Terri Tauro, a longtime labor leader, and one of six candidates running for the 8th Essex District, said her passion and her drive come from standing up for the rights of others, including the right for fair and equitable pay.
“I’ve always been the type of person that stood up for the people, even in school when someone was getting picked on,” said Tauro.
Throughout her life Tauro, born and raised in Marblehead, has made meaningful contributions to her community. She now works as department administrator for the Marblehead Harbor Master.
“I have a deep connection to my district,” said Tauro.
Her major achievements in Marblehead include publicizing the investigation into the Marblehead Board of Health missing millions and inhumane working conditions for employees, collecting signatures on the 2022 Government Transparency Ballot Initiative, and co-sponsoring a Marblehead citizen-sponsored town warrant article that required local government transparency, equity, and accountability through Standard Operating Procedures.
As department administrator for the Marblehead Harbor Master, Tauro said that she and her leadership managed to more than quadruple the amount of moorings assigned from seven to 42 in just the first year on the job, moving a stagnant waiting list.
She said that one of the factors that encouraged her to run for the seat of a state representative along with her ex-husband and two daughters, was the growing polarization in the country.
“The way democracy has just reached a stalemate concerns me,” said Tauro.
Tauro said that her experience as a negotiator and a coalition builder makes her a perfect fit for the role of state representative. As a union president she negotiated three contracts for her employees in consideration of health care, workplace safety, and pay equity.
Tauro also said she is a coalition builder and that when she was elected as president of the union, she built a coalition with other unions such as the police, teachers, and firefighters. She said the unions then held regular meetings where they exchanged ideas and strategies.
“In the Legislature we need to find common ground and listen to each other in order to get things done,” said Tauro.
Getting things done and working seem to be the drive Tauro carries with her daily. She said coming from public housing she has rarely worked fewer than three jobs simultaneously, doing everything she could so that she could afford to give her two daughters — now 21 and 18 — more opportunities than she had.
Tauro’s drive for labor is visible through her work experience — from working in banks and restaurants, and from being a real estate broker to owning her own restaurant and founding a cookie baking company in her kitchen. She said that from that experience she now knows the struggles that different groups of people live through.
To that end, she plans to stand up for the rights of the workers and to fight for dignity in the workplace and for a living wage for all workers, but not just for union workers. A job should allow room to grow and provide relative training for people to be good workers and to get paid, and that invested workers help the entire economy grow, said Tauro.
Education and environment are among her other priorities. Tauro seeks to achieve free community colleges and free kindergartens, because people should not have to choose between paying for medicine and bills to pay for their children to attend all-day kindergarten.
Tauro also said that she was concerned about the environment. The transition to renewable energy is urgent but must be done with intention, she said.
The only thing Tauro is not ready to compromise on and to find middle ground on is abortion, she said.
“I am a true believer of my body, my choice,” she said.
Tauro now takes care of her 85-year-old mother, and lives with her younger daughter and her dog, Gisele, named after Tom Brady’s wife Gisele Bündchen, and is planning to take on another cat after the death of the previous one.
“I am a hard-worker, and I am smart, and I am driven, and I would not have gotten to this point in my life without tenacity and grit,” said Tauro. “And those are the skills that I will take to the state House.”
Oksana Kotkina can be reached at [email protected].
