October 18, 2024

Labor Rallies Set for Oct. 24 and Oct. 26

by Eesha Williams
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There will be a labor rally on October 26 at 11:30 a.m. outside the Starbucks at 101 West Street in Springfield. The Valley Post interviewed a Starbucks worker about the union in July. That interview is at:

https://valleypost.org/2024/07/26/vermont-union-starbucks-worker-urges-v...

The Springfield rally organizers have a web site at https://sbWorkersUnited.org.

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In Brattleboro on October 24 at 5 p.m., there will be a farmworker rights rally outside the Hannaford supermarket. The organizers have a web site at https://migrantjustice.net.

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Every six months the Valley Post does an article about Amtrak in the Valley. Ben Heckscher runs a Northampton-based group that has a web site at https://TrainsInTheValley.org. On October 14 he told the Valley Post that the biggest news about trains in the Pioneer Valley and Brattleboro in the past six months is, “the release of MassDOT's draft final report for the Northern Tier Passenger Rail Study on August 12, 2024. The report details the benefits, costs, and investments necessary to implement passenger rail service from North Adams to Greenfield and Boston, with the speed, frequency, and reliability necessary to be a competitive travel option. Comments on the draft report were due by October 12 and it is expected that MassDOT will publish the final report this fall. It's hard for me to say at the moment how likely Northern Tier Passenger Rail is to happen. When the study is finalized I expect that there will be a push at the political level to move the planning process for Northern Tier Rail forward. Once this happens we will have a better idea what the next steps might be, and the likelihood that we will see train running along the Northern Tier route again. The draft study estimated that it would take 12 years of planning, permitting, design and construction before train could roll. This is a rough estimate of the timeline that would be further refined when/if a decision is made to move the project forward.”

Meanwhile in California a bullet train is under construction to run between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Details are at https://hsr.ca.gov. A bullet train could one day run between Boston and New York City via Springfield, Massachusetts. The Amtrak Acela between Boston and New York City runs on tracks that are at risk of flooding due to sea level rise.

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