One Day Only: MFA Workers Vote To Strike | Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, Nov. 12. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Museum of Fine Arts workers voted for a one-day strike after they say management failed to bargain in good faith on several issues.
• A newly elected at-large Malden city councillor apologized for a Halloween costume that she said reinforced "racist stereotypes.".
• The Natick School Committee responded to a recent state Ethics Commission ruling about whether member Catherine Brunell could participate in votes about closing an elementary school she lives near.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Friday's top story

One year after forming a union, workers at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts voted to hold a one-day strike next week after they say management has failed to bargain in good faith on several issues, according to The Hill.

On social media Thursday, the union said its members had "voted overwhelmingly" for a one-day strike on Wednesday of next week.

The group represents curators, conservators, library workers, public-facing staff, educators and administrative and professional workers, the Hill reported.

Eve Mayberger, a member of the union's bargaining team, told the Boston Globe that the union had brought up issues like diversity, pay, job growth, safety and union membership requirements during negotiations with management. However, little progress has been made in seven months of negotiations.

Read the full story here

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Friday's Other Top Stories

Incoming councilor sorry for 'racist' costume: A newly elected at-large Malden city councillor apologized for a Halloween costume that she said reinforced "racist stereotypes." Karen Colón Hayes said she wore the costume in 2012. She did not specify how she dressed up, but indicated it "promoted an inaccurate, stereotypical portrayal of an Indigenous person," according to a statement on her Facebook page. "Dressing up as another culture was racist," Hayes wrote. "It does not matter what my intentions were; there is no excuse for reinforcing racist stereotypes." "I am deeply sorry," she continued.

'Yes, the system has failed:' Michelle Wu, Boston's mayor-elect, said the shooting of three police officers Tuesday by a man reportedly released from jail over the summer, represented the failure of a system that lacks support for people after their incarceration, according to WGBH. "We have systems that have failed our young people time and time again, and we need to ensure that there are strong accountability measures when there are incidents of violence and harm, but there need to be strong pathways to ensure that our returning citizens are coming into (the) community with the supports and stability," Wu said while speaking with reporters just days before her swearing in on Tuesday. Asked whether the system failed in this week's case, Wu responded: "Yes, the system has failed."

Response to ruling: The Natick School Committee responded to a recent state Ethics Commission ruling about whether member Catherine Brunell could participate in votes about closing Johnson Elementary. Last week, the state Ethics Commission notified Brunell that she would have to recuse herself from votes about closing Johnson. That's because Brunell lives near the school, and a closure could affect her property value. Many local residents questioned the Ethics Commission decision, asking if it would bar other elected officials from voting on the Johnson matter — or anything else that might affect property values.

Picture this

A unique mid-century modern home in Lincoln just hit the market for under $1 million, and it has a little bit more to offer than most homes. This home along Short Hill Road was designed by Crawley Cooper, an architect who contributed to several buildings on the MIT campus, the Springfield Civic Center complex — and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York City, which was the setting for the movie "Fame."

By the numbers

24 — That's how many deer collisions happened in Westport last year, the most in a community in Massachusetts. See the rest of the deer collision data here as we enter peak deer mating season.