The 200 or so nurses at the Greenfield hospital will go on strike on June 26 unless management agrees to stop assigning so many patients to each nurse that it is impossible to provide good quality health care. The nurses want the hospital to hire more nurses. The nurses also want better health insurance for themselves.

On May 25, activists gathered at 2163 Wilbraham Road in Springfield to try to stop a multi-billion dollar bank from evicting a low-income family from the home at that address where they have lived for 20 years.

U.S. Bank Corporation evicted the family, but the fight is not over. The activists are working to get the family back into their home, organizer Candejah Pink told the Valley Post. They have won several of these kind of victories in recent years in Springfield. Details about -- and photos of -- some of these victories are at:

www.valleypost.org/2015/10/20/grassroots-victories

On April 29, there will be marches in Springfield and Keene calling on politicians to pass laws stopping pollution. The focus is on pollution that causes climate change. "Climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet," according to the United Nations Paris Agreement, which was signed by the leaders of almost every nation in 2015.

Free, non-stop bus rides from Amherst and Northampton to Springfield are available for people who want to attend a February 11 rally to defend access to contraception and safe abortions. The Republican-controlled federal government is trying to limit access. The rally starts at 1 p.m. at 36 Court Street. Organizers have a web site at:

www.OurBodiesOurJustice.wordpress.com.

Dozens of people attended a rally to support reducing the prison population. The rally was outside the Springfield office of governor Charlie Baker. “People need opportunities for jobs, housing, and addiction treatment if we're going to reduce recidivism and incarceration,” Bill Toller told the Valley Post. He is on the board of the group that organized the rally. The group has a web page at:

www.facebook.com/Pioneer-Valley-Project-287298818042052

More than 2,000 people marched in Springfield on November 13 to protest the policies proposed by Donald Trump. These policies include cutting taxes for the rich, cutting programs that help poor people, making it easier for oil companies to cause climate change, deporting immigrants, and banning abortion.

In Springfield, there will be a rally for LGBTI rights November 9 at 9 a.m. LGBTI means lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or intersex. The rally will be outside the federal courthouse at 300 State Street.

At 11 a.m., a trial will start inside the courthouse. An LGBTI advocacy organization in the east African nation of Uganda is suing Scott Lively, a Springfield-based anti-gay extremist. “Lively has actively participated in the conspiracy to strip away the fundamental rights of LGBTI people in Uganda,” rally organizer Cathy Kristofferson told the Valley Post.

There will be a march to stop a planned fracked gas pipeline. The march starts in Agawam, Massachusetts on September 24 at noon. Agawam borders Springfield. Fracked gas causes climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life.

The march starts at 1615 Suffield Avenue. More information about the march is at www.350ct.org. People in the Valley used marches and rallies to stop a similar pipeline that was proposed in the Greenfield area earlier this year.

Deb Bys has worked as a para-educator in Springfield public schools for the past 17 years. “My husband had a good job, so we were OK. Then he got laid off and we are struggling to survive," she told the Valley Post in a telephone interview on September 1. "A para starting out in the city makes about $15,000 a year, far below a livable wage. I make less than $20 an hour."

With Labor Day right around the corner, the Valley Post spoke with a worker at a Springfield-based union for an update. Grocery workers are negotiating their first union contract at Wild Oats Market in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Matt Szulborski told the Valley Post in a telephone interview on August 12. He works for United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 1459. In February, the 42 workers at Wild Oats joined the union, which has a web site at www.ufcw1459.com.