
We stood by MNA nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center who hung tough and won their contract – a major victory for nurses and patient safety.
After UMass Boston faced its latest series of cuts, we began the ongoing #OurUMB project to bring community voices into the Save UMB campaign and apply pressure to elected officials to take action to relieve UMB’s debt.
In addition to keeping those campaigns going strong and making sure we are always ready to spring into action when new, urgent fights arise, here’s what’s on the horizon for our coalition:
With a November 2018 ballot likely to be crowded with important ballot initiatives, we are launching a massive Get Out the Vote Effort called The People’s Agenda, which will include intensive voter outreach and public events to educate voters about the grassroots movements to pass the Raise Up initiatives, the Fair Share Amendment, Safe Staffing for Nurses, and a mechanism to dismantle Citizens United – as well as the corporate interests looking to attack working people by rolling back transgender rights and reducing the sales tax.
We will be hosting trainings across Massachusetts to educate the public about the Janus vs. AFSCME supreme court decision and how it will impact all workers as well as their communities.
As we do every year, we will be working with a cadre of young people this summer to bring them into the fight for social and economic justice. Over this spring alone, we have educated over 500 students about our causes and our strategy. We provide extensive organizing training and mentor them through the experience they need to take the movement back to their schools, campuses and neighborhoods.
As unions face cutbacks due to the Janus vs. AFSCME decision and our member organizations are stretched to capacity fighting off urgent threats, the work we are doing – and the work we have in front of us – has never been more important. Unfortunately, the factors that make our organizing so critical are also making it that much more difficult to raise the funds we need to sustain our coalition. After 25 years of growing Jobs with Justice one donation at a time, we are skilled at doing more with less – despite the fact that we are fighting (and winning) against some of the wealthiest people in our Commonwealth and the biggest corporations in the world, we run on a shoestring budget from a tiny office in Boston. 80% of our expenses go to living wages and basic healthcare for our tireless staff – no big CEO salaries, no advertising budget, and no excess spending on frills – but we are still struggling to make ends meet this year.
We know that times are hard for all of our organizations, but in times like these, we can’t afford to stop fighting. We can’t afford to lose all the momentum Jobs with Justice has been building for over two decades. That’s why we need your help. Please make your annual dues contribution as soon as you can – and if it is at all possible, please consider making an additional contribution this year to help us through this difficult time.
Thank you in advance, and we’ll see you in the streets!
In solidarity,
Lily Huang & Gillian Mason
Co-Executive Directors
Massachusetts Jobs with Justice