Long Island Jobs With Justice is reviving its Workers’ Rights Board this spring! Our last board convened in 2024 to document the struggles of local Starbucks workers and formed a base of community supporters who have joined workers to demand justice on picket lines, shop floors, and corporate executive offices. Now in 2026, we are focusing on a significant source of wealth extraction from Long Island – school construction projects.

For generations, school construction projects on Long Island created a strong foundation of union jobs that offered good wages and stable employment that helped families build a solid middle-class life. But over the last decade something has changed.
Weak enforcement of wage laws and poor oversight of school construction have allowed bad contractors to exploit workers, steal from the community and jeopardize the safety of our schools. Our communities deserve better!

This Workers’ Rights Board public hearing will receive testimony on wage theft, unsafe conditions, fraud, and the urgent need for accountability in our school construction.Testimonies will be received by our Workers’ Rights Board Commissioners:

• Mary Anne Trasciatti, Director, Labor Studies Hofstra University
• Charlene Obernauer, Executive Director, NY Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH)
• Richard S. Haase, President, Half Hollow Hills Teachers Association

Join us in witness and get in on the ground floor of a community effort to restore jobs, justice, and quality construction for our public schools! Click the flyer above or use this link to register!

Hope to see you there!

For generations, school construction projects on Long Island created a strong foundation of union jobs that offered good wages and stable employment that helped families build a solid middle-class life. Those jobs supported local workers, local businesses, and our communities as a whole.

But over the last decade something has changed.

Weak enforcement of wage laws and poor oversight of school construction projects have opened the door for law breaking contractors to win more local work, forcing responsible contractors out of the process and jeopardizing the well-being of our schools. In some cases, contractors are committing wage and insurance fraud, evading taxes, cutting corners on materials, and stealing from taxpayers. In fact, more than a dozen school districts have seen contractors arrested for fraud, wage theft, and shoddy building. Learn more here and see if your community has been affected.

At the end of the day, workers lose out, our community’s tax dollars are wasted, and the safety of our children, teachers and school staff are put at risk.

Our communities deserve better!

School boards control how millions of our local tax dollars are spent and those decisions directly affect the safety of our schools. When residents show up and speak out, it can shape the outcome.

That’s why we’re urging Long Island residents to show up at school board meetings to speak up for responsible construction practices, fair wages for workers, good use of taxpayer dollars, and safe schools for our community.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can get involved and stand with others to protect our community from exploitative contractors, join a community briefing on Wednesday, March 18th from 6-7pm, discussing how we can put an end to corruption and exploitation in school construction on Long Island. Register here.

Hope to see you there!

In Solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

See the flyer below for information on how to join others to build community and strengthen our movement in the face of escalating ICE terror! Stand alongside the Long Island Immigrant Justice Alliance this Sunday February 8 at 3PM in Freeport and dress warm!

In Solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

In the struggle against the horrific actions of ICE there are many ways to resist. On Wednesday February 4 at 7PM the Long Island Immigration Justice Alliance (LIIJA) is hosting a training for those looking to advocate for an agenda of state bills that will help keep our communities safe. Click here or the flyer below to register!

We hope to see you there!

In Solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

With assaults on workers from the highest levels of federal government to the smallest shop floors, Long Island workers have started off 2026 with the energy our movement needs to fight back. There are ways we call all pitch in to help in these uncertain times, and today we’re here with a short list of actions you can take TODAY to help!

Starbucks

Starbucks workers on Long Island began striking in multiple stores since November. Garden City’s 7th Street location has been out continually for the last two months! Despite the sacrifice and resolve from these workers, Starbucks is still refusing to bargain in good faith for a fair national contract that addresses the demands of the company’s baristas.

Please take a moment today to do one of the following actions the baristas are asking of community supporters:

• Boycott Starbucks – No Contract, No Coffee!
• Donate food and/or donate money to their hardship fund – As workers try to survive without pay during their strike every little bit helps them cover their basic expenses!
• Register for a 2/2 allies update webinar – Learn how you can act as a community supporter to take this fight to the next level!
• Please share all of the above with your friends and on social media! Help get the word out that Starbucks workers are out on strike and that the company should be boycotted until the baristas get their contract!

NYSNA

Nearly 15,000 NYC private‑sector nurses have been on strike since Jan. 12 to protect patient and nurse safety! For months, nurses have been bargaining for fair contracts, but management has refused to settle fair contracts that include enforceable safe staffing ratios, guaranteed healthcare benefits for frontline nurses, and protections from workplace violence. The power of the strike was demonstrated on Long Island when three Northwell hospitals (Huntington, Plainview and Syosset) settled with nurses before the strike began. Help Long Island nurses who commute in to work at city hospitals as well as our NYC friends by redirecting your energy there!

You can support nurses by taking action to support their fight for the fair contracts that New York’s nurses and patients deserve:

• Send a message to greedy healthcare CEOs. Email millionaire hospital CEOs to let them know that you are in solidarity with NYSNA nurses who are fighting to protect patient and nurse safety and demand a fair contract now!
• Donate to the NYSNA Strike Hardship Fund. 100% of contributions will be used to provide aid to NYSNA members who experience financial hardship due to strikes or protected actions.
• Pledge Your Support for Nurses.  Nurses work day and night to care for New York. Show you care for nurses by signing the pledge at
• Join the picket line! A strong picket line is essential to winning the strike and puts nurses’ resolve and the community’s support on display. Picket lines run from 7 am to 7 pm daily and the busiest times are 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Join us at whichever strike picket location and time is most convenient for you – see the flyer below for details!

Thank you for helping grow the workers’ movement on Long Island by taking action for our local nurses and baristas!

In Solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) issued a strike notice for over 1,000 nurses at three Northwell Health hospitals on Long Island. If Northwell’s management does not reach fair contracts with NYSNA by January 12, nurses at these locations will strike along with upwards of 20,000 nurses in the city who are also fighting for fair contracts.

NYSNA has asked for sign ons from Long Island’s faith community to the statement below urging Northwell to do the right thing for both nurses and patients by negotiating fair contracts to avoid this strike. If you would like to add your name in support of this statement, please reply to this email with your name and affiliation by Thursday January 8. Long Island’s NYSNA nurses are ready to grow the movement for quality patient care, and we hope you’ll join us in making it clear that we support them!

“We stand in solidarity with the nurses at Northwell Health Plainview, Syosset and Huntington Hospitals who are fighting for patient safety, fair contracts, dignity, and respect.

At a time when hospital CEO pay is out of control, there is no excuse not to pay nurses what they deserve and protect all existing benefits.  By agreeing to a strong contract with safe staffing and fair wages and benefits – we can further address the health and safety needs of our neighborhoods. 

Northwell Health is the largest private employer in New York State with some of the highest executive compensation in healthcare. In 2023, the 20 top executives at Northwell made over $36.7 million in salaries, bonuses, and perks.

Northwell is huge and has only grown larger through mergers and acquisitions in recent years. Nurses know that if Northwell can afford to acquire entire health systems, like they did by merging with Nuvance Health in 2025, they can afford to settle fair contracts with nurses.

We believe all Northwell patients deserve quality care—from patients in the community hospitals that have been the bedrock of healthcare long before Northwell acquired them, to the newest Northwell hospitals.

We urge you to listen to the nurses, agree with their just demands and negotiate a fair contract. We see fulfilling these demands as a pathway to protecting the health and safety of our communities. ”

Many thanks for continuing to fight for workers rights with us in 2026! Let’s start the year strong!

In Solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice

If you are able, please support this GoFundMe campaign to help Jose and Josue Trejo Lopez, young brothers who were deported to El Salvador in May and today have no source of income to support themselves.

Jose and Josue, who are from Central Islip, are well known to Long Islanders opposing the Trump Administration’s cruel mass deportation of immigrants. The brothers were brought to the United States a decade ago at ages 10 and 11 by their mother who was fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. Their date of arrival did not qualify them for DACA protection.  

This past March, during their regular immigration check-in at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, the brothers were arrested by ICE in front of their mother, detained for two months and then deported to El Salvador. In this video produced by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Jose describes their harrowing deportation.

Neither brother has a criminal record. Jose says the only thing he did wrong was to obey the law by faithfully attending his immigration check-ins, where he and Josue were arrested in March. Both recently graduated from high school, with their lives ahead of them like so many other young Americans.  

Today Jose and Josue are isolated in a small Salvadoran town about two hours outside the capital of San Salvador. They have no relatives in El Salvador. They have not been able to find work. Their attorneys are still trying to return them to the United States, but it is an uphill battle.

While their legal status leaves them in limbo, the brothers need our help to pay rent and purchase food. El Salvador is a poor country; job opportunities are scarce. Please do what you can to help Jose and Josue by contributing to their GoFundMe campaign.

In Solidarity,

Long Island Jobs with Justice