UFCW 2016 Lobby Day...A Success!

On Tuesday UFCW & RWDSU members from throughout New York hopped on buses to our state capital, Albany. Over 100 UFCW members attended Lobby Day this year, to lobby for legislation to help UFCW families.

Local 1500 members with NYS Assembly Member Michaëlle Solages

Jerome Gomez, who works at Fairway on Long Island, explained why he went to Lobby Day this year said, “We are the voice for the working families. It’s very important that here in Albany, they hear us and our families. We are here to represent our community and our neighborhoods. The assemblymen and women we saw today, they live in our neighborhoods, they need to know and see us representing our community.”

James Williams, a UFCW Local 1500 member from Fairway Market, spoke about his first lobby day experience, “It gives you a chance to actually speak to the people who make things happen for your community. I was very pleasantly surprised the way they took to us and they were open to our ideas and agendas. I’ll definitely be back.”

Thank you to all UFCW New York Local Unions and members that joined: Local One Local 888 Local 2013 Local 1500 Local 342 Local 1262 Local 1245 Local 464-A RWDSU Local 338 RWDSU Local 1102

What We Lobbied For: 

 Pass Fair Work Schedules S-52 & A-261

 Problem: Companies use “on-call” scheduling to force people to work harder and longer and be unaware of their shift until the last moment. These “on-call” shifts require workers to call their employer, often just hours before their shift starts, to and out if they should come in. While there is no guarantee of a shift, the worker is expected to be available, preventing them from attending to other responsibilities.
  
Solution: S-52/A-261 would guarantee at least four hours of pay (at minimum wage) for workers who are required to contact their employer or wait to be contacted less than 24-hours before their shift starts.  Workers in New York are currently guaranteed four hours of pay each day they report to their job. S-52/A-261 simply closes a loophole that employers are using to avoid this requirement.

Repeal Minimum Wage Reimbursement Tax Credit S-1280 & A-6532 (also known as the “Walmart Tax Break”) 
If an employer in New York State hires a student aged 16-19 and pays them minimum wage, then they are provided with a tax credit of $1.35 multiplied by the total number of hours worked by all eligible employees.

Problems with this tax credit:  All employers are eligible—including: Walmart, McDonalds, etc.
n Provides employers with an incentive to hire young workers and pay them low. As of 2013, 90 percent of New York’s lowest wage workers were above age 20. n The New York Department of Taxation and Finance estimates the credit will cost the State $43 million in FY 2016. n Does not require employers to disclose participation or credit received. n The cost of the program is not capped.

UFCW Lobby Day in Albany

 

Our annual Lobby Day will be held on May 17, 2016. We'll be charting a bus to Albany, NY and providing UFCW gear/food for all attendees. Here are the bus pick up locations:

Bus Pick Up Locations:

1.  6:30 AM: UFCW 1500 Office: 425  Merrick Road Westbury
2.  7:15 AM: Stop & Shop 2592: 2136 Bartow Ave Bronx

Register by filling out the form here & join hundreds of UFCW members to travel to Albany, N.Y. to hold our elected officials accountable!

For more info/questions contact Brendan Sexton: bsexton@ufcw1500.org 516-214-1362

Lobbying for Better NY Union Jobs!

Last week we hopped on the bus to Albany to lobby for better NY Union Jobs!  Check out all the pictures here!

via UFCW Action

UFCW members from local unions all across New York descended upon the Capitol in Albany today to lobby their elected officials about important bills pending in the Assembly and the Senate.

UFCW members lobbied in support of the New York DREAM Act, the Fair Elections Act, the Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act, medical marijuana, and conveyed their strong opposition to the Walmart tax credit that was structured into the recently passed minimum wage deal.

For Isha Matko, a UFCW Local 1500 member who works at Gristedes in New York City, this was her first lobbying experience.

“We’re here to help bring a voice to more workers. This helps to ensure that Assemblymembers and Senators are seeing and hearing from real people. It’s a powerful experience being able to talk with people who have the ability to make a difference in all our lives.”

The real impact in lobbying comes from elected officials being able to attach a personal face to the bills that they vote on. Having a lobby day sends a strong reminder that they work for real people–not just the wealthy or big corporations. Juan Guardado, a UFCW Local 1500 member who works at Stop & Shop in West Islip, had a very personal reason for lobbying.

“I’m happy to be here because I really support the DREAM Act. I have a family member who is undocumented and despite getting straight A’s wasn’t eligible for any financial aid. He had to stop going to school because he couldn’t afford it. It’s important for working people to talk to their elected officials because they need to see firsthand that we care, we’re informed and we’re struggling.”

As the lobby day came to a close, UFCW Local One union representative Mark Manna of Buffalo hit on the true importance of the day.

“We’re working people. We don’t have $1,000 suits or a big checkbook, but we have a right to let our elected officials know what we’re concerned about. At the end of the day we keep score with votes, not with how much money is raised.”

Too often, when the word “lobby” is tossed around people immediately think “wealthy” and “special interest.” Yesterday in New York, UFCW members made sure their elected officials associated “lobby” with “workers.”