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Dozens of human service workers from the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired Community Services (MAB) rallied on Union Square last Wednesday to demand a first union contract.

MAB workers voted to be represented by Service Employees International Union Local 509 last August. Workers say that they organized the rally after MAB, which has a location in Allston, delayed negotiating and signing their first union contract.

Dave Foley, president of the SEIU Local 509, says that while a first union contract does not occur overnight, a negotiation that takes almost a year is considered a long time.

“It’s time to take this fight to the streets and make it public, so that the public is aware that this agency that gets state taxpayer dollars to take care of the blind and visually impaired in Massachusetts is delaying in signing a contract with their union,” he says.

During the rally, workers called for liveable wages, retirement benefits, and more protections for immigrant workers in their union contract. 

“We work because we have love for the individual that we take care of and that is irrespective of how much you are being paid,” Ugochukwu says. “We are asking for a living wage so that we can be able to do our work adequately and also be able to take care of our homes.”

Ralph Nwafor, who is also on the bargaining committee, says that some workers have not seen an increase in their wages despite rising costs of living. 

The Boston City Council recently adopted a resolution that “calls upon MAB Community Services to promptly and meaningfully respond to all MAB workers’ contract proposals and speedily reach a fair first contract without delay.”

The resolution noted that MAB had previously offered its workers a 2% wage increase during a meeting on March 31 this year, but the amount “does not meet the needs of workers or reflect the importance of their work.” 

In the end, Nwafor hopes that the rally will push MAB closer to action in signing the union contract.

“This rally is going to sensitize the MAB opposition. It’s going to sensitize the Boston Council. We’re going to sensitize every family to know that ‘oh, the workers in MAB are not fairly treated. Why? Why?’ When the why’s are coming from left and right … we expect that they should call us to the roundtable and get this thing signed,” he says.