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Newsletter for the Movement for Economic, Climate, and Racial Justice |
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Our fight for survival in the time of COVID-19 and climate catastrophe is driven by a movement that unleashes the power of the people. We can beat the interlocking crises by building coalitions that bring together our most impacted communities, shoulder-to-shoulder, in struggle together toward a bold, progressive vision. That is where our power lies. That is the work that we do to create the momentum to protect workers, invest in climate infrastructure, and dismantle white supremacy. There is no better time to unite in full force to shift the way our economy works. Warmer days are ahead, if we build the coalitions to fight for it.
You can support our movement for economic, racial, and climate justice by donating to ALIGN. |
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When We Fight, We Win NY HERO Act Signed into Law! |
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Tipping the scales of power requires uniting the most impacted communities to fight for dignity and justice. Movements must be built to win big. This was the impetus of our NY Essential Workers Coalition, made of unions, worker centers, immigrant rights organizations, legal service providers, health and safety organizations, and community-based organizations. Together, we saw that working people were denied the basic right to a safe and healthy workplace, and together we moved to build a statewide movement to protect our NY heroes. After a year-long fight, this coalition celebrates a monumental victory with the signing of NY HERO Act into law, enshrining a worker-led vision of health and safety for our communities. Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell spoke of this historic victory with Bloomberg News: “This law is a major new national precedent for how to create enforceable health and safety protections for workers on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic and give workers a voice on the job through health and safety committee.” |
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NY HERO Victory Rally and Press Conference on May 6th 2021 |
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The NY HERO Act is a huge achievement in how workers will reclaim power in their workplace and how our communities will be protected from COVID-19 and future airborne infectious diseases. Immediate and proper implementation will be key to a safe Covid recovery. This transformative law includes:
- Permanent, enforceable health and safety standards to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne infectious diseases in the workplace - Groundbreaking Health and Safety committees in order to monitor, review and collaborate with employers on all workplace health and safety policies - Strong standards that cover all private sector workers, including sectors often excluded in protections such as gig workers, day laborers, and independent contractors - Private right of action both when their employer violates the standard and puts them at substantial risk of serious harm and if they are retaliated against - The right to refuse to work if they feel they are unsafe and protections from retaliation when raising concerns
These are wins for workers across the country, not just New Yorkers. The NY HERO Act is a first-in-the-nation legislation that will provide a model for a country that continues to be devastated by this virus, where variants are emerging across the world, and states are seeing third or fourth waves of this pandemic. The NY Essential Workers Coalition has shown that bringing workers together across the state and industry in solidarity toward a common good can create transformative change. We thank Assemblymember Karines Reyes and Senator Michael Gianaris for standing up for workers and championing this legislation. The NY HERO Act is only the beginning in our fight to build worker power for a more just and equitable New York. |
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Amazon’s Hunger for Profit Hurts Workers and Our Communities |
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Amazon is rapidly expanding its facilities across New York, threatening the lives of workers with dangerous workplace conditions while making record profits. Just in 2020 alone, Amazon has purchased a staggering 14 facilities, most of them in neighborhoods already struggling with air pollution and street safety. That is why we are building a powerful coalition of organizations that have been leading the work to rein in Amazon’s power, including partners Make the Road NY, RWDSU, NY Communities for Change, and Teamsters Joint Council 16. To continue keeping Amazon accountable, this coalition wrote a report, How the NY HERO Act will Protect Amazon’s Workers, which reveals the out-of-control expansion of Amazon warehouses throughout the state, the brutal work conditions in those warehouses, and why the NY HERO Act will protect the tens of thousands of New Yorkers employed in those warehouses. As facilities are expanding, profits are too: Amazon made $21.3 billion in net profits and $386 billion in net sales in 2020. Meanwhile almost 20,000 Amazon workers have contracted COVID-19 and at least ten workers have died, as reported thus far.
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Jonathan Bailey, Amazon Warehouse Worker, speaking at the rally in a future Long Island City Amazon Warehouse Facility |
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On the day we released the report, we rallied with Amazon workers, other essential workers, community members, and elected officials at a future Long Island City Amazon Warehouse to condemn their blatant and inhumane pandemic profiteering. Among the speakers were Amazon worker Jonathan Bailey, who told AM NY:” As an Amazon worker, I have seen Jeff Bezos’ net worth grow by $100 billion since I have been working at Amazon—that is ridiculous...They do not care about our needs.” Our partners RWDSU, saw first hand the anti-union practices in Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon brazenly denied the voices of the majority black workforce fighting for health and safety and a voice in the workplace. Workers are sick and tired of corporations controlling their lives. As Amazon’s facilities and profits are expanding, our movement to reclaim our democracy and communities will grow too.
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Building a Movement to #MakePollutersPay |
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As New York and this country struggles with a climate crisis alongside the health and economic impacts of Covid-19, it is imperative that we fight for a green pandemic recovery that will bring people back to work in good, green jobs while aggressively tackling our climate emergency. This year we can make this possible by passing the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA), which will #MakePollutersPay so New York can create tens of thousands of green jobs and cut pollution for the most impacted communities. Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell told City and State: “It’s not only about charging polluters, but also how do we actually invest these funds in the solutions that we have envisioned.” At the federal level, we are fighting for the THRIVE Act, a transformational recovery and infrastructure package that would put 15 million people to work in good, union, family-sustaining jobs and advance racial, Indigenous, gender, environmental, and economic justice.
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During our Climate, Jobs and Justice Week of Action, we put New York State and the nation on notice about the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA) and the THRIVE Agenda. Together, we pulled off 50 statewide lobby visits and 10 lobby visits with members of congress; 15 rallies across the state; 15,000 engagements on social media; and 600 people on the capstone town hall with Senator Gianaris and Senator Schumer. The CCIA has now been introduced in both legislative houses and we have less than 2 months left to to get a majority of sponsors in both the Senate and the Assembly in support. Join us in getting calls from across the state flooding into every single legislator’s phone lines. Make your calls now. |
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Climate Investments For a Just Recovery |
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New York City cannot wait for the next economic collapse, hurricane or heat wave, to tackle our interlocking climate and jobs crisis. We must be proactive in creating a just recovery for good, green jobs now. On Earth Day (April 22nd), we released a report, Big Returns on Climate Investments in NYC: How $200 Million Invested This Year Will Create Thousands of Career Jobs, Reduce Costs, and Move Us to a Just Recovery, which shows that a just economic recovery is possible if the City invests $200 million in the budget for climate and jobs action. Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell told NY1 "We have to think about bigger and bolder climate investments for those most impacted by Covid and climate change." Our advocacy has pushed the City toward an Equitable Recovery in the Mayor’s Executive Budget with full funding for Commercial Waste Zones, funding for Local Law 97 implementation, funding for organics collection, and funding for Electric School Buses. But we must keep the pressure moving until the budget is finalized. You can join us in the fight for a more just and equitable economy and planet. |
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NYC’s Private Waste Companies are Still More Dangerous |
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The ‘Wild West’ of New York City’s private trash companies puts workers, the public, and our environment at serious risk. As long as carting companies push their majority Black and Latinx workers to the limits and engage in a race to the bottom, this is not going to change. We released a new report that shows that change needs to happen now. Over the past two years, the largest 20 carters had 85 crashes, including two fatal crashes, in the last two years – an increase of 140% over the past six years. That is why it was so critical that we won Commercial Waste Zones law in 2019. This law is the pathway to move from the current chaotic race-to-the-bottom system to a more efficient zoned system that can be used to greatly improve standards for commercial fleets, improving safety for sanitation workers and for everyone on NYC streets. This report shows that swifter implementation of the law we passed can mean life and death for workers and communities. Read the report here. |
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Excluded No More: Historic Excluded Workers Fund Established |
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It is no question that the pandemic has hit our immigrant and undocumented communities the hardest, killing thousands and wiping out jobs that kept these families afloat. While many New Yorkers could rely on financial relief such as unemployment, or the federal stimulus checks, immigrant and undocumented communities were excluded, despite their essential contribution to our economy. After fighting relentlessly throughout the pandemic, including engaging in two hunger strikes, the Fund Excluded Workers coalition won the first in the nation Excluded Workers Fund: $2.1 Billion that will provide direct cash assistance to workers ineligible for state unemployment benefits or federal COVID-related income relief. We congratulate the Fund Essential Workers Coalition, especially our partners Make the Road NY and New York Communities for Change for leading the charge for this incredible victory. This win shows that when it comes to building a movement for the dignity and health of our communities, no one is excluded. |
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ALIGN in the News |
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An Alliance in Action |
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Teamsters JC 16 - The fight is on at the Laurelton building where UPS management has fired 10 part-timers in violation of the contract and basic human decency, including two pregnant women who need healthcare coverage. Follow the workers’ fight and upcoming actions here.
NYC Environmental Justice Alliance - NYC-EJA Executive Director Eddie Bautista and UPROSE Energy Democracy Coordinator Summer Sandoval discuss UPROSE’s transformational campaign to bring Off Shore Wind assembly to the Sunset Park waterfront. Watch here.
NYC Central Labor Council - NYC Central Labor Council hosted a panel on Women Leaders in the Labor Movement. AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler to discuss how the #PROAct will help working women. Watch here.
DC 37 - The DC 37 Climate Justice Committee sponsored a 15-mile bike ride highlighting sustainability projects happening around the city & to call on the Mayor to invest in an Equitable Recovery and address the economic & climate crises by funding 100K good, green jobs over the next 3 years.
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 - The "Compassionate New York" campaign centers on creating healthy, stable communities. When we decarcerate NY's prisons, house people, end evictions & provide access to healthcare communities thrive. Watch the Compassionate New York press conference here.
CWA District 1 - The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is historic legislation that will put power in the hands of workers and reverse decades of legislation meant to crush unions. It's been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives - now we need to get it passed in the Senate. Find an event near you to help fight for the PRO Act.
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