TWU, NYC Trade Unions Back Gov. Cuomo’s Fightback Against Trump's Attacks on Infrastructure Funding

JUNE 6 -- New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo addressed an energetic union-dominated crowd in a large meeting hall of the Jacob Davits Center, vowing to fight Trump Administration policies  that threaten infrastructure funding, women’s rights, and climate change initiatives. Naming New York State Congressmen John Faso of the Hudson Valley, and Chris Collins of Buffalo, the Governor said he was charging them with “defrauding voters. They said they would help the middle class, they’re doing the exact opposite. They’re political pawns to the puppet masters in Washington.”

Dozens of TWU Local 100 members including Secretary-Treasurer Earl Phillips, MOW VP Tony Utano, and MaBSTOA VP Richie Davis were in the packed room as the Governor laced into the Trump administration and Republican officeholders. He contrasted their defunding plans with New York State’s positive agenda for working people. “If you want to help the middle class and working families,” he said, “start by creating jobs with a record investment in infrastructure, putting people to work, and using the men and women of organized labor to do it.” Other unions waving signs and placards with the hashtag #fightback were hotel and building trades unions, IBEW Local 3, the RWDSU, and the CWA.

“You help the middle class by passing paid family leave and by raising the minimum wage,” Cuomo added. “You protect the people in the ACA because health care is a human right. Also [you help] by protecting our planet and our environment; and understanding that growing the economy is not the enemy of protecting the environment; it is the ally of of protecting the environment.” He also spoke of the vital importance of protecting workers’ right to organize and said that, now that the Trump administration has pulled out of the Paris accord on climate change, that New York State would form a coalition of states pledged to stay in the Paris accord.