Legislators Should Support Labor at the State House Too.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Chair Collins, Chair Cabral, and Members of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group with chapters across the state committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give H.3069/S.2014: An Act relative to collective bargaining rights for legislative employees.

This bill would give State House employees the right to organize a union for the purpose of negotiating their wages, benefits, and working conditions—a right held by almost all other workers in the commonwealth.

State House staffers do so much work to keep the Legislature running. They are the reason that today’s hearing will go smoothly. They will be the ones collating submitted testimony for you to read later and taking notes for your colleagues who could not attend. They are case workers, responding to countless constituent services requests and directing people to the right agencies to address their problems. They are schedulers, policy analysts, strategy partners, networkers, meeting-attenders, and so much more.

Despite all these things that they are, one thing that they are not is adequately compensated.

When State House staff are not provided fair wages, safe and healthy work conditions, or a seat at the table, we lose talent and limit who can even consider entering public service in the first place. When we don’t have all of the diverse voices of the Commonwealth at the table, we miss vital perspectives in crafting policy.

We are very appreciative of all the recent pro-labor reforms that this Legislature has passed over the past few years and your commitment in your own districts to show solidarity with workers fighting for better pay, better benefits, and a better voice at the workplace. We ask you to show that same solidarity here and support the rights of your staff.

Thank you again for your time and for holding this hearing, and we again ask for a swift favorable report for H.3069 and S.2014.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

NEXT WEEK: Show Your Support for Public Higher Ed, State House Employee Union

With the summer over, the Legislature is getting back into the swing of things, with a number of hearings coming up soon. Here are two key ones next week — and what you can do to help.

Monday, 9/18: Hearing on the Cherish Act

On Monday, at 10 AM in Gardner Auditorium at the State House, the Joint Committee on Higher Education will be holding a hearing on the Cherish Act.

Our public colleges and universities are essential vehicles for economic mobility and economic stability. However, our state has been underinvesting from public higher education for the last two decades. When the state reduces funding to public colleges and universities, the result is higher tuition and fees, and a growing debt burden faced by students and families.

The Cherish Act (S.816; H.1260) is a comprehensive response to the problems facing public higher ed today and charts a vision for what a higher education system for all would look like. The bill has four key parts:

  1. Debt-Free Public Higher Education
  2. Increased Student Supports
  3. Recruitment and Retention of High-Quality Faculty and Staff
  4. Green, Healthy, and Safe Campus Facilities
Higher Ed for All

Click here to RSVP for Monday’s hearing.

Click here to register to take a free bus to/from the hearing.

Click here to submit written testimony.

Click here to sign up for a virtual written testimony workshop.

Click here to urge your legislators to attend the Cherish Act Hearing.

Click here to learn more about the Higher Ed for All Coalition!

Wednesday, 9/20: Show Your Support for the State House Staff

Last year, State Senate staffers announced that a majority of their colleagues had signed union authorization cards in March of 2022. They requested voluntary recognition from our Senate President, and after delaying for three months, she refused to recognize the union.

Since then, the Senate has maintained a card majority despite major turnover, and organizers are over 2/3 of the way to a majority in the MA House. In order to unionize, however, they need to change state law on public sector unionization.

H.3069/S.2014, An Act relative to collective bargaining rights for legislative employees, will get a hybrid public hearing in front of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight on September 20th at 1pm. These bills would extend to State House staff the same right to unionize, if they choose, that almost all workers in the Commonwealth already enjoy.

  1. Read and sign onto written testimony from MSHEU requesting the SARO Committee support the bills. Please sign the letter from organizations/unions/supportive individuals.
  2. Register to testify in person, or virtually, at the hearing on Sept 20th. You can fill out the linked form by 5:00 PM on Monday, September 18th to register.
  3. Email your state legislators to ask them to co-sponsor H.3069 and S.2014.

It’s Time to Raise the Minimum Wage Again

Labor unions have always been a driving force behind every minimum wage increase in Massachusetts and across the US. Let’s continue to honor Labor Day by acknowledging recent gains and continuing the fight for fair wages.

We’ve been proud to fight alongside labor for a fair and just economy in coalitions like Raise Up Massachusetts, and we’ve had some big victories, such as winning a $15 minimum wage and paid family and medical leave.

From 2013 to 2018, RUM worked to bring the statewide minimum wage closer to a minimum wage, and given the stagnation of the federal minimum wage, that $15 is something to be proud of. But it’s still not a living wage.

And given the rising costs of health care, housing, child care, and basic goods, it doesn’t stretch as far as it did in June of 2018.

That’s why it’s time to raise the minimum wage again.

New legislation, filed earlier this year by Sen. Jason Lewis and Reps. Tram Nguyen and Dan Donahue would raise the minimum wage to $20 and index it to inflation so that it doesn’t lose value over time.

Can you write to your state legislators in support of raising the minimum wage?

Legislate Every Day Like It’s May Day

Happy May Day! May 1st marks International Workers’ Day, a day commemorating the struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement.

Labor organizing in the US was behind the achievement of the weekend, of workplace safety laws, of the minimum wage, of the social safety net, of paid leave, and of so much more and has been crucial to any campaign for a fairer economy and a more robust political democracy.

And the fight continues.

Here are just a few things the Massachusetts Legislature could do this session to strengthen workers’ rights:

  • Raising the minimum wage to $20 per hour to bring it closer to a living wage, and then indexing it to inflation so that its value doesn’t erode over time
  • Strengthening enforcement of wage theft laws and holding companies accountable for wage theft committed by subcontractors
  • Extending collecting bargaining rights to State House staff
  • Requiring employers to publicly report their wage data, to provide information essential to measuring our progress toward racial and gender wage equity

Can you write to your state legislators today about the importance of such a pro-worker agenda this session?

Legislate every day like it's May Day

Gig Companies’ Lies…As Easy as A, B, C

uber Lyft

Dear Chair Feeney, Chair Murphy, and Members of the Joint Committee on Financial Services,

Thank you for holding today’s hearing. My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a Massachusetts that is more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.

Progressive Massachusetts is opposed to Big Tech’s anti-worker, anti-consumer Ballot Initiative (H.4375/H.4376), An Act defining and regulating the contract-based relationship between network companies and app-based drivers.

Massachusetts has very clear standards for determining independent contractor standards (the “ABC test”), and gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart have been in flagrant violation of them.

As a reminder, those three parts are (1) that the work is done without the direction and control of the employer, (2) that the work is performed outside the usual course of the employer’s business, and (3) that the work is done by someone who has their own, independent business or trade doing that kind of work. None of these apply to gig economy work. For example, there would be no Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, or Instacart without their drivers; the claim that their companies are merely an app is a clear fallacy intended to evade the law.

Knowing that they are in violation of the law, these companies want to change it, rather than adhere to it. They are planning to spend possibly hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that the law does not apply to them and that they, themselves, can rewrite it in order to bolster their own profits and power over workers.

These ballot questions would deny app-based gig workers a living wage, benefits, legal rights, and anti-discrimination protections. They also effectively take away consumers’ and the public’s right to take legal action against the companies in the event of an accident, and will disincentivize the companies from doing everything they can to ensure that riders are safe when they avail these services.

These companies spent over $200 million to pass a similar ballot question in California called Proposition 22 with devastating impacts for workers and communities.

The impact of these laws extends beyond just the gig economy sector itself. The ability to define away terms like “employee” and “independent contractor” sets a dangerous precedent, enabling companies across sectors to gut labor rights. Will we see restaurants claiming that the “restaurant” is only the physical building and physical infrastructure, relegating all employees to independent contractor status? Or hospitals claiming that the “hospital” is just the brick-and-mortar building, rather than the doctors, nurses, aides, and other health care workers that make it run? The list goes on.

That is not the future we want to live in, and we hope it is not one you want to live in either.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Progressive Massachusetts Statement of Support for Boston Starbucks Workers Organizing a Union with Workers’ United — SEIU

Progressive Massachusetts stands in solidarity with the Boston area Starbucks baristas who are joining together and standing up for their right as workers to form a union.

Our founding belief is that we all do better when we all do better. Labor unions serve as powerful embodiments of that ethos, providing workers with a greater voice and greater economic security through collective agency.

We call upon Starbucks management to accept their workers’ decision to unionize and to refrain from union-busting tactics that pressure workers to vote No. Starbucks has gained a reputation as a socially responsible company, and we ask management to live up to their professed ethos and treat workers asking for a union with respect and dignity, not coercion and retaliation.

Neponset Valley Progressives: Labor 22 Recap

By John Kyriakis, Neponset Valley Progressives

On January 25th, local Democratic town committees in Dedham, Norwood, Westwood, and Walpole joined to present “Labor 2022” an event designed to bring attention to the needs of our allies in the labor movement.

An inspiring keynote address from Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Steven Tolman was followed by a panel discussion between Dedham DTC Chair Mark Reilly and labor leaders Max German (AFL-CIO), Gabriel Camacho (UFCW), FayeRuth Fisher (SEIU), and Paul McClory (MTA). The panelists presented several key steps where progressives could take action.

1) Of key importance is the defeat of the so-called gig worker ballot initiative. This ballot question seeks to define Lyft, Uber, Instacart, and Door Dash employees as “contractors” rather than traditional employees. This would deny these low wage, front line workers OSHA protection and unemployment insurance. It would also authorize a sub-minimum wage for these workers, and would eliminate most anti-discrimination protections for workers. The initiative would also indemnify tech companies from litigation if the drivers are in an accident (for more information see here and here). The key components of this initiative are in violation of Massachusetts labor laws, and the initiative is already the subject of a lawsuit by Attorney General Maura Healey.  

The initiative has gained enough signatures to be turned over to the Legislature who have to either take no action, or enact a legislative “solution” that addresses the issues raised by the initiative. Of note, Lyft made the single largest campaign donation ($14.4 million) to the Massachusetts legislature in support of the imitative. If the legislature takes no action, then the well-heeled supporters must obtain an additional 13,374 petition signatures to put the initiative on the November ballot.

Please urge your state Reps and Senators to take no action on this egregious initiative. After that we must work to prevent the initiative from garnering the additional signatures it needs. If the measure ends up on the ballot, we must work to defeat it. Tell your friends and family that if this initiative fails, Uber, Lyft, etc. will still be there for them (albeit with unhappy rich shareholders). Also let them know that the crumbs being offered to workers as part of the initiative (a base wage, and a healthcare stipend) are not offered to all workers and are far from sufficient.  Counter corporate lies with truth

2) It is important that we keep up our efforts to enact the Fair Share Amendment.  Check out here to see how you can get involved.


3) Several bills pending in the statehouse also deserve our support.  These bills are due to be reported out of committee for floor votes (or killed) on February 2. Immediate action is needed.

  • S1179/H1959, An Act to Prevent Wage Theft and Promote Employer Accountability.  Contact your state Reps and Senators and urge support.
  • S69/H3710, An Act Facilitating the Unionization of the Cannabis Workforce.  Contact your local legislators and urge support. Also, contact Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Rep Daniel Donahue, committee chairs overseeing the movement of this bill to the floor and urge them to report this bill out of committee.

Everyone Deserves Dignity at the Workplace

Monday, June 21, 2021

Chairwoman Jehlen, Chairman Cutler, and members of the Joint Labor and Workforce Development Committee: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that fights for social and economic justice. 

Good-paying jobs with fair working conditions are a central part of our organization’s shared prosperity agenda. As such, Progressive Massachusetts would like to go on the record in support of S.1185/H.3843 (An Act relative to dignity at work), known as the Dignity At Work Act. 

Everyone deserves a safe and respectful workplace, and that means one that is free of inappropriate and harmful behaviors like bullying. 

Massachusetts labor law currently provides no protections against workplace bullying unless such bullying is targeted at an individual because of their race, sex, or other protected identity. This excludes far too many cases, and even when individuals sue because of identity-based harassment and discrimination, courts can choose to deny them redress out of a disagreement on the motivation for the mistreatment, not the existence of the mistreatment itself. 

Better training and model policies are good so far as they go, and that is not far. Accountability is what will change behavior. The Dignity At Work Act will offer that. 

Countries like Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, and Sweden–as well as various provinces in Canada–have enacted protections against workplace bullying. It’s time for Massachusetts to join them. 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts

Everyone Deserves a Safe and Respectful Workplace

The following testimony was submitted to the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development on June 25, 2019.

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Chairwoman Jehlen, Chairman Brodeur, and members of the Joint Labor and Workforce Development Committee: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that fights for social and economic justice. 

Good-paying jobs with fair working conditions are a central part of our organization’s shared prosperity agenda. As such, Progressive Massachusetts would like to go on the record in support of S.1072 (An Act addressing workplace bullying, mobbing and harassment), known as the Healthy Workplace Bill. 

Everyone deserves a safe and respectful workplace, and that means one that is free of inappropriate and harmful behaviors like bullying. 

Massachusetts labor law currently provides no protections against workplace bullying unless such bullying is targeted at an individual because of their race, sex, or other protected identity. This excludes far too many cases, and even when individuals sue because of identity-based harassment and discrimination, courts can choose to deny them redress out of a disagreement on the motivation for the mistreatment, not the existence of the mistreatment itself. 

Better training is good so far as it goes, and that is not far. Accountability is what will change behavior. The Healthy Workplace Act will offer that. 

Countries like Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, and Sweden–as well as various provinces in Canada–have enacted protections against workplace bullying. [1] It’s time for Massaachusetts to join them. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts 



[1] See Ellen Pinks Cobb, “Workplace Bullying Protections Differ Globally,” SHRM, June 24, 2014, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/global-hr/pages/workplace-bullying-protections-differ-globally.aspx.

One of the Wealthiest States and One of the Most Unequal

The following is testimony submitted to the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development on Tuesday, June 18, 2019.

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Chairwoman Jehlen, Chairman Brodeur, and members of the Joint Labor and Workforce Development Committee: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that fights for shared prosperity, racial and social justice, good government and strong democracy, and sustainable infrastructure and environmental protection. 

Central to our agenda of shared prosperity is good-paying jobs with fair working conditions. As such, Progressive Massachusetts would like to go on the record in support of H.1609/S.092 (An Act Updating Overtime Protections to Protect the Commonwealth’s Middle Class Workers) and H.1617/S.1082 (An Act Requiring One Fair Wage). 

The US remains the only country in the industrialized world without a limit to the number of work-hours per week. One partial solution to this has been to guarantee workers time and ½ pay for overtime work. If they are forced to work more hours, they should be duly compensated. 

However, this rule has only applied to wage workers, leaving out the many salaried workers in the service industry who often have to work overtime. 

The Obama Administration had sought to change this, crafting federal regulations to allow some salaried workers to get over time. But Republican attorney generals around the country are trying to block this pending regulation in the courts, and the Trump administration is fighting to roll it back. 

However, as with many issues, Massachusetts can and should lead. H.1609/S.1092 would do this by updating the salary threshold below which executive,administrative, and professional employees, such as low-level managers at retail stores and fast food chains, are guaranteed overtime pay when they work long hours. Moreover, it would align Massachusetts’s overtime law more closely to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, removing  exemptions, such as those for restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and non-profit colleges that leave out too many. 

H.1609/S.1092 would phase in the threshold for time and ½ overtime pay to kick in to $64,000 over several years, updating it each year thereafter to reflect wage growth and keep it in line with twice the minimum wage. According to MIT, $64,000 aligns with a living wage for families consisting of one parent and one child or two parents (one working full-time and one working part-time) and one child–a sensible standard. [1]

However, the lack of overtime pay is not the only problem facing workers in the service industry. The tiered wage system in the restaurant industry, by which workers are reliant on tips for a full wage, exacerbates gender and racial inequities and leaves too many workers struggling to get by. 

The tipped minimum wage in Massachusetts stands at a mere $4.35. In 2023, when the recently passed minimum wage increase takes full effect, it will stand at only $6.75. This is not a living wage. 

Although employers are supposed to guarantee that workers get the full minimum wage with tips, this has never been common practice, and wage theft is rampant in the industry. The tiered wage system allows this to happen. 

Moreover, sexual harassment remains widespread in the restaurant industry. [2] As our country is slowly but surely starting to grapple with the problem of sexual harassment and sexual assault across industries, we must face up to the fact that unequal wage systems create the breeding ground for such inappropriate and predatory behaviors. 

Massachusetts is both one of the wealthiest and one of the most unequal states in this country. Reporting out H.1609/S.092 (An Act Updating Overtime Protections to Protect the Commonwealth’s Middle Class Workers) and H.1617/S.1082 (An Act Requiring One Fair Wage) favorably will take us one step further in ensuring that our Commonwealth’s prosperity is shared by all. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts 


[1] http://livingwage.mit.edu/states/25

[2] http://rocunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/TakeUsOffTheMenu_Report_2.pdf