Legislative Department

Protecting the American Quality of Life through Legislation and Government

Looking out for the Best Interests of Working Families

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s Legislative Action program ensures that the state Executive Branch and members of the state legislature and United States Congress stay up-to-date and well-informed on issues concerning working families. Without important legislative action by the Labor Movement throughout history American workers would not have, among many other things:
• Minimum wages
• Prevailing wages
• Living wages
• 40-hour workweek and weekends
• Overtime pay
• Holiday pay
• Quality, affordable, accessible health care
• Right to organize
• Workers’ Compensation
• Unemployment Insurance
• Health and safety in the workplace
• Paid family and medical leave
• Employment and training for all workers
• Public education
• Fair labor standards
• Progressive tax policy
• Child labor law

Although all of these components of the American quality of life were fought for and won by the Labor Movement through federal and state government, they are constantly under attack from other groups trying to take away workers’ basic rights and quality of life. Corporate America and Big Business have their own legislative teams working to undo many of these rights and benefits, which are continually taken for granted by many Americans.

Legislative Agenda

Along with input from our membership, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s leadership, Executive Council and affiliates choose our legislative priorities each year to ensure we are fighting as hard as possible for the quality of life of working families. Our legislative agenda focuses on progressive issues that will benefit and protect working families. Click here to see the Legislative Agenda for this session.

Our Legislative team works hard to ensure the quality of life for all of the Commonwealth’s workers. In order to achieve these lofty legislative goals there are many steps that we take.  

Our first step of legislative action is political in nature: supporting campaigns for labor-friendly candidates. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO vigorously works to help elect labor-friendly politicians. We also encourage our union members to run for elected office at both the local and state levels. Having labor-friendly politicians at all levels of government is essential to achieving the legislative goals of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and protecting working families’ quality of life. Click here to learn more about our Committee On Political Education (COPE) programs.

Our next step of legislative action is to meet with and inform elected officials and explain to them why passing legislation that improves the quality of life for working families is the surest way to make sure the most people have the best quality of life. Bottom line: the Massachusetts AFL-CIO is committed to passing legislation that will improve the quality of life for working people. We meet with legislators and the executive administration to accomplish legislative goals. When an important bill comes up, we send letters to legislators alerting them of labor’s stance on issues that are pertinent to working people.

The last step of our legislative action is to meet regularly with the Senate and House leadership and committee chairs, and testify at legislative committee hearings either for or against legislation that will impact the lives of working people. Our recent testimonies can be found by clicking here.

Grassroots Lobbying

In order to keep the Massachusetts Labor Movement as vibrant and active as possible we have set up an eActivist network. This network educates and activates members around legislative issues and helps members automatically email their legislators to advocate for bills and upcoming votes. It also helps set up a system of grassroots lobbying, where members volunteer to participate in phone banks on issues and “lobby days” to educate legislators. The State Federation works closely with the Central Labor Councils, taking advantage of their strong relationships with local legislators, to ensure that Massachusetts remains a state where working families can thrive. Click here to join the eActivist network.

Holding Politicians Accountable to Working Families

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO keeps Labor Voting Records for state legislators, on which endorsements of incumbent legislators are partly based, that determine how often and how reliably a legislator stands with working families on important votes. In this section you can see if your state legislator is a labor-friendly voter. Before any vote which has implications for working families, we alert legislators of our stance on that issue. After the votes are cast our legislative team researches which legislator voted which way and presents our Executive Council with matters that should be considered “Labor Votes.” The Executive Council must vote unanimously in order for a vote to be considered a “Labor Vote”. Once the Executive Council determines which votes will be counted as “Labor Votes” for each legislative session, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO adds the vote to the previous Labor Votes to come up with a Labor Voting Record. A legislator must vote correctly on 75-percent of the Labor Votes in two successive legislative sessions in order to be eligible for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO endorsement. Click here to see the Labor Voting Records for the last two legislative sessions.

Legislating to Organize

One aim of the Legislative Department at the Massachusetts AFL-CIO is to connect organizing to everything we do. Organization is key to the Labor Movement and its protection is a high priority of our Legislative Action programs. Currently our team is working hard to pass a Majority Authorization bill in Massachusetts, which will give public sector workers the right to organize by majority vote and penalize employers for abusing workers during the organizing process. On the federal level Senator Kennedy’s Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers get union representation by majority authorization all over the country. The Legislative team here at the Massachusetts AFL-CIO sent out a letter asking for signatures of support for the Employee Free Choice Act and so far Governor Deval Patrick, five Constitutional officers, Senator Kerry, the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation, ninety-eight state legislators and four city councils have sent letters to Washington vowing their support for this important piece of legislation. When the Act does get passed it will allow workers all over the country to organize by majority authorization and finally restore the right to organize to millions of workers.

We are also pursuing legislation to ensure “Proper Expenditure of and Accounting for State Funds” to prohibit the use of public money for union busting activities, as well as the “Worker Privacy Protection Act” to prevent employers from forcing workers to attend political or religious meetings. Additionally, we are pursuing a bill that would create a private right of action on workers’ compensation, which members of our Organizing Roundtable believe will be a significant help in organizing campaigns.

Working with the Executive Branch

From 1991-2006 Massachusetts was under the control of Republican governors. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO was on the defensive against anti-labor, anti-worker legislation proposed and pursued by these governors. In 2007, a new day began. Now that we have a Democratic governor back in the State House who listens to the concerns of working families, we have begun a more aggressive approach to push pro-worker legislation and initiatives, with hopes to undo some of the damage done to labor and workers during those challenging years.

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO has worked with the current Governor to reestablish the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, a position which was dismantled by Republican leadership. We are also in the process of encouraging labor leaders and members to apply for boards and councils to ensure that labor is at the table as the Administration considers important policies.

We encourage you to browse this section extensively and visit it frequently.