Janitors, cooks, and other workers will rally for justice, April 28 at noon in Amherst. The public is invited to attend. The state workers who are organizing the rally are paid low wages and have no job security. They work for the University of Massachusetts. The rally will be outside the student union building. There is a map at:
www.umass.edu/visitorsctr/Campus_Map
Parking on campus is easy but expensive. Details are at:
Taxes are due on April 18 this year. Activists in Amherst and Brattleboro plan to use the occasion to educate the public. About half the federal budget goes to war. The richest Americans and biggest corporations are able to avoid paying all or most of the money they owe the government.
Protesters will hand out a pie chart showing what the government does with the money that Americans pay in income taxes:
www.warresisters.org/sites/default/files/FY2012piechart-color.pdf
Why did an incinerator corporation recently choose Springfield, the biggest city in western Massachusetts (population 156,000) as the location for a new incinerator? Could the choice be related to the fact that Springfield is home to a much higher percentage of people of color (48 percent) than most cities and towns in the region? The percentage of families in poverty in Springfield is more than double the national average. Maybe the incinerator company’s lawyers thought poor people of color would be less likely to put up a fight. They were wrong.
On April 4, the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., there will be rallies for workers' rights in Springfield, Greenfield, and Keene. The award-winning documentary film "At the River I Stand" shows King's last days in Memphis, in which he spoke to big crowds and marched, in support of striking garbage workers. Information on the film is at:
www.newsreel.org/video/AT-THE-RIVER-I-STAND
The DVD is available by inter-library loan from your local public library.
The time, location, and organizers' contact info for the rallies in Springfield, Greenfield, and Keene are at:
Activists are asking the public to attend three protests against banks that want to foreclose on Springfield homeowners. On February 22 at 10:30 a.m., a protest will be held at 1179 Saint James Avenue. There will be two actions on February 24. At 9:30 a.m., activists will gather at 12-14 Foster Street. At 12:30 p.m., they will be at 29 Verge Street.
On February 7, about 25 people protested a foreclosure auction of a Springfield home by Wells Fargo Bank.
Photos of the February 7 protest are at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/AFSCWM/ForeclosureAuctionProtestFebruary72011#
On December 14, more than 300 nursing home workers in Springfield voted to form a union. They work for Sullivan and Associates Corporation. The voted workers voted 190 to 94 to join the Service Employees union www.seiu509.org Two dozen workers' votes are being disputed by the company or the union.
Union workers in the U.S. make more money than nonunion workers, 29 percent more. That’s $9,300 a year extra for the average worker who joins a union. For Latino workers, the union advantage is 50 percent; for black workers, 31 percent.
There will be a rally at the Chicopee, Massachusetts Rite Aid store at 5 Saint James Avenue at 3 p.m. on December 15. Chicopee is near Springfield. The public is welcome to attend. At the rally, Rite Aid customers will learn from volunteers about:
-- Rite Aid's decision to hike its CEO's compensation to $4.5 million per year;
-- The company's effort to impose major cost increases on workers for health insurance;
-- Rite Aid's pattern of delays in reaching fair agreements with its union workers, and;
On October 22 at noon there will be a march to the Springfield police department to protest police brutality in Springfield. That day there will also be a conference on how to fix a variety of problems with police. The conference will be from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Basilica of the Holy Apostle at 339 State Street in Springfield. The march and conference are being organized by the Community Coalition for Justice.
There will be a march in Springfield at 4 p.m. on September 15 calling on Congress to raise taxes on the rich to create jobs for unemployed people. The jobs would include work building better trains and train tracks, making homes and other building more energy efficient, and installing solar panels and windmills.
Organizers are asking the public to meet at 1550 Main Street at 3:45 p.m. Putting the millions of jobless Americans to work would raise wages for workers who already have jobs because employers would be forced to compete for skilled workers.
On July 19 at 2:30 p.m., Northampton nursing home workers will hold a rally for justice. The workers are asking the public to attend. The rally will be at 737 Bridge Road. Directions are at www.maps.google.com