In Brattleboro, 160 nurses voted to authorize a strike, one of the nurses, Tracy Ouellette, told the Valley Post on March 23. She is the president of the Brattleboro Federation of Nurses. The date to start the strike has not yet been set. The nurses work at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. The hospital's contract proposals “would hurt patient care and drive staff away. Proposals include no wage increases for three years,” the union said in a press release. The nurses have a web site at:

https://aftvermont.org/about-us

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In Brattleboro on March 2, about 175 people marched to protest Trump's policies. The march started outside 193 Main Street and ended at the food co-op. For more information, contact Dan Dewalt via https://rcpVermont.org. He helped promote the march. DeWalt told the Valley Post he's organizing a march to protest Trump's policies on March 14 at 5 p.m., starting outside 193 Main Street in Brattleboro. Sunset is at about 7 p.m. that day. The organizers of the March 2 march, and a similar march on February 21, referred the Valley Post to DeWalt. More about the February march is at:

Thanks to the work of environmental activists, a new bus will start running in Brattleboro on April 15. On average, even electric cars are worse than busses and trains for the environment. That's because cars so often have just one person in them. Electric cars still require roads. Asphalt is made from oil and gravel. Train tracks are narrower than roads and they are built on plain crushed stone. Eliminating roads could create space for forests to grow. Details about the Brattleboro bus are at:

www.moover.com/brattleboro-microtransit

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Forty-five people attended a rally in the Pioneer Valley town of Washington, Massachusetts on June 17. The goal was to stop logging in a state forest. “It went very well,” Janet Sinclair told the Valley Post. She was one of the organizers. A petition is at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfLg5REHtGz1n04L6DrnZ6OkR_ScYhD...

One of the speakers at the rally was Michael Kellett, executive director of RESTORE The North Woods.

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In Hadley, Massachusetts, which borders Northampton, the workers at the Trader Joe's supermarket are negotiating their first union contract. “We just wrapped up two days of negotiations in Hadley. It was our most productive bargaining session yet,” the workers wrote on Instagram on February 2. A union spokesperson did not immediately reply to an email seeking additional comments. The Valley Post will publish her quote in a future article.

Local environmental activists had a victory when the town of Southampton, Massachusetts, which borders Holyoke, announced it will build a 3.5 mile rail trail that will connect to other existing rail trails. “It will run to Route 10 (aka College Highway) by Sheldon’s Ice Cream,” Ed Gibson told the Valley Post on January 3. He works for the town of Southampton. “The trail will need to be designed and we will also be looking to apply to have it placed on a future year of the state's Transportation Improvement Program for the construction costs.

Workers near Holyoke on September 19 announced they had a major victory. “One hundred dining workers and 70 facilities workers at Mount Holyoke College voted overwhelmingly to ratify three-year agreements with the college that include raises of between 11.5 and 24.5 percent over the life of their contracts,” a union spokesperson told the Valley Post. The 170 people work in South Hadley, Massachusetts, which borders Holyoke. The workers have a web site at www.seiu.org.

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About 200 people attended a workers' rights rally in Hadley, Massachusetts on July 23. Hadley borders Northampton. The rally was organized by workers at the Trader Joe's supermarket. More information is available via the workers' web site: https://TraderJoesUnited.org.

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In Brattleboro on June 24 about 150 people attended an abortion rights rally, Eileen Sullivan told the Valley Post. She works for Planned Parenthood. In Northampton on the same day about the same number of people attended a rally for the same cause, organizer Debby Pastrich-Klemer told the Valley Post. Two groups helped her: Valley Women’s March and Indivisible Northampton. “150 people is great for a last-minute event,” Pastrich-Klemer said. The protests were in response to a supreme court decision issued hours earlier. Now it's up to Biden and congress to over-rule the court.

Easthampton, Massachusetts is expected to pass a fee on vacant commercial buildings in the coming weeks. Easthampton borders Holyoke. Brattleboro will likely pass a fee on vacant commercial buildings within a few months, town manager Yoshi Manale told the Valley Post.

The Brattleboro Home Depot and its vast parking lot have been vacant for 14 years. In 2019 Home Depot spokeswoman Margaret Watters Smith told the Valley Post her company would like to find someone to rent the building and parking lot. Years before that, another Home Depot spokeswoman told the Valley Post the same thing.