Max Page is president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), one of the largest state affiliates of the National Education Association and the largest union in New England, representing roughly 117,000 education workers from pre-K through higher education. A professor of architecture and history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Page is one of the founding members of Educators for a Democratic Union (EDU), a reform caucus that has spent more than a decade reshaping the MTA’s politics, structure, and strategy.Page is the third consecutive EDU-backed president, following Barbara Madeloni and Merrie Najimy, and is serving the second of his constitutionally limited two terms. The election campaign for his successor is currently underway. Under EDU’s leadership, the MTA has moved from a relatively cautious, staff-driven union, which had too often gone along with destructive education reform policies, toward a more militant, member-driven model centered on democratic bargaining, strike readiness, and large-scale “common good” campaigns like the successful effort to tax millionaires and expand public investment.Jacobin columnist Chris Brooks spoke with Page about what it takes to successfully drive a reform agenda, how high-participation bargaining changes both outcomes and consciousness, and why taxing the rich has become central to rebuilding working-class power.Chris BrooksYou are the third EDU candidate to serve as president. What are some of the key lessons from more than a decade of union reform?Max PageBarbara Madeloni was put forward by EDU with the goal of democratically influencing the politics and direction of the union, but we didn’t think she would actually win. Then, in a surprise to all of us, she did.But she didn’t win with a slate. So she had a vice president and a majority of the MTA board who actively opposed EDU. When we won that first election, the view among the incumbents wasn’t that the membership had voted for…
