Opinion: MTA Board Votes Overwhelmingly to Divest from Weapons Manufacturers

by Jen Meagher

This opinion article is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism’s MassWire news service.

“The bumper sticker on my car announces ‘I am a proud union member of the MTA.’  That has never been more true.”

I am an educator. I teach high school English in an affluent Massachusetts community. In two weeks time I will walk back into my classroom and by then an unfathomable number of Palestinian children will be dead—even more than the current estimated number. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 16,750 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israeli military, including approximately 1,300 infants and toddlers under the age of two. More than 4,000 others are estimated to be missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Palestinian children are dying—from starvation, from suffocation under whatever building was supposed to shelter them that day, or from a sniper’s bullet. 

Since I began my teaching career in 2001 I have contributed part of my labor to a retirement pension that invests in weapons manufacturers. I, along with the vast majority of my fellow educators in the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), have been able to ignore the fact that my nest egg depends in part on perpetuating war and violence. 

But the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people has made that impossible. 

In July the MTA Board of Directors voted to instruct the Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) board to divest from companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon (now RTX), and Boeing. My portion of 2.1 billion Massachusetts taxpayer dollars will no longer feed the murder and destruction of schools, and hospitals, and the people in them.  

As a member of MTA Rank and File for Palestine I’ve used my labor outside of the school day to advocate for people whose voices have been ignored. 

Thanks to the work of so many, my money will now support my work in the classroom to nurture young people and make the world a better place. 

The bumper sticker on my car announces “I am a proud union member of the MTA.”  That has never been more true.

Jen Meagher is a writer, teacher, and union activist and a member of MTA Rank and File for Palestine, MTA, and Andover Education Association. In 2011, she was illegally dismissed by her district for her advocacy of public education. Her job was restored by the Labor Board and she continues to advocate for the right of all people to a quality education that values human rights and truth.