18 minute read
Union Matters
Labor Day present: New Hochul bill addresses employee safety and wage theft
By STEPHON JOHNSON
Amsterdam News Staff
New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul gave labor unions a present this week.
The governor signed a package of bills to ensure workplace safety and prevent wage theft. Hochul’s new legislation will help establish a speed violation monitoring system at work sites, hold contractors accountable for not paying employees the wages they’re owed, extend Shared Work Benefits while making it mandatory to pay a prevailing wage to service employees at condos and high-end co-ops.
Legislation A.3350-A/S.2766C holds contractors on construction projects responsible for wages for employees that should’ve been provided by their subcontractors. Currently, construction contractors aren’t liable for wages of their subcontractors’ employees. The bill goes into effect 120 days after Hochul signs it into law.
“What I’m talking about is there are unscrupulous people out there who take advantage of others and do not pay them what they’re entitled to in defiance of our laws,” said Hochul during her media briefing on Labor Day. “And in some cases, it’s a subcontractor on a project. So, we needed to have accountability. We need to make sure that those people are. It’s not their fault if an unscrupulous subcontractor walks off a job or doesn’t pay them what they should or tries to pay them under the table. So, our contractors will be engaged in this, being held responsible for what happens with the subcontractors. So I’m making sure we sign that into law as well.”
Robert Bonanza, business manager of the Leaders at Mason Tenders’ District Council of Greater New York, stated that his union’s constant lobby-
ing and advocating had paid off.
“This historic legislation will end the race to the bottom we’re seeing in construction, where contractors subcontract much of their work to smaller contractors, absolving them of liability for stolen or unpaid wages and leaving workers with little recourse,” said Bonanza.
New York City District Council of Carpenters Executive Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Geiger said, “For years, exploited workers have been ripped off by greedy contractors with nowhere to turn. This legislation will ensure every construction worker in New York is protected from wage theft.”
Legislation S.4682-B/A.485B (sponsored by New York State Assembly Member Latoya
Joyner and New York State Senator Jamaal Bailey) establishes a program that implements speed violation monitoring systems in work zones using photo devices, notices of liability and adjudicates traffic infractions using photo monitoring devices.
“There is no question that the work zone speed camera legislation will help keep our highway workers and New York’s motorists safe,” stated Frank Marchese Jr., executive director, New York State Laborers’ Health & Safety Trust Fund. “Work zone intrusions by speeding drivers occur far too often, and by signing this legislation into law, our elected officials are taking an enormous step forward to help ensure highway workers return home safely at night.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic workers at luxury condos and co-ops continue to travel from their homes to work in buildings despite the danger they faced every day. Legislation S.6350-A/A.7434-A) requires these workers to be paid a prevailing wage to building service employees who work at any co-ops and condos that receive tax abatements under section 467a of the tax law. It applies to all building with the average unit assessed value of more than $60,000 unless these buildings have less than 30 units. The legislation also makes affidavits of these payments accessible to the public should they need to be used in court and allows the State Department of Labor the ability to investigate any allegations of wage theft.
“This is a momentous day for over 2,000 building service workers and their families who will finally start earning family-sustaining wages,” said SEIU Local 32BJ President Kyle Bragg. “These luxury apartment buildings can afford to pay workers the prevailing wage, and frontline essential building service workers who risked their lives to keep New Yorkers safe deserve good pay and benefits for New Yorkers in the Shared Work Program put more money in working families’ pockets.”
Chris Sanchez, a porter at a luxury building on the West Side of Manhattan, stated that his salary put him in a position where he had to skip some medical emergencies due to finances and hasn’t gone to any checkups the entire pandemic.
“There have been many days when I skipped meals just to save a little money,” Sanchez said. “I haven’t seen a doctor in two years because my job doesn’t provide healthcare, and I can’t afford to pay for a health insurance plan. Earning the prevailing wage means I can provide for my family without sacrificing meals, and hopefully I can put some money aside to fulfill my dream of sending my son to college one day.”
(Photo courtesy of Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)
New legislation package looks to ensure worker safety and prevent wage theft
Bronx and Brooklyn Defenders vote to form a union
By STEPHON JOHNSON
Amsterdam News Staff
The Bronx and Brooklyn Defender Services achieved a major victory in their desire to unionize.
In a 207-83 vote, non-managerial workers voted to join the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA) - UAW Local 2325 in its attempt to bargain for what they believe would be a fairer and stronger contract.
The news is the culmination of a year-long effort to get colleagues to sign cards indicating their support of organizing workers.
“Continuing to organize and unionize workers at public defense offices will only improve the working conditions and the services we provide to our client,” stated Lisa Ohta, president of the Association of the Legal Aid Attorneys - UAW Local 2325. “Five out of the six trial-level public defense offices in New York City have now courageously formed unions to change the playing field for public defenders. We are so excited to welcome the BDS Union as the newest chapter of ALAA.”
Rebecca Givan, president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT representing graduate workers, faculty, postdocs and other at Rutgers University, took to social media expressing her approval of the vote considering the reputation of the two groups.
“People used to talk about Brooklyn Defenders and Bronx Defenders as scabs because they were non-union attorneys doing the same legal aid workers,” tweeted Givan. “Now, they’re all unionized with @bds_union and #BxDUnion!”
Not all legal aid divisions have let their workers vote on whether to form a union. Queens Defenders Executive Director Lori Zeno has taken a loud anti-union stance and even fired two people on staff for expressing their desires to join ALAA. Zeno’s group was formed in the mid-1990s during the Rudolph Giuliani administration. In response to Legal Aid lawyers going on strike at the time, the then mayor handed out contracts to newly-formed non-union public defender services.
As recently as last December, Queens Defender staffers signed cards letting Zeno know that they were interested in joining ALAA-UWA Local 232. Zeno and company refused to recognize them.
For the Bronx and Brooklyn Defender Services, however, it’s onward towards a new contract.
“It is very inspiring to see an overwhelming majority of my colleagues come together to affirm that we can make BDS an even better workplace so that we can even better serve our clients,” Andrew Lyubarsky, attorney in the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project. “This tremendous victory through the collective action of our colleagues across roles and practice areas epitomizes the spirit of public defense— that all of us are needed, that every voice is vital, as we work toward a more just society.”
The Brooklyn Defender Services’ Twitter page encapsulated the news in one sentence.
“The staff at BDS have spoken!!!”
Stolen in Ghana. Sold in South Carolina.
By DENNIS RICHMOND JR.
My name is Dennis Richmond Jr., and I am a 26-year-old author and genealogist. I have been examining my family tree since March of 2008. I am humbled to say that I made strides that many of those researching Black families only dream of making. I know the plantation that my family was on and, I know who owned them.
I also know where my ancestors came from in West Africa.
My great, great grandparents are Rhina Nelson and Brutus Bowens. Born on Saturday, Dec. 28, 1889, Grandpa Brutus was one of the children of Gabriel Monday Bowens and Flora Stevens. He was born in Big Camp, South Carolina. Big Camp is close to Pineville, SC. Grandpa Brutus, a farmer, and father of seven died of heart failure on Oct. 29, 1931, at just 41-years-old. My great, great grandmother, Grandma Rhina, the daughter of Kate Nelson and a former slave named John Gould, died in 1950. She is resting in the Mexico Cemetery in Berkeley County. There are at least two dozen Bowens relatives buried in the Mexico Cemetery. The fact that there are first names in my family tree, like “Saturday” and “Monday,” suggests that my ancestors descend from the Akan people of Ghana. My great, great, great grandmother is Grandma Kate Nelson. Grandma Kate was born c.1866 in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Her parents are Primus Nelson, born c.1842, and Sarah Wiggins, born c. 1845. Grandpa John Gould was the son of Cain Gould and Henrietta Westin. I found my family through census records, death records, and with the help of a special genealogist named Jeanie Glaser. My ancestors Primus and Sarah were born in the Mexico area of Berkely County. The goldmine for me was locating several of my ancestors in an estate inventory. Primus, Sarah, Cain, and Monday all appeared in the estate papers for Major Samuel Porcher in 1851. Samuel Porcher owned close to 400 slaves at the time of his death. All his property had value. His property included my ancestors. I saw prices next to all my ancestor’s names. Imagine waking up and being told that you were worth $340. I learned that Grandpa Cain’s parents were named Quashy and Sappho, Grandpa Gabriel’s parents were Moses and Lizette, and Grandpa Primus was a child of Billy and Lucy. Galboa and Silvey were the names of Grandma Sarah’s parents. My ancestors were slaves on the Mexico Plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina. My ancestry doesn’t start on the Mexico Plantation, though. DNA evidence from multiple descendants of Grandpa Brutus and Grandma Rhina shows Ghanaian ancestry. Those Akan naming traditions survived Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, the slave ships, and the Mexico Plantation, all the way to 2021 to allow me to write about them today.
Many of my ancestors on this branch of my family descend from people stolen from Ghana. My African ancestors didn’t come to America by choice.
It’s time for me to take a trip back home.
Trump's spectre still lurks
The specter of Trump continues to haunt us, and it was more than an apparition the other day in Texas where Gov. Abbott signed a Republican-backed voting bill into law. EDITORIAL “Election integrity is now the law in the state of Texas,” the governor declared on Tuesday. And while he may have missed the irony of using the word integrity in a bill that was completely devoid of it, it is clear to us and it summons once more the indignity of Trump and his damage to our sense of justice and well-being. Gov. Abbott’s action is not only a blow to democracy in Texas but it has broader implications and it appears to be a certainty in other states. What the bill in Texas embodies is a total act of retrenchment, another shot across the bow to ensure Republican revenge, and a continuation of the attack on the Capitol back in January.
We wholeheartedly agree with the Democrats in the Texas legislature who argue that the bill resulted from Trump inspiration, his declaration of the “big lie” and voter fraud that “robbed” him of a second term in office.
Trump promulgated the “big lie” and it is still readi- Brutus Bowens WWI Draft Registration Card ly embraced by conservatives and the legions of reactionaries, an aggregate of naysayers determined to flip the current political status and upend the Democratic hold on Congress and other important gubernatorial and senatorial races. We believe the next step, led by the Supreme Court, will seriously enforce gerrymandering and redistricting.
It’s quite enough that Americans have to endure Trump’s ignominious legacy, the accusations of incompetence hurled at President Biden, and a recent surge in COVID-19 for our younger people. Abbott’s law in Texas is the icing on the cake of injustice. Brutus Bowens WWI Draft Registration Card
Let us hope that the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) that filed a federal lawsuit to block the law from taking effect in December gains traction.
It may not mean much in the total equation of things, but LULAC should know that we are with them and with the citizens of Texas who are in jeopardy of their democratic rights being eviscerated yet again. Flora Bowens Death Certificate Dennis Richmond Jr. is an author, genealogist, and freelance journalist.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the New York Amsterdam News. We continue to publish a variety of viewpoints so that we may know the opinions of others that may differ from our own.
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS
The Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent data suggests that at least 72% of American adults in the United States have received at least one dose of one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Despite how high these numbers are, there’s one group that continues to lag behind, in part because of their distrust of the medical industry. Black Americans have a long history of distrusting the medical system because of experimentations done on slaves, typically without any anesthesia, as well as the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. The history of medical health with Black Americans is both dark and complex. According to a study conducted in October 2020, 7 out of 10 Black Americans believe the healthcare system treats them unjustly, and 55% say they “distrust it.” This distrust hinders many Black Americans from receiving the care they require, which is especially important now as we combat COVID-19 and its evolving strains.
Despite the fact that white adults account for the majority of unvaccinated people (57%), Black and Hispanic individuals are less likely than white adults to have received the vaccine. This hesitation and medical mistrust puts Black Americans in danger, especially as the more transmissible Delta variant spreads.
Black Americans distrust not only the healthcare system as a whole, but also big pharma, which according to studies is a common trend across all adults, regardless of race. Dr. Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, is on a mission to rebuild trust with Black Americans by acknowledging the real and historic concern that many Black Americans have about the COVID19 vaccine in a way that educates and informs them about the vaccine’s effectiveness, particularly among the population’s most vulnerable members.
In my rare, exclusive prime time interview with Bourla, we addressed vaccine hesitancy among the general population, particularly among Black Americans, and the future advancements of the vaccine as new strains appear to continue to develop.
We began our discussion by talking about vaccination usage among Black Americans. Dr. Bourla stated that Black Americans had a 2.8x higher chance of being hospitalized and a 2x higher chance of dying from COVID-19 as compared to their white counterparts. “From the beginning,” he said, “we tried to make sure that in our clinical trials we had a good representation of minorities in the population of the study so that people will see that the population of the study reflects the demographics of the communities that we have in this country [the United States].”
Due to the extremely high rates of vaccine hesitancy in the United States, Bourla noted that in his attempts to convince people who are hesitant to take the vaccine, that the most persuasive argument he has found to convince them is to “explain to people that this decision is not affecting only themselves…likely, it is affecting the health of the people that they love the most because they are the people that they will hug…that they will interact with.
“I understand if people are concerned about it,” he said, “but they should be aware of the dangers involved. Not only their health, but the health of others.”
Bourla was blunt in his assessment of the current outbreak: “This is a pandemic, right now, of the unvaccinated,” he stated. “The difference is huge; it is not a small difference.”
When it comes to the vaccination booster shot, he claims that Pfizer has completed its booter trials and has real-world proof showing that the booster shot’s safety profile is “numerically even a little bit better” than the second dose. In fact, according to Bourla, the booster injection is “great.” Bourla indicated that the development of the vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 will be completed in September, which many parents are waiting for as hospitalizations among children are on the rise.
Regarding the influence of COVID19 on Bourla’s family, he noted that despite being permitted to take the vaccine before their age groups, he, his wife, and his children waited until their age groups were eligible to take it out of fairness for others. Then Bourla said, “I can’t wait to take the booster.”
In concluding the interview, Bourla was asked about what advice he would provide to individuals who are afraid of the vaccine: “Fear is a strong emotion, there is only one thing in the human soul that is stronger than fear: Love. I would say, think about the people you love and that will give you the strength to overcome your fear.”
It is unclear whether Bourla’s apparent sincerity and mission to educate and build trust among Black Americans to take the Pfizer version of the vaccine is or will be successful, but one thing is clear: he is a man on a mission to reach and save as many people as he possibly can, and while he may not be able to reach as many people as he would like, I believe that the fact that he has an opportunity to even try is, for him, a noble and worthy mission.
Remembering September 11, 2001
CHRISTINA GREER PH.D.
This week we are remembering and reflecting on the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Like many New Yorkers, I remember that day vividly. I was in graduate school and was in just my first week of classes pursuing my PhD at Columbia University. As the events unfolded on that day, I remember feeling forever changed as a person, a New Yorker, an American, and as someone who considers herself a citizen of the world.
Just a few days before September 11th, I was in Florida visiting my grandparents before the school year began. I hopped back on a plane just a few days before September
11th and began my graduate career. I woke up on September 11th and witnessed the first plane hit the first tower. It was a tower I had been in just a few months prior working on an art project. I thought about the artists who had shown myself and my peers an amazing day. I wondered if they were in the building. I wondered who was in the building so early in the morning.
I think my shock led me to actually go to class after what I had just witnessed. I sat in a Statistics class, fearful I’d fall behind, and suppressing what I had just witnessed. When I emerged from that class, my city, my country, and many nations across the globe would never be the same. I took a long walk since the university closed for the day and tried to wrap my mind around things.
As we wind down 20 years of war stemming from that day… as we remember the families in New York, Washington, D.C., and across the country who lost loved ones…as we ask ourselves what we learned as a country, we hopefully will be cognizant not to make the same missteps moving forward.
As the 20th anniversary approaches, I am thinking of the best way to honor the many lives lost, not just on that day, but also the lives of the brave first responders who lost their lives in the subsequent months and years following 9/11/2001. We must remember the loss of fire fighters and EMS staff and Good Samaritans who stayed at ground zero for weeks after 9/11 on search-and-recovery missions.
I think I will start Saturday September 11, 2021 with a quiet reflection for the individuals and families impacted that day, in the United States and abroad. I will likely read a little James Baldwin (and the latter writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) to help me better understand the bellicose nature of the U.S. And I will take a long walk like I did 20 years ago to try to process what happened then and in the subsequent years on the soil of the U.S., Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University, the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream,” and the co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.
