Each victory has been hard fought. Learn about how we’ve progressed in fighting for communities over the past two decades.
Our 20-Year Organizing Timeline
CLU’s Green Justice Coalition stood in solidarity with building trades unions to win Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on publicly funded projects in Boston, as well as an executive order from the Governor directing state agencies to consider PLAs on large public projects. PLAs deliver the triple win of (1) good union careers for (2) local residents, women, and people of color that build towards a (3) cleaner, more sustainable Massachusetts.
A unanimous MBTA Board of Directors vote created a Low-Income Fare program with dedicated funding from the state budget, providing half-price fares for low-income riders across the MBTA system.
CLU’s Care That Works campaign expanded organizing to Family, Friends, and Neighbor (FFN) care, fighting for changes to the state voucher system, including increasing reimbursement rates and greater voucher flexibility for parents who depend on FFN care.
CLU’s Care That Works campaign committee helped Anne Osula, an SEIU 509 member and Black business owner, open a new child care center in Mattapan. Kiddies’ Corner offers early morning care as part of the CTW pilot, providing early-hour options for workers in nonstandard-hour jobs.
Mayor Wu signed an executive order adopting zoning improvements outlined in a 2020 Care That Works report. The changes improved zoning requirements and created a steady funding source for the City’s Office of Early Childhood to expand high-quality child care programs.
Public Transit Public Good partners joined the fight for Fair Share. The new tax on annual incomes over $1 million helps fund public education and public transit, including efforts to make the MBTA safer and more equitable. Fair Share revenue has since funded the MBTA’s low-income fare program and other critical public transportation and education investments.
The Green Justice Coalition worked in collaboration with environmental activists to amend Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), setting requirements for large existing buildings to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over time. This policy helps Boston meet its goals for reducing fossil fuel use and supports strong related labor standards and workforce development programs.
Drastic drops in public transit ridership during COVID led to a revenue crisis at the MBTA and threats of deep job and service cuts. Public Transit Public Good partners moved quickly to stop the worst of the cuts, which threatened essential workers and the future of our transit system. CLU helped push federal elected officials to secure an infusion of funds, and the MBTA Board voted to restore service.
CLU convened Care That Works (CTW), a Black and brown women-led campaign to address nonstandard-hour child care needs. We launched a pilot program connecting union family child care providers to provide early morning care as a way to support Boston parents entering the union construction trades. Our nationally recognized Pilot has expanded to other job sectors, boosting provider income while helping parents navigate gaps in child care availability.
With the support of CLU, two long-time Green Justice Coalition community partners teamed up with the Resilient Urban Neighborhoods technical team to develop local clean energy production and storage. The ongoing project in Boston’s Chinatown and Chelsea, two working-class immigrant communities, aims to grow democratic control over green energy and build collective resilience to climate change.
Regional gatherings across the state, centered on popular education about deep structural issues like privatization underlying our different fights, culminated in a massive base-to-base summit to ratify a visionary ten-year agenda. Hundreds marched through the snow to protest a notorious corporate financier’s greed and political interference.
The Green Justice Coalition fought alongside partners BCAN and aligned City officials to win Community Choice Energy (CCE). CCE leverages local bulk purchasing power, allowing residents to increase their use of renewable energy while reducing costs at the same time for ratepayers.
In a pitched battle against the biggest corporate lobby associations in the state, our coalition of unions and community-based worker centers fought to pass state legislative protections against wage theft. After the bill failed in the House for two years, we pivoted. Rallying workers across the state through protest after protest, we called out corporate wage theft violators and won wage theft protections in 13 cities and towns.
Public transit riders and workers statewide, organized through new and returning Green Justice Coalition partners, won a $2.5 billion investment in public transportation, a 5 percent cap on fare increases, fare discounts for youth and seniors, and seats for riders and workers on regional transit authorities across the state.
Our work strengthened MassSave by advancing good jobs and equity. We won:
- Workforce and Responsible Contractor agreements
- A seat and an Equity Subcommittee on the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council
- Expanded language access and more!
CLU created the Green Justice Coalition. Taking on the corporate utilities, we won pilot programs for our low-income community members to access weatherization funds and good union jobs. Our victory saved $59 million in fuel costs, increased worker pay by $42 million, and reduced 84,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
Nearly 2,500 security officers, mostly Black and immigrant workers earning low wages with few benefits, won their first union contract. CLU worked with SEIU 32BJ to form a coalition to organize with security officers at work AND at home. Together, we took to the streets of Boston and won.
CLU’s first victory! We worked with the City of Boston to make sure school painting jobs became union careers for 50 new union apprentices from Boston neighborhoods and communities of color. The campaign changed the city’s bidding process to create lasting career pathways for apprentice painters.
CLU was founded to build power through moving joint campaigns across the two sectors: labor unions and community organizations. From the beginning, our work focused on working-class communities and expanding base-building organizing through collaborative campaigns.
