1976 State Employees Strike, winning improved wages and benefits

One of the first contract negotiations between state employees and the Commonwealth occurred in 1976. Governor Michael Dukakis’s final contract offer was rejected, resulting in 30,000 state employees going on strike. Initially, the media coverage portrayed the unions in a negative light and a judge ordered citations to union leaders. State officials and union leaders from AFSCME and SEIU did come to the bargaining table and each side made concessions in the new contract, but the contract did bring public sector salaries a little closer to private sector salaries and also “enhanced health benefits significantly, and allowed for personal, bereavement and educational leaves as well as other benefits.”

This strike did more than win a new contract for public sector workers. The state employees strike successfully motivated and energized a public sector work force that had never had the opportunity to collectively bargain for better wages and benefits before. Public sector workers brought a new energy into the Massachusetts Labor Movement. Many women became part of upper ranks of the Labor Movement as a result of public sector unionization and Hebert Ollivierre from Cape Verde became the first person of African descent to lead a major public sector union in Massachusetts.