School committee members voted through a sweeping package of cuts and layoffs aimed at closing a $60 million shortfall as hundreds of horn-blowing, sign-toting teachers, custodians and parents mobbed school department headquarters last night in a raucous protest.

School committee members voted through a sweeping package of cuts and layoffs aimed at closing a $60 million shortfall as hundreds of horn-blowing, sign-toting teachers, custodians and parents mobbed school department headquarters last night in a raucous protest.

Advocates for voter participation and for low-income families are joining forces in an effort to defeat initiative petitions that would chop the state sales tax to 3 percent from 6.25 percent and repeal the new state sales tax on alcohol purchases.

With working families trying to stretch every dollar to make ends meet, the City Council in Northampton, Mass., last night unanimously gave final approval to a resolution defining a living wage as a human right.

With working families trying to stretch every dollar to make ends meet, the City Council in Northampton, Mass., last night unanimously gave final approval to a resolution defining a living wage as a human right.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, has agreed to pay $40 million to as many as 87,500 current and former employees in Massachusetts, the largest wage-and-hour class-action settlement in the state’s history.

Nearly 600 workers at Norwood Hospital, ranging from respiratory therapists to housekeepers, will join the Service Employees International Union as the result of an election yesterday.

"Hundreds of angry union workers marched through downtown Boston yesterday to protest recent layoffs at the Hyatt Hotel and planned cutbacks at other firms including Verizon."

read more

"Tierney and Oates engaged in candid discussions with the teenagers enrolled in the programs, hearing accounts of enhanced math scores in school, guidance for college plans and supervision as the youth earn money while getting a taste of job responsibility."

"The superintendent said the teachers' union executive board has already approved of the deferral day for all of Walpole's teachers and they are simply waiting for a vote from the entire association.  Teachers would work 183 days and get paid for 182."