For Immediate Release: June 8, 2024
Media Contact: Lisa Thomas, lisa@alignny.org, (347) 415-6431
ALIGN on End of Legislative Session:
Huge Victories for Workers as the Climate Crisis Speeds Past Us
ALBANY, NY – As New York’s 2024 legislative session came to a close, Theodore A. Moore, ALIGN Executive Director, released the following statement:
“The legislative session ended with huge victories for workers — the Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act will protect thousands of workers in one of the state’s most dangerous industries, and the Retail Worker Safety Act will take a proactive rather than punitive approach to retail safety. And yet, another year passed without protecting workers enduring extreme heat, toxic fumes, and the rising cost of living upstate.
At the eleventh hour, the Assembly also passed the Climate Superfund Act, joining the ever-growing chorus of New Yorkers saying enough is enough, and placing the burden of rising climate costs on Big Oil and corporate polluters, not just working families. But one ‘environmental thing’ a year won’t meet the climate crisis at the speed it’s racing past us, especially when long-fought wins like congestion pricing can be demolished in an instant. Without aggressively transitioning New York off of fossil fuels and creating the green jobs of the future, the legislature calls it quits on our state’s survival.
We applaud the lawmakers who worked tirelessly this session to make New York sustainable, and ALIGN will keep fighting for dignity and justice for all New Yorkers,” said Theodore A. Moore, ALIGN Executive Director.
Background:
- Warehouse Worker Injury Reduction Act (S5081C/A8907A)
- 1 in 11 NY warehouse workers are injured annually and NY’s warehouse worker injury rate is 54% higher than the national average. Amazon workers are injured at an even higher rate — 37% more often than workers at non-Amazon facilities.
- Act requires annual safety evaluations of large warehouses for potential risks, establishes industry-wide safety standards, improves training and medical care, and empowers DOL to implement and enforce.
- Upstate Parity and Minimum Wage Protection Act (S8154/A9093)
- The MIT Living Wage calculator shows a living wage in New York state is $26/hr
- Bill sets a new wage floor upstate and down by establishing a statewide minimum wage of $17/hr by 2026
- Eliminates a loophole in the current minimum wage law that denies workers a raise when unemployment goes up.
- NY Home Energy Affordable Transition Act (NY HEAT) (S.2016-A/A.4592-A)
- Directs the Public Service Commission to align utility planning with mandates in NY’s Climate Law (CLCPA), lowering energy bills for low-income households, establishing an equitable transition away from gas systems, and lifting barriers to solutions like utility thermal energy networks that create good, green union jobs
- Just Energy Transition Act (JETA) (S.2935-C/A.4866-C)
- Creates a plan to transition at least 4GW of New York’s oldest and most-polluting fossil fuel-generating facilities to renewable energy hubs by 2030. Transition projects must be completed using project labor agreements and provide retraining opportunities for impacted workers.
- The Climate Superfund Act (S.2129-A/ A.3351-A)
- Holds New York’s worst polluters accountable, penalizing those who are financially liable for harms caused and existing environment pollution. Funds would finance infrastructure improvements, upgrade stormwater and sewage systems, and improve grid stability and public health across New York state. Projects must be completed using project labor agreements with no less than a prevailing wage and are encouraged to participate in apprenticeship programs.
- Temperature Extreme Mitigation Program or T.E.M.P. Bill (S1604D / A8935A)
- New York accounts for 14% of US ice, sleet, and snow injuries (BLS), and in NYC, there are an estimated 450 heat-related ED visits, 150 heat-related hospital admissions, 10 heat stroke deaths, and 350 heat-exacerbated deaths, each year (NYC Mayor’s Office).
- TEMP bill creates a workplace standard on heat that covers workers in agriculture, construction, landscaping, delivery, and food service, indoor and outdoor, including vehicles.
- Nail Salon Minimum Standards Council Act (S1800 / A378)
- Nail salon work is overwhelmingly performed by immigrant women of color who are exploited in unsafe working conditions and experience wage theft, discrimination, and exposure to toxic chemicals that cause harm to reproductive health.
- Act creates two committees to oversee the long-term sustainability of the nail salon industry where workers’ rights are respected, consumer health is protected, and salon owners no longer feel that they have to engage in illegal and exploitative practices to stay in business.
- Retail Worker Safety Act (S8358B / A8947C)
- Retail workers are subject to constant threats of violence and verbal harassment, but receive virtually no training in violence prevention, de-escalation tactics, or escape procedures, and few if any employers have a plan to reduce the risk of violence.
- Act requires employers to create a safe work environment by evaluating hazards, providing training, documenting incidents, and developing violence prevention programs.
About ALIGN
ALIGN (Alliance for a Greater New York) brings together labor, climate, and community organizations for a more just, sustainable New York. Working at the intersection of economic and climate justice, ALIGN builds coalitions with those most impacted and uplifts worker and community voices to fight for dignity in the workplace and a just path to a renewable energy economy for all.