[Antiracism] [Workers' Rights] Upcoming Events 3/20-25

[WMass Jobs With Justice]

Thursday March 20
     SUPPORT M S P C C WORKERS! 
     4-5:30pm, MSPCC, 230 Maple Street, Holyoke. Rally with mental health
workers - SEIU Local 509 members - employed by the Massachusetts Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC) in Springfield, Holyoke,
Greenfield, and Pittsfield. The concerns of the employees are:
     There has been a severe loss of commitment by MSPCC to fulfill its
mission to help troubled low-income children and their families throughout
our communities. In the last three years, MSPCC has closed their Chicopee
and Athol offices, and they are increasingly delaying, reducing, or denying
services in order to please insurance companies and DMH. In the last three
years, they have also shrunk the staff of mental health specialists by one
third (from 300 to 200) and clinical therapists by 40%. 
     You can't deliver services if you are closing offices, denying
services, and shrinking the staff.
     And now MSPCC also wants to freeze wages PERMANENTLY for current
salaried clinicians and only hire new clinicians on a "fee-for-service"
basis, meaning they will have no paid time off and will be paid neither for
any hours when the client doesn't show up, nor any time doing the necessary
clinical paperwork, phone calls, etc. This is another way to drive out the
staff while saving money for management's wages and benefits, which are
excellent.
     Any support would be greatly appreciated! Info: Brian Wilder,
617-584-7755, mailto:bwilder at 509seiu.com.

Thursday March 20
     BUILDING WORKERS' POWER! JOBS WITH JUSTICE ANNUAL DINNER
     6-8pm, Suffolk Downs, Route 1A, East Boston
(www.suffolkdowns.com/about/directions.html). $40. Help Massachusetts Jobs
with Justice celebrate the past year of fighting for workers' rights and
look forward to a year of new beginnings and taking back our country.
Honoring ... 
     * Boston Hotel Workers Rising! For their historic victory for low wage
workers.
     * Verizon Business Workers in their struggle for a voice at work.
     * Quincy Teachers in their fight to protect the right to strike and
defend their health care.
     * The Fair Wage Campaign for their effort to protect immigrant workers
from predatory employers.
     * The John O'Connor Youth Activism Award to SLAM and the Harvard Hunger
Strikers for their solidarity with organizing by campus security guards.
     With a special tribute to Father Ed Boyle, our brother in the movement
for worker rights, founding Workers' Rights Board member, and a long time
friend to Jobs with Justice. Info: 617-524-8778, mailto:jwj at massjwj.net,
www.massjwj.net.

Friday March 21
     INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
     The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is
observed annually on March 21. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and
killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa,
against the apartheid "pass laws." Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the United
Nations General Assembly called on the international community to redouble
its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination (resolution 2142
(XXI)). Info: www.ohchr.org/EN/.

Saturday March 22
     WESTERN MASS SINGLE PAYER NETWORK
     9-11:30am, Lathrop Village Community Room, Shallow Brook Drive, off
Bridge Rd, Northampton. The Western Massachusetts Single Payer Network is a
nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of advocates committed to achieving a
universal single payer health care system. Organizational goals:
1) to increase visibility of universal single payer health care across
Western Massachusetts; 
2) to strengthen the universal single payer movement through increasing
numbers of people familiar with and committed to a single payer health care
system; 
3) to work in concert with eastern Massachusetts single payer groups, as
well as other groups throughout the country who share the single payer
mission. 
     Info: mailto:wmspn at wmjwj.org.

Tuesday March 25
     WMJwJ MAY DAY 2008 COMMITTEE
     3:30-5pm, Unitarian Society, 220 Main St, Northampton (584-1390,
http://www.uunorthampton.org/). Info: Jon, 827-0301, mailto:wmjwj at wmjwj.org.


Tuesday March 25 (Fourth Tuesday)
     HAMPSHIRE/FRANKLIN CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL
     7:30pm, Northampton Fire Station Community Room, 26 Carlon Drive at
King St/Route 5 (across Carlon Dr from Northampton Athletic Club),
Northampton (587-1148). Community and labor activist guests are welcome, but
RSVP to Pres. Fiore Grassetti, 877-725-0357, mailto:org7 at comcast.net. 


MORE EVENTS AT www.westernmassafsc.org/calendar/calendar.html. And please
post your events there by emailing Roger Conant,
mailto:conant at ecs.umass.edu, with Event for AFSC Calendar as the Subject,
with this information in the body of the email: Date and Time; Location;
Brief description of the event; How to get more information about the event.
Please help Roger keep the recurring events page accurate - see
www.westernmassafsc.org/calendar/calendar2.html#recurring. 

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You are subscribed to a Western Mass. Jobs with Justice listserve. They are:

[Workers' Rights] - The core mission of Jobs with Justice, affirming that
workers' rights are human rights. Opportunities for you to learn about and
show solidarity with workplace and working class struggles. And these events
are opportunities for JwJ members to fulfill their pledge: "I'll be there
for workers' rights at least five times a year!" 

[Health Care Action] - Events and information that support the large and
vibrant Western Mass. movement for health care justice. Nationwide, Jobs
with Justice (www.jwj.org) has prioritized Health Care as a basic human
right. 

[People's History] - Supporting work related to a people's history of
Western Mass.

[Solidarity Calendar] - Events of interest to the Coalition that don't show
up on other WMJwJ Listserves.

[WMJwJ] - Events and information that would be posted to all lists. 

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