EASTHAMPTON — The same night the City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting workers’ ability to unionize and access to essential human rights last week, dozens of those employees rallied in front of the Municipal Building voicing their same support.
“As a history teacher, we’re standing across from some of the early industrial buildings in Easthampton, so the first places to be industrialized and organized in this country, really the heart of the labor movement in America,” said River Valley DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) member Ian Petty.
Just before the start of the council’s Nov. 19 meeting, Petty and other union workers voiced their support for the Resolution in Support of Workers’ Collective Bargaining Rights.
Specifically, they wanted to see support from their local government, to reinforce the critical role unions play in Easthampton to create a vibrant community.
“Everything I do around this town is made possible by workers, whether they’re unionized or not,” Petty said.
Petty, along with being a part of River Valley DSA, is also a teacher at Northampton High School and is part of a union. River Valley DSA helped organize the rally along with support from the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1459 (UFCW), the Western Mass Area Labor Federation (WMALF) and the Easthampton Education Association.
“The strongest way to battle inequality is forming unions,” said Drew Weisse, the organizing director of the UFCW.
Weisse has worked for the UFCW for five years. Working and being a member of a union has shown him the benefits they provide and a space for their members to speak freely. He helped organize the rally along with Sasha Morsmith, who is an organizer with the WMALF.
“We’re really excited for today to be the beginning,” Morsmith said about the City Council resolution. “But it’s not the end.”
Morsmith explained the battle begins with many corporations, when employees try to make a first union contract. Employers many times use different tactics to block that contract, also called “union busting,” to avoid higher costs.
The resolution, brought to the council for immediate action by Precinct 3 Councilor Thomas Peake, recognizes that free association is a fundamental right, giving workers the choice to collectively bargain with their employers. It is a statement of official support, and does not direct the expenditure of any city resources.
Peake said he is a member of multiple unions and works in research and consulting at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For him, being in a union creates a healthier work environment where workers feel they can speak their truth more freely without fear.
“A big part of what unions are about is about democracy at work,” he said. “We talk a lot about democracy since it’s under constant attack at the federal level.”
He said a culture of democracy cannot be expected to flourish when so many people are stuck in workplaces where there is no democracy, and no collective bargaining.
Overall, the resolution describes unions as a way to create a more complete community at the local level, where industries and their employees thrive with health insurance coverage and the ability to speak up when desired.
The resolution is co-sponsored by Precinct 5 Councilor Tamara Smith and At-Large Councilor Koni Denham, who both explained why they decided to help get it to council.
“I have been a union member since my grad-student days in my early 20s and there are a lot of things in my life that I could not have done without the benefit of my union behind me,” Smith said.
“I’m enthusiastic to be able to support this. I’ve been a longtime union member,” Denham said. “I think in the last several years our unions have been under assault and I’m very pleased that people are fighting back and I think our cities need to fight back against the injustice that labor is seeing in terms of how they’re being treated.”
Peake congratulated several INSA Cannabis Dispensary workers who came to speak in support of the resolution, since INSA workers had recently joined a union. Many workers in the cannabis industry have struggled to form unions, with employers rejecting requests.
Jason Rodriguez is a Holyoke resident but he works in Easthampton, and has grown to love the city. So much so that he hopes to move to Easthampton and that’s why he came to speak at the meeting.
“I think that it is extremely important for us to continue to have the right to unionize and bargain for our contracts,” he said. “I believe that these rights we have are not privileges, they’re principles. They’re principles that are even deeply rooted in the foundation of our great nation.”