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Newsletter for the Movement for Economic, Climate, and Racial Justice
 

The legislative session wrapped on June 3 and delivered crucial victories for workers, hard fought by our coalitions. We’re proud to have passed the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, which brings transparency to secret quotas in the warehouse industry and ensures that workers at companies like Amazon know their rights. The legislature also passed the Utility Thermal Energy Network and Jobs Act, providing a pathway to decarbonize buildings and transition fossil fuel workers to green career jobs. And in the final weeks of the session, we raced to the finish line with a crucial improvement to the NY HERO Act, responding to an urgent need for stronger enforcement. Now, an amendment to the law will penalize employers for retaliation and ensure that workers and employers collaborate on creating healthy workplaces.

 

These are great steps forward, but lawmakers left Albany with unfinished business, including the 21st Century Antitrust Act and other legislation addressing New Yorkers’ urgent needs. With primaries on the horizon, we need greater leadership at the state level prioritizing economic, racial, and climate justice. Now, all eyes are on the City as Mayor Adams and the City Council move toward a budget deal this month. We released a blueprint for Mayor Adams to create Green, Healthy Schools, by investing in green infrastructure and prioritizing neighborhoods most impacted by COVID and the climate crisis. Our budget is a moral document, and there’s no time to wait to invest in our city’s resiliency and long-term health. At ALIGN, we’ll keep fighting for what New Yorkers deserve, building a movement toward an equitable, sustainable state.

 

Take Action

 

Save the Date: ALIGN’s 2022 Movement Builder Awards will be Wednesday, September 28.

Read our new report: Green, Healthy Schools: A Blueprint for Mayor Adams, which reveals striking findings about the state of our public school infrastructure and offers an action plan to prioritize equity in our climate and COVID recovery.

Submit a public comment on New York's Just Transition to ensure justice for workers and communities in the transition to a carbon-free economy.


Concerned about health and safety in your workplace? Form a NY HERO worker committee to have a voice on the job.

 
 

Workers Lead the Way in the
Fight for Economic Justice

Across the country, people are fed up with the skyrocketing cost of living, a never-ending public health crisis, and deteriorating working conditions, while mega corporations shamelessly rake in record profits. Workers are standing up and fighting back, taking risks to empower and protect themselves, and ALIGN is actively developing policy solutions to demand accountability. When workers at Chipotle and Dotdash Meredith felt unsafe on the job, they formed NY HERO health and safety committees, won by ALIGN in 2021 to give workers a voice in their wellbeing at work. But proper enforcement is critical, and when their employers failed to recognize the committees, even emboldened to retaliation, ALIGN identified a gap in the law’s implementation and jumped to action. Now a new amendment to the NY HERO Act, passed in the final days of the session with our cosponsors, Senate Deputy Leader Gianaris and Assemblymember Reyes, empowers the Department of Labor to penalize bad actors and ensure the vision of NY HERO is upheld. Meanwhile, the Warehouse Worker Protection Act will provide transparency and key protections from the hazards of abusive production quotas. With the passage of this bill, New York joins California in challenging Amazon’s rampant abuse, strengthening a national movement to thwart corporate power. We are proud to have won this legislation with a mighty coalition of labor unions, community groups, and advocacy organizations including RWDSU, Teamsters, New York Communities for Change, National Employment Law Project, Strategic Organizing Center, and many others, and the leadership of labor champions Senator Ramos and Assemblymember Joyner. This was a big win, and we can build on it by creating injury prevention programs that proactively design safe workplaces to stop injuries before they start. Now we look forward to working with Governor Hochul to get these bills signed into law.

 

But much was left on the table this legislative session. In May, ALIGN rallied in Albany in support of the 21st Century Antitrust Act, which went on to pass the State Senate. But State Assembly leadership failed to take action to support New York’s workers, small businesses, and families with this critical bill. As the cost of housing, gas, and everyday goods soars, and supply chain issues continue to cause shortages across sectors, New Yorkers need relief. Corporate consolidation is one of the key drivers of inflation, and we need updated anti-monopoly laws to even the playing field. With rising inflation, we must also raise workers’ wages. We are continuing our work with the Raise Up NY coalition to fight for a minimum wage that keeps in step with rising costs. There is no economic justice without worker justice.

 

Labor Unions are Winning Bold Climate Action

The voice of labor must be an integral part of Governor Hochul’s plan to meet the climate goals mandated in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Recently, we brought together powerful unions representing nearly a million workers across the state, in a sign on letter that outlines the solutions needed to combat climate change and create hundreds of thousands of family-sustaining union jobs for New Yorkers. This letter is a powerful showcase of organized labor committing to a just transition. At the City level, our new Green and Healthy Schools report demonstrates how investing in solar and retrofits can provide healthier classrooms for our children while creating more union jobs, including for traditionally excluded groups. Our efforts to build an alliance of labor and climate are already moving us toward a clean energy economy. Unions, industry, and climate groups came together to pass the Utility Thermal Energy Network and Jobs Act, including the United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Sprinkler Fitters; Utility Workers 1-2; Sierra Club; Alliance for a Green Economy; and many others, laying the groundwork for fossil fuel industries to use their skills to build the future of clean buildings in New York. These are concrete and achievable models for the country. All eyes are on ALIGN for taking the lead on building collaboration with our government, industries, workers, and communities to take bold climate action.

 
 

Alliance in Action

 

NYC Central Labor Council - The Vox Media Union contract expires soon, but management isn’t moving quickly enough on major issues like salary increases and 401(k) contributions. Over 95% of union members have signed the strike pledge. Stay up to date on their fight for a fair contract.

 

District Council 37 - DC37 is demanding a fair and equitable contract from the City for all essential workers. Join them for a rally on Wednesday, June 15 at Foley Square.

 

RWDSU - Local 338 RWDSU/UFCW is working with the Rural & Migrant Ministry to raise awareness around farmworker organizing and their fight for better working conditions. Check out this video on collaborative union organizing with farmworkers in Long Island. 

 

Make the Road NY - Make the Road and NICE kicked off their “Care For All Families” campaign in City Hall Park, demanding child care funding for all children, especially undocumented immigrants, to be included in the FY 2023 Budget. 

 

NYC Environmental Justice Alliance - NYC-EJA is celebrating major legislative victories this year, including the first state law to mandate a study of heat waves on disadvantaged communities and a law banning cryptocurrency mining at fossil fuel plants in New York.