We return to March mourning the many lives lost to Covid-19. One year into the pandemic, almost 50,000 New Yorkers have fallen to this virus. But the numbers do not tell the complete story nor the scope of our pain. We lost loved ones, co-workers, friends, neighbors, mothers, aunts, cousins, teachers, nurses, sanitation workers. On Women's History Month, we must acknowledge the disproproprationate impact of Covid on women - particularly women of color on the frontlines. We draw strength from their aspirations, their stories, and their dreams. With that strength we continue the fight to transform a broken economy and a burning planet. To honor the fallen is to continue the long and difficult struggle toward climate and worker justice. As long as we hold firm in our collective desire for hope and solidarity, despair will never have the last word.
|
You can support our movement for economic, racial, and climate justice by donating to ALIGN.
|
One Year of Covid-19 and Still No Protections
|
Corporations and billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have pocketed billions in the past year while workers suffered from Covid-19, struggled to pay rent, and put food on the table. This broken system allows Amazon to see a 200 percent rise in profits while tens of thousands of Amazon workers get sick from the virus. In light of the anniversary of Covid-19 and relentless pandemic profiteering, our NY Essential Workers coalition marched to Jeff Bezos’ apartment to hold a memorial vigil where we mourned the tens of thousands of lives lost due to the failed response in worker health and safety across the country. We called for the passage of the NY HERO Act so that workers get the adequate protections and voice in the workplace that have been routinely denied to them before and during the pandemic. This legislation has been built from the ground up, fueled by the moral outrage that has permeated impacted communities throughout the pandemic.
|
Our efforts to organize a statewide movement across sectors is working. This month, the NY HERO Act (S1034/A2681) passed the NY Senate, and not long after, the Assembly Labor Committee and Codes Committee. We thank bill sponsors Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Karines Reyes for championing the bill. We thank Assembly Labor Chair Latoya Joyner and Codes Committee Chair Jeffrey Dinowitz for their leadership in moving this bill closer to passage. These victories are signaling that we are creating the momentum needed to pass a first-of-its-kind legislation to ensure protections for this pandemic and whatever may come next. With over 60 Assemblymembers co-sponsoring the bill, there is no reason that we should delay protections for New Yorkers any longer. Join our fight to pass this crucial legislation by sending a letter to your Assemblymember, urging them to pass the NY HERO Act now.
|
Senate Deputy Leader and bill sponsor Michael Gianaris joins members of NY Essential Workers Coalition at a press conference where we cheered on the passage of the bill in the Senate.
|
The Covid Recovery Must be Green
|
The climate crisis did not go on pause during the pandemic. As New Yorkers are fighting to survive the health and economic impacts of Covid-19, frontline Black and brown children continue to choke on polluted air and ingest toxic water. Tens of thousands are unable to pay rent or put food on the table, many of them are unemployed and struggling to survive. We are clearly in moment of multiple crises. The only adequate response is a big, bold vision to transform our economy and the environment.
Our Climate Works for All coalition has laid the foundations to this just transition with the passage of Local Law 97 (LL97) in 2019, landmark legislation that will radically cut building emissions while creating tens of thousands of jobs. In the past few weeks, real estate interests have been attempting to undermine LL97 through a budget provision proposed by Governor Cuomo. We did not stand by silently at these misguided attempts - too much was at stake. Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell told The Real Deal, “These green jobs can play a key role in economic recovery after Covid for low-income communities of color on the front lines of climate change and the pandemic.” Due to a statewide organizing effort, the Assembly and Senate have joined the call to remove the disastrous budget provision out of their proposed budget. You can use this toolkit to urge the State Legislature to stay strong throughout the budget negotiations and make no compromise on aggressive climate action.
|
The opportunity to create tens of thousands of climate jobs does not stop at Local Law 97. The Climate Works for All coalition unveiled their budget proposal for FY 2022 in a press conference and letter directed to Mayor de Blasio and City Council. As part of our long term push for an Equitable Recovery outlined in this report, we are urging the City to invest in $200 million for green infrastructure projects in retrofits, solar energy, waste, and electric school buses to create good-paying jobs for struggling New Yorkers on the front lines of the COVID and climate crises. Shiv Soin, a youth climate activist and Executive Director of TREEage stated in a press conference and rally: “Our community is here and we demand that our schools are better than they are, we demand that they be green and we demand green renewable energy and new infrastructure.”
|
Climate Works for All Fund Climate Justice Priorities Press Conference
|
NYC Mayoral Candidates Call for an Equitable Recovery
|
It is no question that the health and future of our City will depend on how our leaders will respond to the most Covid and climate impacted frontline communities. At the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Mayoral Forum, over 350 advocates had the opportunity to hear mayoral candidates speak on tough questions on climate, labor, and equity. Although candidates varied in their plans, there was clear consensus that all candidates in attendance are calling for the need for bold green jobs and climate policy. In the lightning round, all candidates said they would work to implement the climate infrastructure and job creation strategies outlined in Climate Works for All’s An Equitable Recovery for NYC, which would require investing $16 billion in infrastructure projects and workforce development for Black, Indigenous and communities of color. This forum sent a clear message that there was a strong and active climate movement that will hold whoever is elected accountable to their commitments in creating an equitable and fair City. You can watch a recording of the forum here.
|
Mayoral candidates in alphabetical order, left to right: (Top row) Eric Adams, Art Chang, Eddie Cullen, (Second row from the top) Shaun Donovan, Vitaly Filipchenko, Cleopatra Fitzgerald, Aaron Foldenauer (Third row from the top) Kathryn Garcia, Paperboy Prince, Stacey Prussman, Scott Stringer (Bottom row) Maya Wiley, and ALIGN Executive Director and Forum Moderator Maritza Silva-Farrell
|
Fighting for a Just Transition from Albany to D.C.
|
The climate crisis must be tackled at all levels of government, from City Hall to Albany to Washington D.C. At the state level, we are mobilizing for the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA, S4264A) which was introduced this month by Senator Kevin Parker (D, WF- Brooklyn) in the New York State Senate. This crucial legislation builds off our victory in passing the nation's most aggressive climate law in the country, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). The CCIA will allow us to achieve the funding to reach our climate goals mandated in the CLCPA by making major corporate polluters pay, while creating hundreds of thousands of good, green jobs. Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell said in a statement, “Millions of New Yorkers living on the frontlines of climate change will benefit from this crucial legislation. The Climate and Community Investment Act will raise significant revenue and create many thousands of green jobs, while enabling frontline communities to tackle the climate crisis more aggressively.”
|
At the federal level, we are joining the Green New Deal Network in fighting for the THRIVE (Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy) Act, a transformational, $10 trillion, 10-year economic recovery and infrastructure package that would put 15 million people to work in good, union, family-sustaining jobs, cuts climate pollution in half by 2030, and advances racial, Indigenous, gender, environmental, and economic justice. This bill establishes the pathway to create millions of jobs and kick-start a green pandemic recovery.
Bold and aggressive climate and jobs action will only come to fruition with a strong grassroots movement ready to fight for it. You can join this movement at the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Action Week, with a kick off call on Monday, April 5th, 2021 [RSVP] to fight for both the CCIA and THRIVE. The week of actions will wrap up on Friday, April 9th, with a town hall with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as other legislators, to answer questions about the Climate and Community Investment Act, the THRIVE Agenda, and the fight for a just, green recovery. RSVP now, and join us on April 9th from 6:30 - 8pm!
|
Amazon Workers in Alabama Leading the Charge
|
We are in solidarity with Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama and board members RWDSU in their historic union drive that has already inspired working people throughout the country. This campaign goes beyond Amazon. As Stuart Appelbaum, RWDSU president and board member told the NY Times, the Amazon effort “is about the future of work and how working people are going to be treated in the new economy." The pandemic has laid bare the callous and immoral treatment of warehouse workers and delivery drivers while CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon have made billions in profits. Workers have been surveilled and fired for speaking out. Workers have not been provided adequate protections to slow the spread in their workplace and communities. Workers are being penalized for having to use the bathroom. That is why workers are fighting for dignity, respect, and power in one of the most consequential union drives in the past decade. There has been a groundswell of public support for the Alabama Amazon workers across the country. Even President Joe Biden has shown his solidarity with workers in this video. When the Alabama Amazon workers win this election, we will join the efforts in New York and across the country to make sure that this is just the beginning for winning worker power for Amazon warehouses and beyond.
|
Teamsters JC 16 - Join the Teamsters to take the pledge to Build Back Stronger to ensure good jobs, secure pensions, and strong unions for working people across the country.
Make the Road NY - After one year of COVID, undocumented workers and people recently released from incarceration are still being excluded from pandemic relief, despite paying into these systems. That is why essential and excluded workers are on a hunger strike to call for the full $3.5 billion needed to #FundExcludedWorkers. Take action here.
NYC Environmental Justice Alliance - NYC-EJA organized a panel with the Pratt Institute on achieving an Equitable Recovery Agenda for New York, which included partners from UPROSE, NY Renews, and NYLPI. You can watch the recording here.
NYC Central Labor Council - On Wednesday, April 7, the NYC CLC is hosting a discussion between women leaders of the Labor Movement to reflect on the issues this pandemic has brought to light, as well as to discuss the next steps in the fight for equity in the aftermath of COVID-19. You can watch the discussion live at Facebook.com/NYCCLC or RSVP here.
DC 37 - Join DC 37 in calling on State officials to restore cuts to public health services and ensure that already suffering New Yorkers do not bear the burden of additional cuts to preventive health care and treatment. Take action here.
Athena - Sign your name to join Athena in calling on Congress to use our monopoly laws to reign in Amazon's business model of harm. Harming our small businesses, workers, civil rights, climate and democracy itself.
New York Communities for Change - With no job opportunities and few options for relief, thousands of New Yorkers are struggling to pay for food, medicine and burial costs.
If you’re lucky enough to be working from home or receiving a stimulus check to put food on your table, please join us in supporting a neighbor who isn’t. Click here to contribute to NYCOFI’s COVID-19 Relief Fund.
CWA District 1 - SUNY grad workers, members of CWA Local 1104 and SUNY GSEU, are calling on the New York State Legislature to implement the Senate's budget plan to end mandatory fees for SUNY and CUNY graduate workers in the final FY22 budget. Send an email right now to your NYS Assemblymember and Senator to tell them to help us get this done in the final budget!
Jobs to Move America - Read this new report arguing that with a transition to electric school buses, New York can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, create cleaner air for kids and communities, and support good job creation.
|
|
+(1).jfif "Image")
.png "Image")
.png "Image")
.png "Image")
+(1).png "Image")
.jpg "Image")
.jpg "Image")
.png "Image")
