Thirty-six years ago this week, as I was entering 6th grade, my friend and I spotted the branded truck on a side street in Roslindale. I pedaled my BMX furiously down the hill to the replacement worker who had already started climbing the telephone pole. I began my verbal barrage, of what I will call “picket line poetry”, that I had learned while walking the line with my Dad and his buddies outside of a warehouse just a few days before. We stayed, and he was stuck, until the cops showed up and asked us nicely to let him down. Victory!
Eleven years old, on a bike, with a high-pitched voice, a “colorful” vocabulary, and a chip on my shoulder, I know I did nothing to settle a strike that late Summer day, one that was fought over healthcare benefits and lasted for 17 weeks, but the pride I felt in throwing a figurative “punch” in that fight was pivotal in my own life.
Eleven years later, as I began my own career at the same company, I signed a card with my beloved IBEW and walked down a path that led me to a 20-year career, a blessed life, and an opportunity to serve, as a union steward, labor activist, and now as a State Senator. Opportunities I had, not because of me, but those who came before me. One, fleeting, coming-of-age MOMENT in a larger MOVEMENT based in struggle that continues today.
Right now:
- Teamster waste and recycling workers in Eastern Massachusetts are walking the line 24/7 while their employer refuses to negotiate in good faith.
- UNITE HERE concession workers continue to mobilize and build solidarity for a fair contract at Fenway Park.
- Across the Commonwealth, workers are facing a new threat in the expansion of job-killing technologies backed by billionaires hell-bent on increasing profits at the expense of working people.
The list goes on and on. These workers join an unbroken line of working-class heroes who sacrifice for something far greater than themselves to build the American middle class.
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