2026 continues to be a strong year for local contracts. 💪

The North Reading Federation of Paraprofessionals just inked a new three year contract that includes an 11% wage increase, new step movements, and family sick bank language. Congratulations to the bargaining team for all of their hard work and effort in securing a new deal in a reasonably short amount of time!

Both units of our UMass Faculty Federation are also seeing their agreed-upon contracts move through the necessary process to receive state funding. The most recent supplemental budget passed by the House fully funded these contracts, and the bill now goes to the Senate for action. Both the Faculty Federation and Employee Staff Unit (ESU) will finally receive their negotiated wage increases from this winter's contract settlements this spring.

As you all know, this year’s budget season is a difficult one at the local and state levels, exacerbated by loss of federal funding. On Monday, the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hosted a FY27 budget hearing as it relates to education and local aid at Lawrence High School, where I joined Lawrence Teachers Union President Kimberly Barry to deliver testimony on what we’re seeing at the local level and the extensive needs of our communities.

The Committee on Ways and Means will host its final hearing on the FY27 budget this Tuesday, March 31 at the State House. This public hearing will be a full day, starting at noon and scheduled to stretch well into the evening. Please let us know if you’re interested in testifying so that we can coordinate sign-ups (must be submitted by Monday, March 30 by noon)!

There will be multiple opportunities for us to advocate at the state level for a stronger budget and other key priorities—from public hearings to letter writing to AFT MA’s 2026 Lobby Day, scheduled for Wednesday, April 22. We need you to add your voice and story over the coming months. It is important that elected leaders hear from you directly, whether it be on budget issues, impacts on retirement, or safety in our communities. Our team at AFT MA continues to meet with legislators and policy leaders to make sure the voices and needs of our locals are heard on critical issues like the fiscal crisis many communities are facing and key legislation, including R+, literacy and bills being debated to protect our immigrant families.  

Meanwhile, we continue to build solidarity with our community partners. This past month, we continued to anchor the MA Fight Back Table and played an important role in organizing the recent Solidarity School, bringing over 70 organizations together for a day of learning and building together. We also continue to fight for a working people’s agenda through our work in the Working Families Party, and in coalitions to address housing, gun safety, expanding Community Schools, single payer healthcare and other issues that impact our union members and communities. 

And we’re taking it to the streets with the third iteration of No Kings Day. Due to federal abuse of power and continued disregard for constitutional rights and congressional authority, millions are expected to show up for what continues to be the largest nationwide protests in American history. As our unions, democracy and rights continue to be attacked, we hope you’ll join us TOMORROW, March 28 for No Kings Day in Boston! RSVP to join us! We’re honored to be one of the two unions slated to speak, and looking forward to another great performance by the Dropkick Murphys. If you can’t make it into Boston, check out the No Kings action map to find an event closer to home. 

This is just the beginning of our full Spring of Action! Sign up today to join us at one (or all!) of our upcoming actions in the next month: 

• Tomorrow, 3/28: Spring of Action - No Kings III with AFT MA!

• 4/16: Spring of Action - AFT MA Spring Town Hall!

• 4/22: Spring of Action - AFT MA Lobby Day

• 5/1: Spring of Action - May Day 2026

This coming month is all about building power to protect your local, fighting back, and showing up for our communities.

One way to combat what we are seeing at the federal level is by safeguarding our elections and making sure we’re electing people who are fighting for our democracy and working families. Everyone who has the right to vote should be able to, without obstruction or interference and that’s why we must stop the voter suppression bill being pushed by the White House. Taking a page out of the authoritarian handbook, this bill would strip the right to vote from millions of American citizens and ban mail-in ballots and mail-in registration. This shouldn’t be a bill that splits along ideological lines—it goes at the very heart of our democracy. The Bipartisan Policy Center has a helpful rundown of why this is incredibly harmful to American citizens. The AFT is part of the group leading the charge against this dangerous bill at the national level.

​At the national level, the AFT is leading the charge to protect student loan borrowers and push forward the student loan forgiveness that public sector workers across the nation are entitled to through Income Driven Repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness. AFT sued the Department and Secretary of Education last year for denying IDR and PSLF relief members were owed. As a result, the Department is required to post monthly status reports on IDR and PSLF application processing, as well as the processing of student loan forgiveness approvals for eligible borrowers. Read more here.

Despite these wins, or perhaps because of them, we must remain vigilant during these times because those carrying out an anti-worker agenda know how powerful we can be and seek to divide us. We must continue to look out for organizations that may sound appealing on the surface but are actually working to undermine our unions or our work. For example, Educators For Excellence (E4E) continues to mislead the public about our work to increase educator diversity in their efforts to undermine seniority. Meanwhile, the out-of-state “Freedom Foundation” has been emailing and mailing members directly, pushing them to opt-out of their union. Make no mistake—these are bad faith attempts to undermine our members and weaken our collective power and gains. Please do not sign anything without checking with your union leadership—their communications are purposefully misleading, with many looking like they’re official union mailers. Should you or your fellow members receive communications by mail or email pressuring you, please let your President or Field Representative know. 

Despite anti-union forces and the challenges we increasingly face, we continue to make great strides for our unions and community. Above all, we continue to see success in solidarity. In times of great distress, there are opportunities for us to come together to safeguard critical rights at risk and fight for the common good, and that is what we will continue to do!

Take Action:

• Sign up to join AFT MA’s Activist List today!

• Phones in Focus survey

• Urge Your State Representatives to Advocate for Early Ed and Care in the State Budget!

• Join an upcoming 2026 Keep Massachusetts Home Signature Training

Upcoming Events: 

• 3/28: Spring of Action - No Kings III with AFT MA!

• 3/30: Lawrence Retirement Planning Workshop

• 4/1: Ed Prep Info Session

• 4/9 & 4/11: Welcome to the Party - Boston & Springfield events

• 4/15: Resilience and Resistance: Micro-Histories of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust

• 4/16: Spring of Action - AFT MA Spring Town Hall!

• 4/22: Spring of Action - AFT MA Lobby Day

• 5/1: Spring of Action - May Day 2026

• 5/1-2: Para/PSRP conference!

• 5/3: Step Up for Colleen 5k

• 5/9: K-12 Climate Action and Education Conference

Join the Activist List!

Want to get more involved with AFT Massachusetts? As we navigate this election year and the ongoing attacks on public education, unions, our immigrant students, and more, we’ve heard from members looking for more ways to get involved and make a difference right now. Enter: the Activist List! The Activist List is an email list hosted by AFT Massachusetts to share opportunities to take collective action and show up for public education, our students and schools, and our labor rights and union siblings. You’ll hear about in-person events, text and phone banks, webinars, and more. If you’re looking for more opportunities to take action this year, the Activist List is the space for you! Sign up here to join!

Phones in Focus: Massachusetts

Researchers at Harvard are partnering with Dr. Angela Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvania to study the impact of student cell phone bans in Massachusetts and nationally. Phones in Focus is a confidential, 5-minute survey for public K-12 educators inquiring about cell phone policies: the type of policy (e.g. bell-to-bell vs. instructional time), when it started and what share of students are complying. They’re looking to hear from Massachusetts educators regarding the impact of cell phone policies in their schools! For more information, watch a 1-minute video describing the survey, and click here to participate.

Urge Your State Representatives to Advocate for Early Ed and Care in the State Budget!

Please join Common Start in urging our State Representatives to pass an FY27 budget that, together with critical investments already funded in a supplemental budget in March, makes significant progress towards the implementation of last year’s comprehensive child care legislation, by increasing the number of families receiving child care financial assistance, increasing funding for the C3 operational grant program to support child care providers, moving Massachusetts further toward child care reimbursement rates that cover the true cost of delivering high-quality care, and delivering much-needed funding for Head Start providers. Email your legislators today!

Join an upcoming 2026 Keep Massachusetts Home Signature Training

Keep Massachusetts Home is the coalition working to put a question on the state ballot this fall in favor of rent control. From Boston to Springfield, predatory landlords are pushing workers and seniors out of their communities, forcing people to work multiple jobs just to pay the rent, and making it impossible for young people and families to save money for the dream of owning a home. When corporate landlords treat homes like profit machines, they push our friends, families and neighbors out of the places they call home and rob all of us of stability and belonging. But we can take back the power from big corporations by coming together to put OUR issues directly on the ballot. Click here to get a full schedule of signature gathering trainings and join the fight to put rent control on the ballot!

• United States: American Federation of Teachers mobilises communities across the country to advocate for schools and families - Education International

• Amesbury Educator to Receive Local Unions Service Award - Newburyport News [paywall]

• Mass. Schools Face Enrollment, Funding Problems Amid Immigration Crackdown - WBZ

Saturday, March 28: Spring of Action - No Kings III!

Join AFT Massachusetts as we unite with labor and social action organizations from across the state for No Kings III in Boston! What began as a single day of action in 2025 has become a sustained, growing national resistance to authoritarianism. We’ll be participating in a Labor Meetup and pre-No Kings De-ICE Citizens Bank action at 12:30pm to protest Citizens Bank's funding of ICE detention centers! After this action, we will march 5 minutes to join the main No Kings event on Boston Common. Sign up to join us today!

Monday, March 30: Retirement Planning Workshop for Public Sector AFT Members

All public sector members are invited to join the AFT Massachusetts for an upcoming retirement planning workshop! AFT MA has partnered with Teacher Retirement Solutions to provide prospective retirees with this comprehensive workshop. We cover a variety of topics, including the Massachusetts' public employee retirement formula, Social Security, and living in retirement. Sign up to join us for the next workshop in Lawrence on March 30. Want to bring this resource to your local? Talk to your local President today!

Wednesday, April 1: Ed Prep Info Session

If you’re considering pursuing your Master’s degree, tune in for this Ed Prep Info Session to hear from over 20 Master’s programs! These programs may offer tuition discounts, convenient hours, virtual programs, MTEL prep, waived application fees and more! RSVP here.

April 9 & 11: Welcome to the Party - Boston & Springfield

Curious about the new Massachusetts Working Families Party? Join WFP for an upcoming event kicking off Working Families Party's organizing in Boston on April 9 and Springfield on April 11. Learn about winning power for the multiracial working class and building a city and a state that works for all of us. Meet WFP National Director Maurice Mitchell and the Massachusetts team, talk with leaders and organizers, and come together with the community. Sign up here to join the Boston event on April 9 or the Springfield event on April 11.

April 11-12: Mass Alliance Grassroots Campaign Training - Quincy

Interested in potentially running for office someday, or just want to learn more about electoral campaigns and organizing? Register for Mass Alliance’s Grassroots Campaign Training to learn the tools and strategy necessary to run and win a community-rooted campaign. *Apply here by April 2*

Wednesday, April 15: Resilience and Resistance: Micro-Histories of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust

Essex North Shore Genocide Education teachers Justin Bilton and Jason Stark are proud to welcome the Genocide Education Project and Salem State University Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies to present a no-cost workshop focusing on individual narratives of victims and survivors of both the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Participants will learn content and strategies to use in both general social studies and genocide and human rights courses. More info & register here.

Thursday, April 16: Spring of Action - AFT MA Spring Town Hall!

Join fellow AFT MA members from across the state to recap our 2026 Convention, celebrate and learn from locals’ recent wins, share updates on budget and legislative fights, dive deep on school safety, and get ready for an action-packed spring. Our virtual town halls are how we come together as a statewide union to share necessary updates and build power to protect your local, fight back, and show up for our communities. Sign up & tune in April 16!

Wednesday, April 22: Spring of Action - AFT MA Lobby Day 2026!

Join fellow AFT Massachusetts members from across the Commonwealth for our second annual Lobby Day! It’s a great way to come together and speak directly with elected officials and staff about our priorities for the Fiscal Year 2027 budget and key legislation we’re advocating for. We’ll connect with legislators and their staff to share our experience and expertise—you’ll be trained and supported throughout the day! Breakfast and lunch will be provided. This event is family friendly! Bring your kids along to visit legislators, or utilize the provided childcare. RSVP today to make your voice heard!

Friday, May 1: Spring of Action - MAY DAY 2026!

May Day is a national day of action for the labor movement, and we’ve got some great actions in the works. Sign up here to be the first to hear how you can take action to defend our unions, our labor rights, and our immigrant workers and neighbors!

May 1 & 2: 2026 Para/PSRP Conference & Social

Join Boston Teachers Union and AFT Massachusetts for the 40th Annual Paraprofessional/PSRP Statewide Conference at the Boston Teachers Union this May. This year's conference is centered around “40 years of Para/PSRP Solidarity”. Friday, May 1, will start with a night of bowling, followed by the conference itself on Saturday, May 2, at BTU. The deadline to register is April 17—register today to join!

Sunday, May 3: 2026 Step Up for Colleen 5K

The friends and family of Colleen Ritzer created this 5K Walk/Run to celebrate Colleen’s life and her commitment to helping and inspiring others. The net proceeds benefit the Colleen E. Ritzer Memorial Fund, Inc. which supports charitable activities honoring Colleen’s legacy, including the Colleen E. Ritzer Memorial Scholarship. The Scholarship was established by Colleen’s family to benefit graduating high school seniors, who are Andover and Danvers residents, who demonstrate a passion for teaching, academic excellence and love of family and who will pursue a degree in education. Sign up to join the AFT Massachusetts team today!

Saturday, May 9: K-12 Climate Action and Education Conference

Join MIT CATE (Climate Action Through Education) on May 9 for workshops, speakers, and panels focused on climate curriculum implementation, youth activism, policy, and tools for action at school and beyond. Workshops will engage with multidisciplinary curriculum resources, the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator, educator and student perspectives, and a conversation with climate experts. Network with educator peers, students, and community organizations to think about making a difference in your school and community. This event is open to K-12 educators of all disciplines, administrators, and high school students. Find more info here & register to join!

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