Ramping Up to Pass the Unemployment Bridge Campaign in the 2024/25 NY Legislative Session
Another year has gone by with the NYS legislature failing to pass the Unemployment Bridge Program (UBP), and another year of excluded workers going without critical support they need when out of work. Cash workers, freelancers, and formerly incarcerated friends and neighbors are being failed by our current system. They work just as hard as traditional employees but are left out in the cold simply because of the way they are classified as a worker.
Fortunately, your local coalition pushing for UBP, the LI Fund Excluded Workers Coalition (FEW) has powerful worker leaders speaking up like freelance photographer Julie Flores. Julie was an honoree at LIJWJ’s recent awards dinner, and has been volunteering for the LI FEW Coalition since the 2022/23 legislative session. As a photographer Julie has documented the struggles of excluded workers like herself, and as an advocate has hit the ground from LI to Albany speaking about the injustices of our unemployment system.
Since the summer Julie has been interviewed by You’re Our Unity, has had some of her photography exhibited at the Heckscher Museum (and will continue to until 1/19/25!), and been featured as a worker voice for the National Employment Law Project (NELP). Julie and her work truly represents the resilience and drive of excluded workers who make some of the most essential parts of our economy run.
To keep up the fight for excluded workers, the LI FEW Coalition will be holding campaign launch events later in the fall. Stay tuned for announcements and please join us to get these workers a well deserved benefit!
Bosses Steal (a lot) Update – Chipotle
CEO musical chairs! Starbucks has gotten a new CEO, and if this guy’s record from his former company (Chipotle) is any guide, then things are not looking up for Starbucks’ corporate culture. Newsday recently ran a story on how Chipotle has paid back nearly $1 million in unpaid wages to current and former New York workers. Chipotle maintains that the wages went unpaid because of a computer system error, and that they have paid the workers on their own initiative. This may well be true, and it is good that the company is paying workers what they’re due, but we can’t help but notice how casually this is being handled.
According to our friends at 32BJ SEIU, Chipotle’s corporate culture is similar to other large chains like Starbucks, which makes Niccol a natural match for the company. It is discriminatory, lacking in transparency, lacking in accountability for managers, and has inadequate staffing policies, among other things. These conditions are very familiar to Starbucks workers who’ve been in the midst of collective bargaining with their corporate monster employer the last few months to resolve these same issues.
Chipotle and companies like it are given unequaled grace when they make mistakes. Workers on the other hand perform their labor in an authoritarian environment where simple mistakes can result in termination or other forms of discipline.
Chipotle took in nearly $10 billion in revenue in 2023, which makes the nearly $1 million returned to NY workers barely a blip on their balance sheet. But a worker who loses hours or their job because of simple mistakes can be financially devastated when not extended the same leeway Chipotle enjoys with state authorities.
To catch the latest updates on LI wage theft cases and everything else LIJWJ is up to, be sure to follow us on social media @lijwj on Instagram and on Facebook!
Care Can’t Wait
LIJWJ’s own Diane Cantave joined friends from the National Domestic Workers Alliance for a stop of the Care Can’t Wait bus tour last month. “Care Can’t Wait is a coalition of organizations, stakeholders and advocates committed to building a comprehensive, 21st century care infrastructure — that means robust investments to expand access to childcare, paid family and medical leave (PFML), and home- and community-based services (HCBS), and ensure good jobs for the care workforce.”
America has a huge deficit among the wealthiest nations in terms of the healthcare services supported by government. To bring badly needed services to the people and families that need them, Care Can’t Wait is fighting on the federal level for the investment of $400 billion in Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services, passage of the Child Care for Working Families Act, and passage of Paid Family and Medical Leave legislation.
We’re proud to support our friends in 1199 SEIU in the push for these badly needed policies!
We Are Long Island Organizing Hub Fall Event Schedule
The We Are Long Island (WALI) organizing hub is developing into and invaluable resource for organizers, activists and advocates in our region. WALI’s calendar is a smorgasbord of homegrown and locally organized events! Just in the next few weeks there are community fundraisers, trainings, and information sessions covering a wide range of issues impacting many of LI’s diverse communities.
Some of the public events on the WALI calendar, there’s a lot more for hub members!
Get more involved transforming LI into a place safe and welcoming for all and, just as importantly, connect with others looking and fighting to do the same. Join the hub to get full access or get to know WALI first and sign up for an open public event! Also be sure to follow them on Instagram!
Long Island Jobs with Justice 