We are at a crisis point in US history; the COVID-19 Health Pandemic has revealed deep faults in the US economic model that for the last 50 years has deepened income inequality and made investment in human capital, like healthcare access and workers’ right to join a union, a deeply divisive political issue.  

Please join us for a live, free, online forum on Building Worker Power in NY State during the #COVID19Crisis and Beyond, brought to you by the NYS AFL-CIO/ILR-Cornell University Union Leadership Institute (ULI). 

This event will feature movement leaders and policy experts who will discuss the roots of the crisis we face, progressive policy goals, and strategies to achieve those goals. The program includes two sessions with key labor and policy leaders in NY State. The webinar will cover:

• Who are the workers on the forefront of the crisis and what are the challenges they face?
• Visions of progressive labor/worker rights policy that can offer immediate relief, healthcare/safety and income support for all workers, and particularly essential workers.
• Strategies for change; including coalition-building, policy ideas, and organizing to build worker power during the crisis and beyond.

Schedule:

12:00 PM    Welcome by NYS AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento 

12:10 PM    Panel One: Workers at the Forefront of the Crisis  

1:10 PM      Panel Two: Organizing and Policy Responses - Strategies to build worker power during and beyond the crisis  

1:50 PM     Closing: Lessons from the Crisis and Looking Ahead 

Speakers Include:

Mario Cilento
President, New York State AFL-CIO

Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez
New York State Nurses Association

Lucia Gomez
Political Director, NYC CLC

Dave Hancock
Director, Warehouse Campaign, Laundry Distribution & Food Service Joint Board, WU-SEIU

Alexander Colvin
Dean, ILR School, Cornell University

John Samuelsen
International President, Local 100-TWU

Stuart Appelbaum 
President, RWDSU 

Patricia Campos Medina
Co-Director New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute, The Worker Institute (Moderator)

Allison Julien
Founding Member, National Domestic Workers Alliance

Abdullah Younus
Director of Political Engagement, The New York Immigration Coalition

Lara Skinner
Executive Director, The Worker Institute

Joe Canovas
Special Counsel, New York State AFL-CIO