SETTING THE AGENDA
INSIGHT: ORGANIZED LABOR & UNIONS RETAIL, WHOLESALE AND DEPARTMENT STORE UNION A LEGISLATIVE AGENDA FOR SHARED ECONOMIC PROSPERITY The extensive growth of the low-wage service economy since the Great Recession has worsened income inequality and social polarization throughout New York. In 2014 we will continue through policy and legislative action to promote an agenda of shared prosperity, so that economic doors open for low-wage workers to join the middle class. Our agenda includes expanding the attachment of labor standards to more subsidized economic development projects in order to increase worker training, earning and economic mobility. And we will work with legislators to make regulatory improvements to the minimum wage increase that was passed last year, with the most important concern being the removal of the Minimum Wage Reimbursement Credit. The credit is a tax break for businesses passed in conjunction with increasing the minimum wage. However, the tax credit will end up doing two very bad things: It will lead to discrimination against older, low-wage workers; and it will make the minimum wage the maximum wage for teens, regardless of their skills or performance. This will lead to corporations as large as Walmart and McDonald’s receiving incentives to hire 16- to 19-yearolds to fill those positions and then firing them as soon as they turn 20. At a time when income inequality is on the rise, we don’t need incentives for employers to pay workers less while encouraging them to fire older workers. Another of our legislative priorities is reforming New York State’s current partial unemployment insurance system. One in 10 New Yorkers are employed in retail, and the number of part-time jobs is growing. The current system is based on days worked instead of wages earned, unlike unemployment insurance systems in the rest of the country. This has the perverse effect of encouraging people not to work, since they are penalized 25 percent of their unemployment insurance benefits for every day they work. Under New York’s partial unemployment insurance system, if people work they may earn less money, and that’s a completely counterproductive system that hurts workers and New York’s economy.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FEDERATION SUSAN KENT, President We know we have a lot of work to do this legislative session to continue our efforts
to advocate for good public policy that benefits all New Yorkers. We will continue our strategy of involving partners to move our legislative priorities forward. Opposing reductions in vital state services to vulnerable New Yorkers in our communities Opposing privatization of stateprovided services, as it lowers the quality of those services Opposing the reduction of qualified state staff who are professionally trained to provide services Ensuring the continuity of employment of PEF members with no geographic hardship Opposing the loss of state-operated services, shifting the economic responsibility to already economically distressed communities throughout New York State Last legislative session, working with our many partners, we were successful in stopping legislation that would have privatized SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. This story is far from over. We will continue to work with other unions, the community and lawmakers to ensure that vital public health services are preserved in the Brooklyn community. This year we are faced with many challenges, among them the effect that the Office of Mental Health plan for Centers of Excellence and recently announced facility closures in the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision will have on our members and the communities in which we all work and live. We will strive to ensure that standards of care and service remain high, that staffing levels in all state agencies are sufficient to meet those high standards, and that services are provided in the most appropriate state-operated settings by professional state employees. One of the things this administration promised was that we would think “out of the box,” and always be solution-driven. We have launched a Save Our Services (S.O.S.) campaign, and are enlisting the support of our communities, fellow unions and the Legislature to ensure that state services provided by our members [are] continued in our communities. For more information, and to sign our petition, go to www.pef.org.
income inequality. It’s time to change that dynamic and start looking at things from the perspective of the hardworking men and women who call New York home. Nowhere is this more evident than in economic development, where desperately doling out public dollars to businesses in nonstrategic tax breaks and incentives, coupled with shortsighted cuts to public services, has led to continued stagnation. Economic development programs need to be rethought and revised with a focus on sustainability, quality and accountability. We need to focus on developing longterm industries, not ad hoc transactions to create jobs that may or may not be here in a few years. The state must also enact job protections such as Project Labor Agreements in construction and standards post-construction, so that we create good family-sustaining jobs, not poverty jobs. We also must require businesses to set job creation goals when they receive public dollars and ensure that there is a means to claw back our money if promises are not kept. Last but not least, we need to remember that tax cuts do not create jobs. However,
investments in New Yorkers and the services they rely on are tools that will grow our economy. Investing in roads, bridges and mass transit infrastructure, adequately funding public education both at the pre-K through 12 and higher education levels, embracing the state’s responsibility to provide strong public healthcare such as mental health, and investing in public safety are all critical to economic development, not a detriment to it. Public services are an asset to New York State in creating and attracting economic activity and must be viewed as such. Supporting public services and reforming economic development, as well as advancing a progressive legislative agenda, will help all New Yorkers thrive. After all, the only real prosperity is shared prosperity, and we all—elected officials, average New Yorkers, the media and opinion leaders—must recognize that.
GOVERNOR CUOMO’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Lost Revenue Lost Service Lost Jobs Adds Local $ Burden IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Save Our Services
NEW YORK STATE AFL-CIO MARIO CILENTO, President As a state, we need to change not only policy but also who’s setting the agenda. Corporations and billionaires have had their chance, and the result has been unemployment and underemployment, declining wages, and
Support PEF’s campaign to keep services in your community For more information and to sign the petition please go to www.pef.org
cityandstateny.com | SEPTEMBER 23, 2013
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