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

Our movements cannot be siloed because too many of our crises are connected. When we build coalitions, we tackle the corporate power that fuels heat waves, raises gas and food prices, and leaves workers unprotected. When we build coalitions, we bring together the community experts who understand the solutions we need for a just future. When we build coalitions, we connect our fights for economic, climate, and racial justice. When we build coalitions, we leverage our collective power to rebuild a just and sustainable world.

TAKE ACTION

Get your tickets: ALIGN’s 2022 Movement Builder Awards will be Wednesday, September 28. Look out for an announcement of this year’s honorees later this month!

 

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

Climate Action is Economic Recovery

The Senate passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is a momentous step forward for climate action and corporate accountability. “The Inflation Reduction Act makes historic investments in renewable energy technologies including wind and solar, industrial decarbonization, clean transportation, and greener, healthier schools and buildings that will create an estimated one million green jobs,” Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell said in a statement. Unfortunately, the IRA still contains dangerous giveaways to fossil fuel companies that slow down our progress in what is already a small window of opportunity to prevent irreversible climate catastrophe. When heat waves are killing thousands across the globe, there is no time for compromise with an industry that profits off of death. Look to Rise Light and Power as a promising example of a fossil fuel plant envisioning a transition into a renewable energy hub. Our movement must ensure that the IRA gives us crucial funds to support the climate goals mandated in our nation leading laws: Local Law 97 and the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Sign up to take action with the state-focused NY Renews coalition and our City-focused Climate Works for All coalition to ensure that the IRA funds move us toward a just transition and a clean future.

 

Amazon’s Silence is Violence

Another month has passed and Amazon keeps getting richer on the backs of their workers. July 12 was Amazon Prime Day, an annual member event where exclusive deals lead to millions of new orders that workers must fulfill within Amazon’s unreasonable two-day turnaround. Tragically, a warehouse worker died at a fulfillment center in Carteret, New Jersey during this year’s event, and employees still await answers about what happened. But Amazon’s silence underlines what we already know: they have a track record of recklessness when it comes to injuries on the job. And elsewhere, they haven’t been quiet. Amazon recently acquired One Medical and Roomba, further tightening its grasp on consumers by entering the healthcare field and expanding its home robot empire while bucking antitrust concerns. And they’ve touted this Amazon Prime Day as so successful that there are already rumors of adding a second event this year. No death should be overshadowed by profit. 

 

Workers in New York are still waiting for protections they need now. ALIGN led the coalition that helped pass the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, legislation that brings transparency to secret quotas in the warehouse industry and ensures workers know their rights, but it remains untouched on Governor Hochul’s desk. Meanwhile, workers across the country are fighting back too as Amazon warehouses in Albany, Kentucky, and Tennessee have filed to unionize, and in Staten Island, the Amazon Labor Union continues its battle for recognition to begin negotiations in good faith. It’s time to sign the WWPA into law and send Amazon the message that New York stands up for its workers. And after that, we need a corporate accountability plan from state leadership that invests in economic resiliency for workers, consumers, and small businesses. The latest Consumer Price Index report revealed another record high last month, and we know inflation is not slowing down. The state has a role to play to protect New Yorkers, from ensuring the minimum wage keeps up with rising costs to updating our anti-monopoly laws, curbing price gouging, and reining in rampant corporate abuse. And ALIGN is building the coalitions that will help us get there. 
 

Alliance in Action

 

Teamsters Joint Council 16 - UPS Teamsters are rallying across the country this month to fight for the strongest-ever contract in 2023. The kick-off coincides with the 25th anniversary of the 1997 UPS Teamsters strike, when 185,000 members shut down the company for 16 days and won better wages, benefits, and job security.

 

RWDSU - RWDSU Members from across the country met for the 2022 Convention and shared their stories of how the power of collective bargaining has changed their lives for the better. 

 

NYC Central Labor Council - This month, Starbucks fired union leaders in Queens and Great Neck, Long Island. Workers United NY NJ is asking allies to support these two workers by ordering their drink at Starbucks under the name "Rehire Joselyn" or "Rehire Austin." And after you order your drink, take a pic and tag @SBWorkersUnited and @WorkersUnitedNY so they can amplify!

 

District Council 37 - In a new Op-Ed, DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido and 32BJ President Kyle Bragg argue “Private hospitals have steadily raised prices for life-saving medical care to an outrageous level that many New Yorkers cannot afford.”


Make the Road NY - When we fight, we win. Newark communities and advocates won their fight for good jobs and clean air, pushing the Port Authority to end their backroom deal with Amazon.