Jun 19 2008

Buffalo (Western NY) - Buffalo, NY - 06/19/08 - Erie Community College

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

One Response to “Buffalo (Western NY) - Buffalo, NY - 06/19/08 - Erie Community College”

1. # alf1 on 19 Jun 2008 at 2:04 pm

   Economic Security Town Hall Meeting Testimony
   6/19/08
   My name is Patty DeVinney. I am the Field Coordinator for the Western New York Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which represents 5 Central Labor Councils in Western NY. We represent over 100,000 union members and families.
   Our Union Principles of Economic and Social Justice includes:
   ✦ Economically and Environmentally Sustainable Urban and Rural Communities
   ✦ Full Employment and Quality Standard of Living
   ✦ Respect for Workers’ Rights
   ✦ Dignified Retirement
   ✦ Health Care for All
   ✦ Lifelong Public Education
   ✦ Diverse Arts and Cultural Enrichment
   ✦ Community Partnering

   These principles guide the legislative priorities we pursue as a labor movement. These priorities also clearly follow the mission of this Town Hall Meeting: IDA Reform, Paid Family Leave, Unemployment Reform and Jobs, Trade and the Environment.

   ➢ IDA Reform – With the revenue problems facing NYS, proper use of our tax dollars is essential. We need transparency and accountability. In addition, projects receiving tax dollar incentives should require prevailing wages and wage standards for permanent jobs created, certified apprenticeship programs and local hiring. Many local construction firms believe wholeheartedly in prevailing rates and apprenticeship programs. These businesses don’t want to drive wages down but want a level playing field to compete. Low wage jobs do nothing for this city, which is the 2nd poorest in the country and in WNY, which has very poor rural areas. There is no economic sense in job creation that is not self-sustaining for individuals and families necessitating increased costs of taxpayer safety nets. Finally, IDA boards should have diverse representation from the community. You have received further testimony from Alison Duwe, Executive Director of the Coalition for Economic Justice and Michael Hoffert, President of the Buffalo Central Labor Council.

   ➢ Unemployment Reform- Not only is it necessary that unemployment compensation maintain a financially sustainable economic safety net for working families who are laid off, it is clear retraining has become essential to help lower wage workers upgrade their place in the labor market and to assist the greater numbers of downsized workers regain their footing in the middleclass who have been laid off permanently. Numerous jobless workers decide to drop out of training courses or do not pursue training or skills upgrading because they need to make a living, even a substandard one, to support their families. By continuing payment of unemployment insurance benefits to workers enrolled in training or skills upgrading, New York State would allow families a meaningful opportunity to break the cycle of unemployment and underemployment. In addition, non-professional employees of an educational institution should qualify for unemployment benefits during vacation periods. Service employees in schools, including cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and others are generally low wage workers. If they receive no salary during the vacation months, they often experience financial hardship waiting for the school year to begin again.

   ➢ Paid Family Leave- Louisa Pacheco, Working Families Party Staff Organizer who was unable to attend due to her work schedule has provided you compelling testimony, which was presented to the WNY Delegation at our Legislative Town Hall Meeting in May 10th. This is an affordable benefit, paid for by payroll deductions. With proper funding it keeps families intact and retains valuable workers. Finally it is good policy that is recognized globally.

   ➢ Jobs, Trade and the Environment- Frank Hotchkiss, representative of the United Steel Workers and Apollo Alliance is providing this Economic Security cabinet testimony on this very important topic.

   These are not fringe positions. There is plenty of research, which is easy to access, that substantiates the validity of the proposed solutions and serious concerns driving these positions. Such information can be provided upon request.
   These are priorities that represent the hard working members of the communities of Western NY; and labor speaks to these issues because of our duty to represent the interests of working families.
   We ask that this governmentally appointed cabinet of 20 State Agencies represent the people of this community rather than the interest of the very wealthy and profiteering businesses. We ask that you focus on maintaining or in many cases recapturing proper community standards with regards to education, skills training and workforce development. We ask you to be dedicated about social safety nets for middle and low-income families striving to be productive by bringing quality job into our communities.

   (Report comment for improper content)