Letter: Amherst’s DPW Workers Have Our Backs, It’s Time We Had Theirs

The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on February 27, 2026

Amherst’s DPW workers are the people who keep our town running, day and night. Clearing roads during the last two large snowstorms, fixing water main breaks, ensuring access to clean drinking water and wastewater sanitation, maintaining parks, pools, trees, and other public spaces, as well as responding when emergencies disrupt daily life. Most of their work happens quietly and out of the spotlight of town politics, but our community relies on them every day. Both in the delivery of regular essential services, such as trash pickup and burials, and in the form of response to climate change infused weather disasters and snowstorms.  

The Town and KP Law’s refusal to sit at the bargaining table with these essential workers is disgraceful. These Amherst Department of Public Works Association (ADPWA) negotiations are not just about line items in a budget. We are not talking about steel in a library or fancy cars this time; we are talking about whether the people who protect our environment, our waterways, our trees, our infrastructure, and our safety are paid well and provided a workplace free from unnecessary danger. 

Fair contracts help Amherst retain skilled workers, reduce turnover, and ensure reliable services. We can invest in road funding all day, but these funds can’t be put to work without the people who do the work. 

Amherst has heard from its teachers’ union, its firefighters’ union, and now we are hearing from our DPW union, but one thing remains the same. Each time the town’s workers come to you they are doing so with the genuine belief that their advocacy will improve services for Amherst’s residents and allow them to better serve the town. Please take that at face value. 

Amherst’s DPW workers in water, wastewater, trees and grounds, highway, and engineering/environmental services have our backs in storms, emergencies, everyday operations, and in protecting the environment. As the Town Council, I hope you see this as the time to have their backs too.  

 
Julian Hynes

Julian Hynes is a resident of Amherst and a student at UMass.