Working Mass

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OUT NOW: Harvard students are in their reading period in advance of finals as Harvard’s graduate union representing wor...
05/07/2026

OUT NOW: Harvard students are in their reading period in advance of finals as Harvard’s graduate union representing workers in around sixty programs surge to the end of their third week on a historic strike at the world’s richest university. Seeking to continue escalating pressure following a 79% turn out with 96% of its membership in favor of militant strike action for the union’s demands in April, workers have escalated to withholding teaching and research, disrupting end of semester activities, and slowing operations.

The Harvard Graduate Student Union (HGSU) – UAW Local 5118 strikes as other unions on campus have so far chosen other strategic routes in negotiations, despite the potential for contract alignment, but anger over workplaces issues in campus rank-and-file movements is increasing across campus and its surrounding communities. The university focused entirely on attacks from above increasingly faces dissent from below.

And since workers make Harvard run, ultimately, the workers’ threat demands the university’s attention.

05/07/2026

A grassroots, militant hub of labor organizing is emerging in a place many might not expect: deindustrialized, largely rural, higher-ed-heavy Western Massachusetts.

Organizers there hope their efforts are helping reorient the political direction of the U.S. labor movement.

This organizing did not start on May Day. But on International Workers’ Day, workers and organizers in Holyoke held what they described as their largest May Day action yet, in a show of insurgent, bottom-up union-socialist collaboration.

The .alf has moved beyond traditional bread-and-butter unionism: launching political education programs, building deeper ties with rank-and-file workers, supporting new organizing in collaboration with and , and taking public positions on international issues that many U.S. labor bodies have avoided.

In November 2023, the federation voted unanimously to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, breaking a gag order imposed by the national AFL-CIO on the issue. In 2024, it went further, backing a call for an arms embargo. And this year, the federation condemned the war with Iran and what it described as the kidnapping of Venezuela’s head of state.

In this piece by and of , workers and organizers from Western Mass reflect on the progress they’ve made, the meaning of May Day, and what it could look like for labor to connect local struggle with international solidarity.

OUT NOW: Somerville and its new mayor face a test from organized labor as the city’s executive sits across from a burgeo...
05/05/2026

OUT NOW: Somerville and its new mayor face a test from organized labor as the city’s executive sits across from a burgeoning municipal workers’ union: with , whose members are joining a union representing 45,000 state, county, and municipal workers across New England.

The new city workers’ union, which seeks to represent around 220 non-union workers in the city including both the bulk of the city’s administrative staff and positions of lowest compensation, hovers near the 50% threshold of cards needed to formally request voluntary recognition from the mayor. 

The union crosses the threshold after taking the unusual organizing decision to announce their intent to unionize to the public before reaching a 50% majority — which led only to more support, both externally and internally.

Compensation and rising austerity in the city government were common themes in conversations between city workers and Working Mass. 

Read the whole article at working-mass.com.

Working Mass's spring Issue 8: DSA at 100K is out and in subscribers' mailboxes, newly glossed and embossed, featuring t...
05/04/2026

Working Mass's spring Issue 8: DSA at 100K is out and in subscribers' mailboxes, newly glossed and embossed, featuring the unionization of the first brewery in the state, carpenters fighting bad developers, and the testimonies of individual leaders and rank-and-file workers about their personal stories of how they came into organization.

To subscribe and receive your own magazine copy of labor and working class news, or read Issue 8, visit our website at working-mass.com.

05/02/2026

Working Mass is sharing this preview clip from footage gathered in Minneapolis this winter by Carlos Broun.

The clip features a local activist reflecting on community mobilization against ICE and federal repression, the organizing behind that response, and the significance of May Day.

We appreciate everyone who contributed when this project was first announced.

are on STRIKE with pickets across the city, including multiple locations on Harvard's main campus and Longwood! How wi...
04/23/2026

are on STRIKE with pickets across the city, including multiple locations on Harvard's main campus and Longwood! How will Harvard respond after disrespecting the union's demands with one refusal after another now that workers have upped the pressure?

WORCESTER - In late March, Mass Nurses Association organized five tickets of hospital campuses to raise attention for th...
04/16/2026

WORCESTER - In late March, Mass Nurses Association organized five tickets of hospital campuses to raise attention for the ongoing contract fight for workers' dignity - both wages, and adequate time with patients, as nurses have been saddled with immense workloads increasing turnover.

Even as UMass continues to justify massive expenses at the top, they continue to offer 1% wage increases a year to some workers. Meanwhile, the cost of living goes up higher and the price of electricity has climbed 30% since nurses ratified their last contract in 2022.

And the CEO of UMass Memorial Health owns 9 horses and a 35-acre ranch in Princeton, MA.

Read workers' own testimonies and interviews with nurses at working-mass.com.

BREAKING: Workers at the Hyatt Regency Boston/Cambridge announced their intent to unionize with UNITE HERE Local 26, a u...
04/05/2026

BREAKING: Workers at the Hyatt Regency Boston/Cambridge announced their intent to unionize with UNITE HERE Local 26, a union or 14,000 strong in the hospitality industries of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, from hotels to restaurants and dining halls.

They invoked the Hyatt 100, Boston housekeepers fired by Hyatt in 2009 that eventually organized to win a settlement of over $1 million from the company in 2014.

Many rank-and-file workers cited low pay, and the subsequent impossible choices they race to juggle lives and families and jobs, as reasons why they decided to take on KSL Capital Partners directly. The hotel is owned by the international leisure and travel private equity firm.

At 's Trans Day of Visibility rally, the candidate spoke to their own lived experience and reasons for running for State...
04/02/2026

At 's Trans Day of Visibility rally, the candidate spoke to their own lived experience and reasons for running for State Rep. Just last year, Mass Dem leadership in the House folded on anti-trans amendments even as trans people face multiple crises, from homelessness to the cutting off of gender-affirming care and essential services and targeting by government.

Trustee Siobhan M emphatically pointed out that Evan has never wavered on q***r and trans rights, and that they understand as the former president of that trans liberation cannot be won through legislation alone.

While Sean O'Brien's role as a right-wing labor leader is increasingly well-known, there are other figures driving a new...
03/31/2026

While Sean O'Brien's role as a right-wing labor leader is increasingly well-known, there are other figures driving a new 'pro-worker' ideology.

Read more at working-mass.com.

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