Public Employee Press

Union presses key issues with allies at Somos conference

DC 37 members and leaders met with elected officials and discussed pressing issues from local budget cuts to the nationwide attacks on public workers with some 500 Latino activists from around the state who converged on Albany April 1-3 for the 24th annual Somos Conference.

"You have individuals who will stop at nothing to do here what they have done in Wisconsin," said state Sen. José Peralta April 2 at the labor breakfast. "This is a true class war," Teachers Union President Michael Mulgrew told participants, "a fight for the future of this country."

Top elected officials at the breakfast, sponsored by the New York City chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, included state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu. DiNapoli spoke out against the misinformed attacks leveled at public employees and their unions. "The private sector has made a lot of mistakes. We should not let public employees pay for the mistakes of Wall Street."

DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido led the union's activists at the conference, which is sponsored by the New York State Assembly and Senate Puerto Rican and Hispanic Task Force.

The conferees participated in a series of workshops on vital issues. Local 372 President Santos Crespo was a panelist in a discussion on education moderated by Assembly member Carmen E. Arroyo. Santos expressed his deep concern over the budget cuts that would hit school support staff. "These workers play a critical role in our schools. We cannot take any more reductions in these positions without doing harm to our kids," he said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed the activists at the weekend's gala dinner and promised to support affordable housing, extend rent stabilization and close upstate prisons to keep inmates closer to their local communities.