Posts tagged Boston
Editorial Board: Unions held Massachusetts schools hostage. Now the bill has come due.
June 3, 2026 // Sometimes even an override isn’t enough. In Brookline, which had a one-day teacher strike in 2022 that ended with a pay raise, voters overwhelmingly approved a tax increase last month that will bring in an extra $23 million, including $18 million for the schools. The vote helped stave off hundreds of teacher layoffs and cuts to the fire department. Even still, the district will still be forced to cut some school jobs. “Not only did these unlawful strikes add to the already historic student learning loss after the pandemic,” said Jim Stergios, the executive director of the Pioneer Institute, “but over the long term jeopardized the jobs of rank-and-file teachers and local municipal budgets.”
Boston Mayor Withdraws From Harvard Law Commencement Amid Grad Student Strike
May 28, 2026 // Boston mayor Michelle Wu withdrew from speaking at a Harvard Law School commencement event Wednesday after learning that striking graduate student workers had plans to picket the event. Wu, who graduated from Harvard Law in 2012, was scheduled to speak at the law school’s Class Day, held the day before commencement. According to a Harvard Law spokesperson, the Harvard Graduate Student Union reached out to Wu to discourage her from participating in the event.
N.Y.C. Hotel Housekeepers Will Earn Over $100,000 Under New Contract
May 19, 2026 // “They’re going to try to offset that by raising rates,” he said. But how successful they would be is unclear, given that New York City already has the highest average room rates of any big city in the United States, at about $335 a night, Mr. Pequeno said. In the past year, New York hotels have also had the nation’s highest occupancy rate, at about 84 percent, he said. The agreement between the hotel workers and the industry comes about six weeks before the expiration of the current 14-year contract. For more than a year, union officials had been preparing for a strike in early July, just before the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States and the final of FIFA’s World Cup tournament at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Public defenders bring fight for unionization to Beacon Hill
March 18, 2026 // On Monday, those state workers pleaded their case for the right to unionize and advocate for higher pay. Workers at the organization that oversees the state public defender system, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, have been discussing unionization for years and took their concerns to the state lawmakers.
Union sues Trump admin. alleging workers lost jobs because they are immigrants
March 17, 2026 // The workers claim they lost their jobs because they are immigrants. Advertisement All four worked as cabin cleaners and had what were called "Customs access seals." These seals allowed individuals, such as airport workers, to enter U.S. Customs and Border Protection security areas within the airport.
Seamark at Encore Boston to close, less than a month after workers unionize
March 12, 2026 // Seamark Seafood & Cocktails, the ritzy seafood restaurant inside the Encore Boston Harbor casino and hotel, is closing, laying off 56 workers who voted to unionize less than a month ago. The eatery from Carver Road Hospitality is shutting down for good on March 29, nearly two years after it opened. Its reason for closing, according to is because of “economic challenges.”
Commentary: In the Glass Hive of Art News: Dark Clouds at the Met, Boston’s MFA
February 5, 2026 // Two weeks ago, unions grabbed the pot of gold at the end of the phony-baloney rainbow when the Metropolitan Museum of Art staff voted 542–172 to join the United Auto Workers. Counterintuitive, I know, but the UAW has a portfolio of bargaining units that includes boutique left-wing, white-collar culture workers such as the curators, conservators, librarians, archivists, designers, marketeers, visitor-services coordinators, and fundraisers at the Met. Along with bread-and-butter issues, these workers can be mobilized to wail over false values like open borders, which suppress working-class wages, the climate change hoax, Black Lives Matter, Celebrate Your Abortion, Me Too, No Kings, From the River to the Sea, any or all while wearing “pussy hats,” which, ladies and real wannabe ladies, don’t flatter. So, a juicy, fresh plum is now added to the UAW stash.
MFA Boston will lay off 33 employees amid rising deficit and restructuring
February 2, 2026 // Unionised workers at the MFA fought to secure their first contract in 2022, following nearly two years of bargaining and a one-day strike. “In order to address a growing structural deficit and better serve our audiences, we are moving forward with a comprehensive plan to realign our organisation and create a sustainable business model,” a spokesperson for the MFA told The Art Newspaper in a statement. “Unfortunately, this plan includes the painful but necessary step of implementing a workforce reduction that calls for the elimination of 6.3% of total active employees. Leadership came to this decision only after careful consideration and extensive analysis.”
Workers at Some of the World’s Largest Museums Are Demanding Fairer Pay
December 2, 2025 // The potential new union chapter at the Met is with the Technical, Office, and Professional Union, Local 2110, part of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union. The museum does have union chapters for projectionists and audio/visual technicians with Local 306 IATSE, and for about 700 security guards with Local 1503, part of DC 37, and there has previously been an attempt to establish a wall-to-wall union bringing all staff together in one chapter.
Unions sue over Trump administration’s political ‘loyalty’ hiring plan
November 7, 2025 // Unions representing federal workers filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to include what they said is a partisan "loyalty question" in more than 1,700 job posts since October's start.