The end of May means summer is just around the corner! But our collective work has not slowed down in the slightest. Locals across the state have been at the table winning key benefits, with several locals reaching tentative agreements this month. Stay tuned for updates on newly ratified contracts in our June newsletter! From bargaining strong contracts, building strong school-site union structures and taking our movement to the streets or voting booths leading up to November—we must be ready to take action. To that end, we’re excited to announce this year’s Summer Organizing Institute will be held at the Boston Teachers Union on Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30! Make sure to reserve your spot today. We’ll have tracks specifically geared toward developing skills in contract bargaining, mobilizing, serving as a building rep, and more! An agenda for this two-day program can be found here. We are also in the final months of the two-year Legislative Session on Beacon Hill. This means, we’re not only fighting hard for key budget funding and timely legislation, but we’re also working hard to get some of our priorities over the finish line: A Fair Fix for R+: We are thrilled to announce that, after years of collective advocacy and organizing, legislation to fix Retirement Plus is, seemingly, on a path to victory! Last Thursday, Senators Liz Miranda and Will Brownsberger announced from the Senate floor that we can expect the Senate bring R+ up for a vote in the next two weeks. This is a HUGE development, and a result of the incredible grassroots organizing and leadership of AFT MA and BTU members. Please see the FAQ from the R+ Committee to get a summary of developments from last week. Stay tuned!
FY27 Budget: We know communities across the Commonwealth are facing a fiscal crisis—with our districts struggling to move forward after losing millions in federal funding. At the state level, we are working hard to ensure we get the strongest version of the FY27 budget over the finish line—with the investments in our public schools, universities, and libraries we need. Key priorities include: a mitigation fund to help stabilize districts dealing with ICE-related enrollment disruptions; making sure we get the highest levels of funding for critical line-items including charter school reimbursements, special education circuit breaker, Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA), behavioral health services for our students, and more.
PROTECT Act: We’ve been working hard to support critical legislation to safeguard our communities from ICE overreach. It is currently in conference committee, where leaders are reconciling the differences between the versions passed by the House and the Senate. There are critical components that we’re advocating for from each version—especially the protections to our public schools included in the Senate version.
AFT MA Priority Legislation: Even with budget season underway, we remain steadfast in our commitment to getting some of our endorsed bills signed into law this session. Some of these priorities—including addressing the way we fund public school infrastructure and a thorough review of the way we fund public education—have been included as components to the budget, which we are working to see through the Conference Committee Process.
On the advocacy front, it’s been a busy month of fighting for union rights at the local, state, and federal level and working to protect our immigrant families. This month began with May Day—which brought thousands of people to the Boston Common, plus events across the state. It was a day of solidarity where we used our power to uplift the voices of the workers and immigrants who make our nation great and whose fights for basic workplace protections make our world and lives better every day. It was a reminder that so many of what we take for granted today, was hard fought by union members, including immigrant workers. Many of you have been following the work of the Lynn Teachers Union and other allies to protect a local beloved paraprofessional and mother being targeted by ICE for deportation. After a press conference and a Mother’s Day vigil in support of Mariola, we were relieved that she was granted a stay from deportation at her latest meeting with ICE. This process is far from over. You can learn more here. For those wishing to support Mariola, please consider donating to the fundraiser started by one of her fellow union members. To donate, head to tinyurl.com/SupportMariola. Be sure to use the code “MARIOLA” when donating! The AFT MA Committee on Political Education is hard at work interviewing candidates for office and reviewing requests for endorsement. Stay tuned as we will have news in the coming weeks and months about which candidates we are ready to throw our support behind during this critical election season. We are also working hard on a number of ballot initiatives this year—in support of some and in opposition to others. We’ve put together a handy fact-sheet to cover key anticipated ballot questions and provide you with more information. On the national side, we were proud to join AFT President Randi Weingarten yesterday for a landmark address on public education in the AI era. President Weingarten unveiled a 10-point action plan focused on active learning, literacy, and civic engagement. Check out the full 10-point plan here! On the higher education front, the Federal Government is escalating efforts to strip colleges of Title IV student aid—including Pell Grants, work-study, and federal loans—by threatening to take these federal dollars away if institutions do not comply with ideological demands. Losing these crucial federal dollars, even for a semester, could push millions of students out of school and increase student debt. Add your name to the emergency campaign to support higher education! Come to the Summer Organizing Institute to learn more about how we can support our higher education community, too! Finally, we understand that we must continue to take a hard look at standing up for our democracy and rights at the national level, particularly when our union siblings in southern states like Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama have been faced with gerrymandering, canceled elections, voter role purges and other efforts to disenfranchise voters. AFT MA and the Boston Teachers Union were proud to join AFT President Randi Weingarten and other leaders and allies from across the country earlier this month in Montgomery, Alabama to rally and publicly declare our collective commitment to the full promise of voting rights and multiracial democracy in America. We made a short video on the ground in Birmingham about why solidarity with the south matters. Just as we are working to pass laws that will help our members with everything from school funding, health care, staff pay and retirement, union members and people everywhere—including the South—deserve to have their votes counted and representation that reflects who they are and the issues that impact their lives the most. This work will never stop, and we are proud to have you fighting alongside us and are honored to be able to represent you and support you in your own advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels! |
Take Action: Upcoming Events: |
Special Edition: It’s Ballot Question Time! |
It’s looking likely that we’ll have a significant number of questions on the ballot this year. “What’s a ballot question,” you ask? It’s our state’s system to enable voters to petition to put certain types of questions on election ballots for a statewide vote. Though the list of ballot questions is still being finalized, it’s critical that we begin educating ourselves on the issues now in order to ensure that our union is ready to mobilize for the ballot questions that would deeply impact our members and communities. That’s why the AFT Massachusetts Executive Board has evaluated and voted to endorse—or oppose—six ballot questions already. Stay tuned for more information diving in on each of these ballot questions, as well as our full list of endorsed candidates for this year! Until then, we hope you’ll take a moment to review this quick start guide to ballot questions below and learn more about the issues and our recommended positions here: - Protecting Massachusetts’ 2024-gun safety law: Vote YES!
- Stabilizing the rental market in Massachusetts (rent control): Vote YES!
- Establishing same-day voter registration: Vote YES!
- Lowering the MA Income Tax from 5% to 4%: Vote NO!
- “Top 2” or “Jungle Primary” election system: Vote NO!
- Force MA to return surtax during times of high inflation and unemployment: Vote NO!
Learn more about AFT Massachusetts’ endorsed positions on upcoming ballot questions and why these issues are so important for our union with our quick-start ballot question guide! |
Hands Off Financial Aid The Federal Government is escalating efforts to strip colleges of Title IV student aid—including Pell Grants, work-study, and federal loans—by threatening to take these federal dollars away if institutions do not comply with ideological demands. Losing these crucial federal dollars, even for a semester, could push millions of students out of school and increase student debt. Add your name to the emergency campaign to support higher education! 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 rolled out an email list 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! AMES Survey The Annual Massachusetts Educator Survey (AMES), developed in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Center for Education Policy and the UMass Poll, is an opportunity to share your insights and opinions about the teaching profession, the state of education in the commonwealth, and your views about how to create stronger classrooms and schools. In the coming weeks, the UMass team will be contacting a representative sample of teachers (approximately 1200 total). If you are selected, we hope you will participate! Those selected will be compensated with a $25 gift card. The survey is confidential. Glisten’s National School Climate Survey Glisten, a national organization dedicated to creating safe and respectful learning environments for youth of all sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, race and abilities, is currently seeking responses to it’s annual national survey about LGBTQIA2S+ students’ experiences in school. Please share the survey with eligible students (13+, attended grades K-12 in the U.S. during the 2025–26 school year)! Toolkit + links available here. Tell Legislators: Support Teaching Climate Literacy in Schools! AFT Massachusetts and Boston Teachers Union are part of a coalition working to pass An Act implementing elementary and secondary interdisciplinary climate literacy education (H.560 | S.391), which would ensure that schools across the Commonwealth can expand climate education opportunities for students. Please take a moment to email your legislators through this quick-click tool from our coalition partners at Mass Audubon to help move this legislation forward! 3-Question Survey An Act relative to retirement equity for parenting teachers (S.1921), would allow educators who reduced their work from full-time to part-time for a period to care for children or family members to buy back up to five years toward their retirement. An independent coalition of educators working to support the passage of S.1921 are seeking responses to a short survey aimed at determining how many individuals would benefit from S.1921 as currently written. If you are an educator who reduced from full- to part-time during your career in order to care for children or family, please take two minutes to complete this survey! |
AFT Massachusetts in the News |
June 1 & June 9: 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 in Lynn on June 1 or Chelsea on June 9! Want to bring this resource to your local? Talk to your local President today! June 1-7: Seven Days in June Seven Days in June is a decentralized, nonpartisan, grassroots-driven campaign to focus on how healthcare funding cuts will devastate local communities. From June 1 to 7, local advocates across the country are hosting town halls, demonstrations, rallies, and more to demand that elected representatives clearly articulate how they will improve healthcare affordability, build health infrastructure, and more. Find your local event here! Saturday, June 6: Boston Pride for the People w/ BTU & AFT MA Boston’s Pride for the People is coming up next Saturday, June 6! Pride for the People’s mission is to empower, celebrate, commemorate, and educate. Boston pride is always one of the most fun days of the year—so don’t miss out! March with Boston Teachers Union and AFT Massachusetts for our students, for our communities, and for each other. RSVP today to join! June 26-28: WILD 40th Annual Summer Institute Join 100+ workers from unions, worker centers, immigrant communities, and allied organizations for a three-day weekend intensive of labor workshops, community-building, and solidarity! Workshops will be held concurrently in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. Register here today! June 29 & 30: AFT MA & BTU Summer Organizing Institute Summer Organizing Institute (SOI) is our union’s deep organizing space to build the skills we need to win for our members, students and families in the classroom and beyond. From bargaining strong contracts, building strong school-site union structures and taking our movement to the streets in this critical time—we must be ready. Join us for SOI 2026 at the Boston Teachers Union! Whether you are a brand new building rep or an activist learning the basic building blocks of organizing or a seasoned union leader looking to bargaining your strongest contract ever, these two days are for you. If you’d like to build the cross-labor and community power to win elections and fight back attacks in our communities—this Institute is for you! Please find our two day agenda here and register today to join! Saturday, July 18: Medicare for All Massachusetts—Mass-Care Strategy and Working Conference Join Mass-Care for their state-wide strategy and working conference on July 18 in Worcester! The health care crisis in Massachusetts continues to deepen. Exorbitant insurance rates have soared by double digits, the bankruptcy of Steward Hospitals has left minority and working class communities without access to hospitals, stopping the ACA subsidy extensions has affected over 300,000 residents, and that’s not even everything. Learn more about the path to single payer through the Massachusetts Health Care Trust at this year’s conference! More info & RSVP here. |
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| | Jessica Tang, President
Brant Duncan, Secretary-Treasurer | www.aftma.net | 33 Harrison Avenue, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02111 |
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