Cambridge, MA - Over 20 Harvard employees and supporters held a demonstration outside Harvard University's 90 Mt. Auburn St. facility on Wednesday against proposed "voluntary and involuntary staff reductions" at the Harvard University Library- while a meeting on restructuring the labor force at the library was being led by HU Library Executive Director Helen Shenton inside.

BOSTON/Government Center - The Boston Teachers Union held a boisterous rally outside Boston Public Schools district headquarters Wednesday night to build public support for the union's contract goals. Chanting "contract now!" and blowing horns and whistles, about 500 teachers, students and supporters from other union locals braved freezing temperatures to call for an end to a 20-month impasse in contract negotiations between the teachers' union and the Boston public school administration.

BOSTON/East Boston - Nearly 100 people crowded into East Boston’s Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church Tuesday night, lending their voices to the growing cacophony of the underemployed, disenfranchised, uninsured and overworked who say they are part of the 99 percent.

Just over a week since meeting with Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo and the Council’s Committee on Labor, Youth Affairs and Human Rights - who called upon the Massachusetts Port Authority to establish a living wage for contract workers - Service Employees International Union Local 615, the North Shore Labor Council, OccupyBoston activists and a number of community organizations mobilized workers to share stories about threats from employers and unfair penalties doled out by managers.

Cambridge, Mass. - Over 500 union members and allies held a Labor Day March between Cambridge City Hall and the Cambridge Common via Harvard Yard on Monday. The event was organized by Service Employees International Union Local 615 and several other labor unions, together with area community and religious organizations.

BOSTON/South Boston - Over 80 temp workers and their community and labor allies rallied in South Boston on Thursday to draw attention to the exploitation of Massachusetts’ growing low-wage temporary workforce, just ahead of the Labor Day holiday.

The organizers are members of a diverse coalition of labor and community groups pressing for the adoption of a proposed state law that proponents say will force unregulated temp agencies to observe basic labor standards.

Cambridge, MA - Several people, including students and members of at least three local unions, participated in an informational picket today at the Verizon Wireless store in Harvard Square. The action was one of dozens of similar pickets that have been organized outside Verizon Wireless stores in support of the strike against Verizon by over 45,000 of its unionized workers that began on August 6th. The picketers spoke to passers-by and handed out leaflets encouraging them to support the strikers by refusing to shop at Verizon Wireless stores until the company goes back to the bargaining table with its unions and negotiates an equitable settlement.

BOSTON/Dorchester - Temperatures over 100 degrees had Bostonians scrambling to find relief last week. Perhaps an even harder challenge to face: what to do about the debt and deficit and taxes, budget cuts, and proposed austerity measures which have inflamed citizens from D.C. to Dorchester.

Massuniting, a new coalition of local non-profit groups and residents affected by street crime and economic hardship, believes it can channel that anger into progressive activism.

BOSTON/State House - Dozens of labor and community activists showed up in support of a green jobs bill at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Energy and Natural Resources at the Massachusetts State House on Thursday. The bill, H. 1774, An Act Regarding Community Access to Energy Efficiency Programs and Green Jobs would require that all utility companies operating in the Commonwealth provide data showing what populations their energy efficiency programs are reaching, and expand access to energy efficiency services by establishing new weatherization goals.

BOSTON/State House - Supporters and opponents of a bill that would change the way temporary agencies do business in Massachusetts squared off in front of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development on Thursday in Gardiner Auditorium at the State House. Advocates for the Act Updating and Streamlining the Employment Agency Law (House Bill 1393) - which they dub the “Reform Employment Agency Law” or the “REAL bill" - made the case that bottom feeders in the temp industry are operating outside existing labor law and exploiting workers due to a lack of regulation. Spearheaded by the Massachusetts Coalition on Safety and Health, MassCOSH, a group of labor and community organizations calling themselves the REAL Coalition is working to change a situation that they say has led to multiple wage, health, safety and unemployment crises for low-wage temp workers and denied the Commonwealth of significant amounts of workers’ compensation and other state employment taxes.

Brookline, MA - On Sunday, May 22, Boston Sass Attack, a radical cheerleading group, led a flashmob in several grocery stores in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an internationally-recognized Florida farmworker organization, to demand one penny more per pound for picked tomatoes. The CIW has reached groundbreaking agreements with many leading food retailers, including McDonald's, Subway, and Whole Foods. However, workers are still paid the same piece rate (an average of $.50 per 32 lb. bucket) as they were 30 years ago.