We made solidarity work in 2018!
Here at Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, everything we do is based on the principle of solidarity
the idea that an injury to one is an injury to all, so when any of us is hurting, it’s up to all of us to come together and take action to stop it. It’s a simple concept, but a powerful one. For 25 years, Jobs with Justice has been putting solidarity into practice to build a movement for working class power that has been able to take on and defeat bad bosses, heartless CEOs, and politicians who made the mistake of putting profits before people.
In times like these, when so many working people are hurting, we need to be taking even bigger and bolder action than ever before — and in 2018, with your help, we did just that:
Massachuestts Jobs with Justice People’s Agenda
When Trump’s assault on immigrant communities grew even more brutal this summer, Jobs with Justice organized Together and Free rallies in Boston and Springfield that put over 16,000 people in the streets to demand not just an end to family separation at the border, but the abolition of ICE and the freedom and safety of all immigrants.
This election season, we launched the People’s Agenda to convince our co-workers, family, friends, and neighbors to vote yes on the three questions on the ballot: creating safe staffing ratios for nurses in hospitals, taking the first steps to get money out of politics, and defending the fundamental right of trans people to access public accommodations. Together, we knocked on over 6,000 doors, made hours of phone calls, reached over a half a million people via social media, appeared on radio and tv, presented at churches and community meetings, and engaged all of our member organizations, volunteers, and activists to advocate for the health and safety of our communities and our democracy. Despite a heartbreaking loss on safe staffing, we were successful in winning a citizens commission on money and politics as well as a historic victory protecting trans people — and we agitated a base of voters ready to come back for the health care profiteers who defeated Question 1!
Along with the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition, we collected tens of thousands of signatures on ballot petitions to raise the minimum wage and secure Paid Family and Medical Leave for all Massachusetts workers, an effort that pressured the legislature to act on both issues.
In partnership with the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, which includes teachers unions, parents, students, and community allies, we escalated the fight for the public schools we all deserve into a what has become the Fund Our Future campaign, which will direct more resources to public k-12 and higher education in Massachusetts in 2019.
As always, we stood with countless workers demanding respect on the job, from striking nurses in Greenfield, to factory workers organizing for the first time in Worcester, to graduate students at Boston College struggling for their first contract.
June 30, 2018 Together and Free rally, Boston, MA
We took solidarity to the next level in 2018, but in 2019, we’ll need to do even more to make the change we need in Massachusetts! This year, Jobs with Justice will be keeping up the fights for workers rights, immigrant rights, and public education — and taking on new, critical campaigns. We will be leading a statewide coalition to win regular hours and fair scheduling for hourly workers, bringing Bostonians into the battle for good jobs for local residents (especially women and people of color), connecting the struggles of nurses, doctors, and health care workers to the broader movement for health care justice, and much more.
Of course, it’s people like you who make this work possible. We want to THANK YOU for all you’ve already done to make Jobs with Justice the powerful force it has become, and to ask you to invest in the future of our movement by making a contribution today. In the spirit of solidarity, a generous donor has agreed to extend their offer to match all contributions made between now and January 31!
You can make your donation online here or mail us a check to our office at JWJ 375 Centre Street; Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. Every little bit helps!