ALIGN

Newsletter for the Movement for Economic, Climate, and Racial Justice

We started the new year strong by releasing our most ambitious climate and labor agenda ever, extending our commitment to social justice and solidarity across our borders, and continuing to build a team dedicated to a people’s vision of economic, climate, and racial justice. Yes, we’ve already been that busy. And based on our agenda, there’s a lot ahead of us and we can’t wait for you to build a better New Yorker together. Take a deep breath, let’s get to work.

Together, we can win a stronger, more resilient New York in 2024. Please consider donating to ALIGN so we can continue building coalitions fighting for economic, climate, and racial justice.

Donate

Protect the Minimum Wage 

Governor Hochul celebrated the new year with a minimum wage raise in New York State, but she failed to tell the whole story. The current minimum wage is far less than New Yorkers need to survive, as well as far less than what workers are receiving in other states and municipalities across the country. This session, we’re fighting to establish wage parity upstate and repeal a dangerous loophole that denies workers a raise in years of increased unemployment and so that no workers are left behind.  

Keep Warehouse Workers Safe on the Job

This month we launched our new campaign to #ProtectWarehouseWorkers in the State Capitol, which happens to be 15 minutes away from New York’s most dangerous warehouse. We’re fighting for $5 million in the New York State budget to implement and enforce the Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act (WWIRA), which would ensure warehouse employers protect workers first, requiring annual evaluations to identify and fix hazards.

Pass the People’s Climate Justice Budget 

and the Climate, Jobs & Justice Package

NY Renews kicked off the legislative session with a rally in Albany to call on Governor Hochul to invest in Climate, Jobs, and Justice. The People’s Climate Justice Budget is a $1 billion spending plan developed by and for New Yorkers as a downpayment on the more than $10 billion a year the state estimates is necessary to address the crisis at scale. In addition, we must pass the Climate, Jobs & Justice Package, climate acts that will lead to cleaner energy and cheaper bills, make corporate polluters pay for the mess they’ve made, and help us transition New York’s most polluting fossil-fuel power plants into renewable energy hubs, creating green union jobs and improving air quality in frontline communities statewide.

New York City

Invest in Green, Healthy Schools for NYC

NYC 3K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school staff deserve safe and healthy workplaces, and Climate Works for All is calling on Mayor Adams to fund Green, Healthy Schools so all students can breathe clean air and attend school safely — regardless of zip code. We’re fighting for $2.7 billion a year to electrify and upgrade 500 public school buildings by 2030, prioritizing schools in environmental justice communities, and to commit NYC’s to becoming a zero emissions school district by 2040. This investment can help the City meet the mandates of Local Law 97, create green union jobs, and give students, teachers, and school staff the safe and healthy workplaces they deserve.

Illustration Credit: Haley Tweedell

Protect Workers and Communities Vulnerable 

to Truck Pollution and Corporate Greed 

The e-commerce boom of the last decade resulted in an unprecedented number of last-mile distribution centers — facilities that deliver goods to their final destination — cropping up in neighborhoods around NYC, many in lower-income communities of color already bearing the brunt of truck pollution and the climate crisis. New legislation would require last-mile facilities to reduce emissions, require employee classification and minimum standards for wages and benefits, and ensure distribution centers are sited fairly across the city rather than overburdening specific neighborhoods.

ALIGN Calls for Permanent Ceasefire

In response to the genocide in Gaza, and in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, 

ALIGN released the following statement:

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, ALIGN calls for a permanent ceasefire to end the genocide against the Palestinian people. 

The first step toward lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis is an immediate ceasefire and support for humanitarian aid to civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. As Dr. King said, “It is not enough to say ‘We must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace.” 

ALIGN’s commitment to climate justice extends to the rejection of rampant militarism that destroys our planet. We are witnessing a harrowing climate catastrophe of polluting emissions, suffocating Gazan air, land, and the infrastructure that feeds its people. In what was already the hottest year on record, where the climate crisis is devastating working class Black, brown, and immigrant communities from Maui to Harlem, our government is funding the assault on Gaza instead of investing in sustainable improvements to our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and the planet. This is a moral travesty and a betrayal of Dr. King’s vision of peace and justice. 

Today, we join the growing chorus of the labor and climate movement who say ceasefire, now and forever.

ALIGN in the News

WNYT – Schodack’s Amazon Warehouse among most dangerous in NY state

Spectrum News – Advocates want $5M in budget to improve warehouse worker safety

WAMC, WRVO, WSHU  – New York advocates seek warehouse worker safety legislation

Spectrum News – Lawmakers and activists react to state budget climate initiatives

BK Reader – ​​Coalition Says $1B, New Legislation Needed to Meet State Climate Mandates

Politico PM Playbook – ‘NY RENEWS Pushes More Climate Funding’ and ‘Worker Safety’

Chief Leader – 2024 brings New Yorkers a higher minimum wage, increased worker protections

Democrat and Chronicle – NY minimum wage rising to $15 upstate, $16 in NYC in 2024. It’ll keep rising