PEP, April 2009: Shaping the agenda in Albany

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Pressing Gov. David Paterson and Albany lawmakers for a fairer budget, DC 37 showed its strength at the 38th annual New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislators caucus on the weekend of Feb. 14-16.

“We are facing a battle to make the budget right,” said DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray, who carried the union’s “Tax the Rich” message to the Albany conference: “The mayor has billions to build a new Yankee Stadium, he spent $9 billion on private contractors, but he wants us to give up our pensions and benefits. He’s trying to turn back the clock. But we gave at the office and we can’t sacrifice anymore just to make a billionaire happy!”

The legislative conference celebrated the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th U.S. president, and honored political trailblazers such as U.S. Congress member Charles Rangel, former New York Mayor David Dinkins, state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Assembly member Denny Farrell. DC 37 Secretary Cliff Koppelman accepted the Labor Award, which the union won for its Municipal Employees Housing Program.

Caucus festivities were tempered by participants’ concerns over the proposed budget cuts that would slash millions of dollars statewide in funds from essential health care, education, housing and other services.

Williams: “Follow the money”
“The labor movement represents just 12 percent of the U.S. workforce, and many in power are trying to take what we have,” said Maf Misbah Uddin, DC 37 treasurer and Local 1407 president. “Let’s tell the politicians, ‘You created the problem, not us!’”

“We’re making sure stimulus monies are earmarked to preserve the social service safety net our members provide. We have to follow the money!” said Political Director Wanda Williams. The planned state cuts threaten the jobs of thousands of state and municipal employees and their right to retire in dignity, she said.

DC 37 leaders and staff helped shape discussions on mayoral control of public education, the state budget, public housing, the health care safety net, consumer affairs, immigration and other issues at workshops where panelists included Local 371 President Faye Moore, Local 768 President Fitz Reid, Local 436 President Judith Arroyo, Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo, Local 1549 2nd Vice President Ralph Palladino, Political Director Wanda Williams, MELS Attorney Joan Foy and Assistant Research and Negotiations Director Moira Dolan.

Save jobs, tax the rich
DC 37 also lent decades of legal expertise to the consumer affairs workshop where, in a first, MELS attorneys Rashana Cain, Linda Keller, Jacqueline Pointdujour and Kaiesha Scarbrough teamed up with lawyers from the state Attorney General’s Office in a session moderated by Tessa Hackett-Vieira of MELS. The Westchester Black Women’s Political Caucus honored Oscar Alvarado of the DC 37 Political Action Dept. (see page 26).

U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, City Comptroller William Thompson, and state legislators said they are united in the ongoing fight for New York’s fair share of federal stimulus monies.
“Our country achieved a $2.5 trillion surplus under Pres. Bill Clinton,” Paterson said. “Eight years later Pres. Bush left a $7.5 trillion deficit.”

With the collapse of the finance and auto industries and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Paterson and President Obama inherited America’s worst economy since the Great Depression. Paterson said he would have a balanced budget by April that reflects shared sacrifice and may include increased taxes for those who can best afford it. “Putting people back to work will get the economy going,” he said, “cutting taxes will not.”