The 209 nurses at the Greenfield hospital voted October 15 to authorize a strike. That means their elected representatives in the union have the power to call a strike. The nurses went on strike last year (see photo, below).

About 85 workers at the food co-op in Northampton organized a union last year. Recently they signed their first union contract with the manager of the River Valley Market. That's according to John Cevasco, a long-time employee of the food co-op in nearby Greenfield and member of the same union that the Northampton co-op workers joined. The union has a web site: www.ufcw1459.com. The Valley Post will request interviews with workers at the Northampton store via the union, and will update this article if and when the interviews happen.

A coalition of labor, religious and community groups is seeking volunteers to gather signatures on petitions that would let Massachusetts voters decide whether the state’s minimum wage should stay the same or increase, and whether workers should have the right to miss work when they’re sick. The group, Raise Up Massachusetts, filed the two proposed ballot questions with Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office last month. It has the support of both the state’s U.S. senators. The group can be reached via www.MassUniting.org.

About 7,000 workers in Vermont will vote on whether to form a union. The so-called “homecare” workers take care of patients who are too sick or too elderly to take care of themselves. They work in the patients’ homes, rather than at nursing homes or other institutions. They are paid by the government. The workers will vote by mail between September 9 and 27.

The Northampton city council is refusing to approve a union contract for the city’s firefighters. The contract has the support of the mayor and a state mediator. The firefighters are asking the public to contact the city council and urge them to approve the contract. The public is invited to learn more at a rally on August 5 from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Florence Civic Center, 90 Park Street in Florence, Massachusetts. Details are at www.NorthamptonFirefighters.org.

Supporting a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $11 an hour, about 750 people packed a 10 a.m. public hearing at the Massachusetts statehouse on Tuesday, June 11. The vast majority of the people who spoke at the hearing supported the bill.

Among the bill's sponsors are representatives Peter Kocot of Northampton, Cheryl Coakley-Rivera and Benjamin Swan of Springfield, and Ellen Story of Amherst.

The bill is at:

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/188/House/H1701

Wal-Mart is owned by the richest family in the world, the billionaire Waltons. The Walton family pays workers at Wal-Mart factories among the lowest wages in the world. Wal-Mart workers in the U.S. make barely above minimum wage. A series of three rallies at a Wal-Mart in Chicopee, Massachusetts, near Springfield, are set for May 28, June 6, and June 8. The rallies are being organized by the western Massachusetts chapter of Jobs With Justice, which has a web site at www.jwj.org.

Hundreds of workers at grocery stores in Northampton, Greenfield, and Brattleboro recently formed a union. On May 7, the Northampton workers are expected to finish negotiating their first union contract with their bosses. They work at River Valley Market www.RiverValleyMarket.coop. “Then we will vote on ratification,” River Valley Market worker Gabriel Quaglia told the Valley Post on May 4. Union workers elect a few of their co-workers to meet with their bosses to negotiate a contract. When a deal is reached, all the workers vote on whether to approve it.

On April 24 at 5 p.m. and on April 26 at 6 p.m. there will be one hour rallies for justice at five local Wal-Mart stores in Massachusetts. The rallies are being promoted by the western Massachusetts chapter of a union-supported group, Jobs With Justice www.jwj.org. The April 24 rallies will be at the Wal-Mart stores at:

- 1105 Boston Road in Springfield (RSVP: Jeff Jones 413-732-6209 jjones@ufcw1459.com);

- 180 North King Street in Northampton (RSVP: Rose Bookbinder 413-320-2028 rose.bookbinder@gmail.com and Edan Dhanraj sessionvoice@gmail.com);

Professors in Keene are fighting for a union contract. Even if they want to work full-time, their employer, River Valley Community College, only lets them work 20 hours a week, for which they are paid about $18,000 a year, Ken Relihan told the Valley Post on March 23. He is a professor at the college and lives in Alstead, New Hampshire, near Keene. He has taught Humanities at River Valley Community College for three years. “You can ask to teach three courses and they often don’t tell you until the last minute how many you will get,” he said.