Somerville, MA – Chanting “Somerville stands for affordable housing! Somerville stands for good, union jobs! Somerville stands together!” hundreds of residents, workers, and advocates with Somerville Stands Together converged on Union Square tonight to urge City Hall to stop standing up for wealthy, out-of-town developers, and to start demanding affordable homes, good jobs and responsible development for Somerville families.
Somerville residents and workers are demanding that city elected officials require developer US2 to agree to a Community Benefits Agreement that includes a Project Labor Agreement, to make sure that Somerville benefits from the planned projects.
“We need a Project Labor Agreement to ensure that workers will receive fair wages to build these projects,” Somerville resident Virginia Hussey said. “When developers get away with paying low wages, there’s a ripple effect. It hurts the worker and hurts the local economy. All we’re asking is for developers and city officials to do right by workers and by our great city.”