BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 300 immigrant students and allies held a rally at St. Paul's Cathedral today in support of the DREAM Act - a federal bill that would provide some undocumented immigrant students a path to legal residency in the US. Organizers from the Student Immigrant Movement hoped that the show of force would help convince Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) to join the rest of the Mass. Congressional delegation in backing the bill. SIM invited Brown to the rally, but he did not attend.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 200 people attended a protest picket outside the Hyatt Regency Boston hotel on Thurs. July 22nd to demand that the Hyatt Corporation reinstate the jobs of 98 former members of their housekeeping staff. The event was part of a nationwide day of protest by the UNITE HERE hotel workers union. Similar protests were held in several other cities.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - As a response to the recent electon of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a continuation of the push to pass a national health care reform bill, the Service Employees International Union Local 615 hosted a rally and march from their headquarters at 26 West Street, on Saturday. Other sponsors included MoveOn Boston, Northeast Action, Jobs with Justice, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1445 and the Alliance to Develop Power. Gillian Mason, council coordinator for MoveOn Boston, led the rally, which also included speeches by SEIU president Rocío Sáenz, SEIU executive board member Hector Conde, International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 201 vice president Alex Brown and Norris Kamo, regional director for the Massachusetts chapter of Doctors for America.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Lucine Williams wants her old job back.

“If I was given back my job [I would go back to work for Hyatt,] that’s why we’re all standing out here.”

“Out here” is next to a makeshift stage, erected by members of UNITE HERE Local 26 in front of the Boston Hyatt Regency Hotel on a chilly evening earlier this month.

“May the eyes of the Hyatt management be opened and may their hearts be softened,” intoned Rabbi Barbara Pensner of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah in West Roxbury. “May they recognize they’ve made an error in judgment. May they repent the cruelty and immorality of their acts and may they open their doors to welcome these women [and men] back into their jobs again.”

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 500 people - primarily members of several local unions - picketed outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel at One Lafayette Place on Thursday at a protest organized by UNITE HERE Local 26 to demand the reinstatement of 100 Boston-area Hyatt hotel employees that were summarily fired on August 31st and replaced with workers from Georgia-based outsourcing company, Hospitality Staffing Solutions. Many of the workers had been with Hyatt for over 20 years.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 50 people from the Service Employees International Union and allied organizations held a picket at 2 downtown Burger King locations Thursday. The event was the latest in a series of "Enemies of Change" protests organized nationwide by SEIU in an attempt to stop major corporations from lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act - which is up for a vote in Congress later this year.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - About 30 activists - primarily from Service Employees International Union Local 615 and local labor advocacy organizations - formed a picket line outside the McDonald's restaurant at 146 Tremont St. near Park St. Station to protest the McDonald's Corporation's role in attempting to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, a pro-union bill under consideration by Congress.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 50 people - including members of the Mass. Alliance of HUD Tenants and allies - attempted to deliver a "Save Our Homes Platform" to McCain Campaign Headquarters on Tremont St. last Saturday after a short march from a rally at nearby Park St. Station. The Platform calls for full federal funding for Section 8 and Public Housing, an end to predatory investments in affordable housing, and 10 other demands.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 100 unionized security officers and labor allies joined ununionized security officers in a march yesterday to demand that the non-union security company Palladion Services recognize Service Employees International Union Local 615 and bargain a union contract with their workers.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Last Saturday, 75 people attended a "Stand for Security" march and rally called by the Service Employees International Union Local 615.