ALIGN

Huffington Post, By Matt Ryan April 13, 2011. Last Friday, NY Jobs with Justice / Urban Agenda, along with New York Communities for Change, the Retail Action Project, and other members of the Walmart-Free NYC Coalition staged a flash mob in Time Warner Center, headquarters of the Related Companies, the real estate developer currently in talks to lease Walmart space to build its first store in New York City.

Nearly a hundred singing and dancing New Yorkers converged on Related's lobby with brass band backing to let the mega-developer know we don't want it opening the floodgates for Walmart to take over our city.

WNYC, By Cindy Rodriguez, April 12, 2011. A public hearing on the purchase of city land in Brooklyn by a major real estate developer Wednesday drew dozens of opponents who feared that Wal-Mart will move into the East New York property.

Huffington Post, By Matt Ryan, March 30, 2011. One hundred years ago last Friday, 146 workers, mostly young immigrant girls, lost their lives in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Trapped inside a sweatshop behind doors that had been locked to prevent theft and keep out union organizers, dozens of girls chose to throw themselves to their deaths nine stories below rather than be consumed by flames.

Traumatized by images of innocent bodies left strewn on city streets for days, New Yorkers rose to the occasion, initiating a wave of legal reforms and union organizing drives that laid the groundwork for the New Deal and the most exceptional gains that American workers have ever achieved.

Crains Insider, March 17, 2011. In an unusual, perhaps unprecedented occurrence, left-leaning New York Jobs with Justice sided with state Senate Republicans yesterday in rejecting the regional economic development councils proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "This could be a first," said a Jobs with Justice spokeswoman, "though we occasionally get a Republican who questions bottomless tax breaks." She said Cuomo hasn't provided enough details on the councils to demonstrate that they're "a coordinated, long-term strategy to create good jobs throughout the state." Senate opposition was not unexpected, given that the councils entail new spending largely outside of legislators' control.

This afternoon, members of the Getting Our Money’s Worth Coalition responded to State Senate Republicans refusal to fund Governor Cuomo’s proposed Regional Economic Development Councils:

Albany Times Union, By Rick Karlin, January 28, 2011. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday nominated a veteran business advocate as CEO and president of the Empire State Development Corp., New York's main economic development organization. And while unions have frequently been on the other side of business groups on several issues -- from the push for family leave to property tax caps -- representatives of labor groups generally had little criticism of Adams. One exception was Allison Duwe, executive director at the Coalition for Economic Justice, which has criticized business tax breaks and supports an expansion of workers rights. She said appointing an economic developer like Adams is "business as usual" at the Capitol.

This morning, members of the statewide Getting Our Money’s Worth coalition testified at a public hearing on Economic Development in the 2011-2012 Executive Budget.

This afternoon, members of the Getting Our Money’s Worth Coalition responded to Governor Cuomo’s budget proposal. The following statements focus on the need to balance revenue generation and the use of corporate subsidies with the needs of all New Yorkers

North Country Public Radio, By Brian Mann, February 1, 2011. Governor Andrew Cuomo's budget address is winning accolades from North Country lawmakers, with Republican state Senator Betty Little praising the plan and Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward sounding cautiously enthusiastic. But liberals groups are angry about this Democratic governor's approach to closing the $10 billion dollar deficit.

Crain's, By Erik Engquist, Daniel Massey and Jeremy Smerd, January 30, 2011. Gov. Andrew Cuomo may not have appointed Kenneth Adams as head of the Empire State Development Corp. last week if former Brooklyn Heights Councilman David Yassky had been more successful in a run for higher office...The appointment met with skepticism from Coalition for Economic Justice Executive Director Allison Duwe, who said Mr. Adams “has lobbied heavily against reforms that would ensure high perform-ance, accountability and transparency in how New York spends its economic development dollars.”