For nearly five years, Starbucks baristas have been fighting for what every worker deserves: better pay, enough hours to make ends meet, safe staffing, and a fair union contract.

More than 12,000 baristas have organized with Starbucks Workers United, winning more than 700 union elections nationwide. But instead of finalizing a fair first contract, Starbucks stonewalls at bargaining while workers fight for the basics they need to survive.

It would take less than one day of sales for Starbucks to settle a fair, reasonable contract with workers with better pay, better staffing, and enough hours to live on. Instead, Starbucks chooses to be the biggest violator of U.S. labor law in modern history.

This is why Starbucks Workers are launching a new boycott campaign, and asking you to sign the Boycott Starbucks Pledge. Please support by committing to take your coffee dollars elsewhere until Starbucks finalizes a fair union contract and stops unionbusting! Every person who joins the boycott sends a clear message that workers deserve respect, and Starbucks can’t keep delaying the fair contract baristas have earned.

Take the Boycott Starbucks Pledge

LIIJA Action

On September 27 the Long Island Immigration Justice Alliance (LIIJA) is holding an interfaith vigil and community march to mark one year since the death of Santos Banegas Reyes. Reyes was abducted by ICE agents while on his way to work outside of a Key Food in Hempstead. Less than 24 hours later died in the Nassau County jail. Join LIIJA to make it clear that we as Long Islanders support and welcome our immigrant friends and neighbors, and that this ICE terror needs to stop!

Catholics Welcoming Immigrants Special Mass

Join Catholics Welcoming Immigrants (CWI) for a special Mass in solidarity with Long Island’s immigrant community! CWI is a grassroots movement of lay Long Island Catholics, religious sisters and clergy promoting Gospel values and Church teaching to inspire a faithful response to immigration.  

Click the following links for flyers in Spanish and Haitian Creole.

Thank you for being a friend of LIJWJ, and we’re glad to be alongside you in the fight for workers’ rights!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

Hofstra’s American Association of University Professors (AUUP) members have ratified a contract with administration! Thank you to all who signed on to our community letter of support. LIJWJ’s letter, along with a chorus of other organizations and individuals mobilizing to support, came at a critical time in the negotiations to send a strong message to university administration. We made it clear that our communities value the work Hofstra faculty does, and that they deserve fair treatment!

Read the letter and view the signatories below!

Thank you for being a friend of LIJWJ, and we’re glad to be alongside you in the fight for workers’ rights!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

Hofstra’s American Association of University Professors (AUUP) faculty are currently in a struggle with university administration for a fair contract. They have asked for support in the form of sign ons to the attached community support letter, which gives some examples of how university administration has disrespected its faculty.  

Higher learning institutions have been one of many under assault by the current administration. Hofstra’s Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy, and its Labor Studies program, has been an amazing partner of LIJWJ for multiple campaigns over the years. They remain a steadfast voice for Long Island’s workers, creating a platform for the workers’ movement and conducting research on our region’s labor conditions. Please support the Labor Studies and rest of Hofstra’s AUUP faculty by signing on to the letter below!

To sign on to the letter, simply reply to this email saying you’d like your name added and the organization or congregation you represent, if applicable.

Thank you for being a friend of LIJWJ, and we’re glad to be alongside you in the fight for workers’ rights!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

We had a blast at our 2026 Awards Dinner! It felt great to be surrounding by over 120 of our closest friends and recognize the incredible work of The Long Island Immigration Justice Alliance, District Council 9 IUPAT, Mary Dewar, and Bend the Arc.  

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported this event. The funds we raised will help LIJWJ keep going strong through the rest of 2026!

NYSNA Ratifies New Contract!

Following negotiations and the flexing of union strength, NYSNA nurses at St. Charles Hospital have won a new fair contract!  You can read the details of the contract, and all the victories for nurses and patients, here. Thank you to everyone who signed NYSNA’s petition, and to our faith leaders who signed on to a letter of support.

This is great news, but there are still two more Catholic Health locations yet to ratify contracts. From NYSNA: “The contract for NYSNA nurses at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage expired on March 31, and the contract for NYSNA nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown is set to expire July 31. Negotiations are ongoing at those two hospitals. NYSNA nurses are united in demanding contracts that deliver safe staffing, protections from workplace violence, and fair wages.”

Stay tuned for any more calls for support from our local nurses!

Join Other Long Islanders in the Fight Against Authoritarianism!

“We’ve all seen the rise in authoritarianism – from ICE raids to limitations of free speech, to the current efforts to keep people from voting so they can control our elections and seize more power – but we can stop it by taking action together.

Join your neighbors on Saturday July 25th from 12-5pm in Plainview for a training that covers what authoritarianism looks like, what movements have done around the world to defeat it, and how you can take action with local groups on Long Island.

Whether you’re new or experienced with political activism, come and get the playbook to protect and perfect our democracy in 2026.

The training is free to attend, and you’ll be provided with snacks, and a sense of purpose and community.”

Click here to register!

Thank you for being a friend of LIJWJ, and we’re glad to be alongside you in the fight for workers’ rights!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

Our fourth honoree spotlight is on an emergent collaboration of individuals and organizations who have come together to stand up for Long Island’s immigrant communities in the face of terror. LIJWJ is proud to be a part of the Long Island Immigration Alliance and its work, and we hope you’ll join us a week from today at our Awards Dinner to honor them! Tickets are only available until July 10, so if you haven’t gotten yours yet now is the time!

“The Long Island Immigrant Justice Alliance (LIIJA) is a diverse network of non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, faith leaders and activists who are dedicated to the pursuit of justice, equity and dignity for immigrant communities of all races, nationalities, and languages across Long Island. LIIJA is rooted in the values of inclusion, solidarity, and mutual respect, working toward building a more just and welcoming immigration system, devoid of terror and fear.

LIIJA works collaboratively to inform, protect and advance the rights of immigrants through grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, sharing legal and community resources, and promoting best practices to protect our immigrant neighbors. LIIJA assists in the development of rapid response teams, business and labor engagement, school support, legislative and policy advocacy, direct action campaigns and community Know-Your-Rights programs.

Since early 2025, LIIJA has held numerous community-based events to challenge the injustice of immigration detention and family separation, and to push back against hate mongering and ICE collusion by local government officials and agencies. LIIJA’s Legislative Committee has worked tirelessly to train advocates with the skills and the information needed to expand the fight for more protective policies statewide, such as New York for All.

LIIJAs Faith Committee has held monthly events, including in Freeport, Central Islip, Mineola, Huntington, Patchogue and Holtsville, calling on people of moral conscience to stand in solidarity with local immigrant communities and to push back against cruel jail conditions and the proposed building of a local detention center. Clergy members have helped to lead many of these events, promoting a network of love, resistance and inclusion.

In recognition of the financial difficulties immigrants are facing, LIIJA recently started a FRIEND fund to support people in detention and their loved ones in the community. A fundraising concert was recently held which included local musicians who donated their talents to the cause. Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to contribute!

LIIJA has also worked to flip the narrative, lifting up the stories, voices, contributions. dreams and experiences of immigrants who live in our community and even those who have already been deported. In the midst of so much division and fear mongering, we recognize that it’s only by recognizing people’s humanity and working in solidarity with one another that change will be realized.  

LIIJA thanks Long Island Jobs with Justice for its continuing activism, wisdom and support, We are incredibly grateful for this honor. Despite the many challenges that lie ahead of us, we look forward to working together with many of you. building a movement for social justice, and celebrating many victories together. Onward! ¡Sí se puede!”

Please join us for an energizing, movement-strengthening, and worker-centered evening on Tuesday July 14th at Captain Bill’s in Bay Shore! Reserve your tickets here!

This dinner also provides important financial support for LIJWJ’s coalition building work. So if you can’t make it but would still like to support please leave a donation!

Thank you for being a friend of LIJWJ, and we’re glad to be alongside you in the fight for workers’ rights!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

Since LIJWJ’s founding in 2003, Mary Dewar has been a dedicated member of our board. She announced her retirement this year (at age 103!) and we are proud to honor her over half-century of nursing and fighting for justice at our awards dinner! Read about her amazing life below, and head here for ticket purchases and sponsorships for our dinner!

“Mary was born and grew up in East Orange, NJ. She graduated in 1943 from Oberlin College in Oberlin Ohio with a BA. She received a Master of Nursing (MN) in 1946 from Western Reserve University (now Case WRU) Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in Cleveland, Ohio and receiving her RN in 1946. She was a Cadet Nurse while at WRU. Later in 1972, she received a MA in Public Health Nursing from NYU and did all but the dissertation work toward a doctorate.

She worked in nursing for more than 50 years.

Her first career was as a missionary nurse for the United Church of Christ (UCC) starting in North China in 1947 – 1951, where she taught student nurses and helped run a 120-bed hospital in Taiku (now Taigu) Shanxi. She worked with Chinese colleagues and students when there was no doctor during liberation and the change from Nationalist to Communist governments in 1948-49. She was reassigned to Angola, Africa in 1951 and worked in mission hospitals in Dondi and Galangue teaching student nurses and running or helping run the hospitals without electricity or running water.

She was reassigned to Mount Silinda hospital in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where she did similar work as a missionary from 1960 – 1965. This hospital is located in the southwest corner of Zimbabwe close to the border with Mozambique.

In 1966 she moved to Worawora Hospital in Ghana for a year to substitute for another missionary nurse to help with the training of student nurses.

She was assigned in 1968 to Geneva, Switzerland to the World Council of Churches (WCC) to serve on a new Christian Medical Commission (CMC), established to survey all church medical work in the third world countries, both Catholic and Protestant. The goal was to understand the expense of operating these hospitals and to make decisions on how to improve the efficiency across multiple institutions. The churches recognized that the costs were increasing beyond the mission boards capacity. The survey was to help missions make these decisions and Mary participated in surveys in Ghana, Cameroun, and India.

In 1970 she returned to the United States and after her studies at NYU, she accepted a university teaching post at Adelphi University in the School of Nursing. She taught Community Health Nursing and Family Dynamics and Epidemiology (after taking a course at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health). She taught for 20 years and retired in 1992.

Her third career as a retired nurse led her to health policy, specifically working for universal health care (Medicare for All or Single Payer). She was on the executive board of the Long Island (LI) Coalition for a National Health Program (1990-2012), health policy point person on the LI Council of Churches (LICC) Public Issues Committee (1994, and chair 2000-2018). As chair she represented LICC on the board of LI Jobs with Justice, one of two faith-based persons on the board. She was also on the Board of District 14 of the New York Nurses Association and later president of the district (1998-2002). She was elected to the nurses’ honor society, Sigma Theta Tau International. In 2012, she was elected to the Board of the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP, the New York metro chapter), and in 2016 was honored at a gala by this chapter. She has been a member of the American Public Health Association for more than 40 years.

In church work, she has been active since 1984 in the Garden City Community Church, United Church of Christ and has served on their Outreach and Social Responsibility Committees. The committee is responsible for identifying speakers for weekly forums on social issues. She has been their delegate for many years to the state conferences of the United Church of Christ and the local association meetings. She served from 2000-2005 on the Board of the Parish Resource Center West, in the Metro Association of New York UCC she served on the Committee of Ordination and Ministerial Standing from 2006-2012.

She resides at the Bristal in North Hills NY and is 103 years old.”

Please join us for an energizing, movement-strengthening, and worker-centered evening on Tuesday July 14th at Captain Bill’s in Bay Shore! Reserve your tickets here!

This dinner also provides important financial support for LIJWJ’s coalition building work. So if you can’t make it but would still like to support please leave a donation!

Thank you for being a friend of LIJWJ, and we’re glad to be alongside you in the fight for workers’ rights!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

It’s the Long Island Jobs with Justice Awards Dinner! And you’re invited! 🎉

We hope you’ll be there to join scores of others to celebrate and support Long Islanders organizing for justice! To undo and repair all the wrongs imposed on the working people of our region, we need a coalition of labor, faith, and community acting as one.  In this spirit we’re honoring DC9 IUPAT, Mary Dewar, Bend the Arc, and the Long Island Immigration Alliance who have all made important contributions to our local workers’ movement.  

Reserve your tickets here.

This dinner also provides important financial support for LIJWJ’s coalition building work. So if you can’t make it but would still like to support please leave a donation!

We hope to see you on July 14th at Captain Bill’s!

Thank you for being a friend of LIJWJ, and we’re glad to be alongside you in the fight for workers’ rights!

In solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice