The New York State AFL-CIO, a NYSUT affiliate, has launched a proactive statewide campaign - "makingNYwork" - to advance the agenda of union members and all working families.
"As a result of the endless assault on working men and women, the labor movement has all too often had to play defense," said state AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento. "This has impacted every effort we've undertaken, be it legislative, organizing or in negotiating contracts. It's time it comes to an end."
The campaign is aimed at educating members and the public about common issues and turning that knowledge into legislative and political action. It offers strategies to develop strong, long-term industries that generate family-sustaining jobs, investments in public services, ways to lift low-wage earners out of poverty and strengthen supports for working families on and off the job.
"New York must build a ladder to the middle class by investing in public education, health care and human services," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "The state AFL-CIO's campaign exposes how our decades-old approach of granting tax breaks and incentives to corporations with promises of creating only a handful of low-wage jobs worsens inequality and provides no opportunity for upward mobility for hard working families." The campaign focuses on:
- Issues contributing to economic inequality.
- Advocating for investments in New Yorkers and the services they rely on - tools that will grow the state's economy.
- Calling on state-elected officials, average New Yorkers, the media and opinion leaders to start looking at things through the perspective of working men and women, not corporations and billionaires.
- Showing that New York will only succeed as a state, when we all succeed together.
- Demanding leaders elected to public office by working men and women start working on their agenda.
"The 2014 state legislative session and subsequent political campaigns provide us with an opportunity to drive elected officials toward the issues important to the hard working New Yorkers that elected them, and away from the corporations and billionaires that are setting the agenda in Albany and local governments across the state," Cilento said.
TAKE ACTION
You can join the fight. Take the pledge to make New York work for all by visiting the new micro website - www.makingnywork.org. Featured is a testimonial by NYSUT member Megan DeLaRosa of the Shenendehowa Teachers Association.