Happy Labor Day
Giving thanks to the many workers who power our city & the generations of labor activists whose leadership paved the way for so many of the protections and benefits we now enjoy
Every year, Labor Day in Boston begins bright and early with the Greater Boston Labor Council’s annual breakfast at the Park Plaza Hotel—where workers and community members gather to celebrate, reflect, and organize.
The event brings hundreds of local leaders together in a huge ballroom over waffles, eggs, and sausage, and last year even Vice President Kamala Harris joined us to share some remarks.
As always, today was an inspiring morning marking local organizing wins and the work ahead across labor unions from every sector of Boston’s economy and community.
I also shared some exciting news for the City of Boston: last night, we reached a tentative bargaining agreement with Boston Firefighters Local 718, pending ratification by the larger membership.
To be the best city for workers and working families, city government must start by being the best place to work for our own employees. That ethos has driven our decisions and innovations within City Hall—creating a dedicated People Operations Cabinet to give our workforce the attention it deserves, revising our parental leave policy to be more inclusive and expansive, piloting the City’s first-ever visa sponsorship program to support and retain workers who are seeking continued work authorization, and supporting more commuting options by subsidizing public transit passes and bike share memberships for City workers. But we know all that doesn’t mean much if our workers don’t get paid what they’re supposed to get paid.
When our administration started, every single one of the 48 bargaining units representing nearly 23,000 municipal workers had been working on expired contracts, some for multiple years. It was an unprecedented situation (typically the contracts are staggered three-year agreements with some coming up for renegotiation each year, but never before had all of them lapsed at once), which meant that many of our city workers had been working on the frontlines of the pandemic without any cost of living increases or improvements to working conditions that they deserved. My first commitment was to work as quickly as possible on settling all contracts for those who serve our city. As we reached agreements on important adjustments to compensation, working conditions, and operational reforms, we’ve also been able to accelerate hiring to fill critical vacancies. And with this tentative agreement with our firefighters, we’ll be at 90% of our municipal workforce under contract.
I also shared some of the work that our new Cabinet of Worker Empowerment has undertaken over the last year: broadening coverage of the City’s Jobs, Living Wage, and Prevailing Wage Ordinance; partnering with worker centers to launch “Know Your Rights” trainings in multiple languages; and passing and now implementing Boston’s new Construction Safety Ordinance to ensure that all 45,000 projects that Boston’s Inspectional Services Department issues permits for each year will have a project-specific site safety plan, trainings, and resources to ensure workers go home safe and healthy from job sites.
Next up, our Worker Empowerment team will be working alongside unions and advocates, immigrant rights groups, legal aid groups, and state and federal agencies over the next few months to put forward a Wage Theft Ordinance.
Happy Labor Day!
Thank you, Mayor Wu. Negotiations like these are hard, but it's how real governing works. I hope it gets ratified. I talked with an MBTA bus driver tonight on his break about how hard his job is, and the new MBTA contract with which he finally feels his work is appreciated . I know this isn't a city responsibility, but as a Boston resident, it's important to know that ALL the people we depend on feel they are treated fairly for their work.
You should read Shadow Bosses by Mallory Factor. A devastating takedown of the concept of public employee unions. When Dem politicians are in charge, they simply give it all away to the unions, the unions in turn push their members to vote for Dems and no one protects the taxpayer.