A Conversation with Candis Tolliver, SEIU 32BJ

A Conversation with Candis Tolliver, VP & Political Director, SEIU 32BJ

BY WWT EDITORIAL STAFF

It is common knowledge that re‐sults from this year's November 2 elections will elect a new mayor, city controller, borough presidents, and council mem‐bers for New York City. Candidate endorsement con‐tributes significantly to the se‐lection; primarily when a recognized and reputable or‐ganization endorses a candi‐date(s), it often boosts the candidate's campaign and chances of winning. One of the organizations, whose endorsement means a lot, includes the Service Em‐ployees International Union, Local 32BJ,(SEIU), headquar‐tered in New York City, mainly representing workers (mainte‐nance, custodial, janitorial, win‐dow cleaners) and has about 90,000 members in New York. In a recent discussion with People, Power and Politics, the Vice President and Political Di‐rector of the union, Ms. Candis Tolliver, explored the endorse‐ment process, the union's ex‐pectations, and next steps. She shared her political insight, and excerpts from the interview are as follows: Ms. Tolliver explained the mul‐tileveled intricate endorsement process, built on two‐way com‐munication between the candi‐dates and different union members. "And so we talk to each candidate, we sit down with them, we have them talk to members, and then our mem‐bers recommend whether or not we want to endorse that person. And that goes through the leadership, and the execu‐tive body of our organization to finalize those decisions, then, we make endorsements."

Expectations In terms of expectations, she re‐vealed that the union is keen on seeing the candidates help the City get back on its feet and con‐tribute to the new normalcy –work, security, good wages, ben‐efits, and good health care. "Folks can start to experience New York and life the way that you know; we've experienced before. But it's important that along with that recovery, we have strong communities, and we have good jobs. We want to make sure that folks are paid a real wage that allows them to live, take care of their families, have good housing, safe hous‐ing. And so we care about a strong job with good benefits. If nothing, if we have learned through this COVID pandemic, we know having good health care and going to the doctor and taking care of yourself is so im‐portant. And so we want to make sure that folks have good health care, they have retire‐ment benefits. Our members still have pensions. They're still able to retire with dignity. And we want that for our members. And we want that for other workers across New York. And so those are the things that we fight for."

City Council Speaker While the union is interested in

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Candis Tolliver/ continued from page 10 the selection of their preferred candidates, however, choosing the right City Council Speaker is of utmost importance because the candidate wields a lot of power in determining the City's agenda. According to Tolliver, "we really care about the speaker because the speaker sets the tone for the City Coun‐cil. The speaker has a lot of power over what bills are heard and what issues are taken up. And so, we play heavily in that conversation. It will look a lot differently this time because it's not a general election. And so we use our influence, and we have our members talk to the current members about what it is that's important to them, and how they should be using that information to decide who best represents that, and then choose that person to be the speaker." Interestingly, the union is keen on having the right candidate regardless of the candidate's color and gender. "But for us, the most important thing is that whoever becomes the next speaker understands essential workers, understands labor, un‐derstands that working people are the backbone of the City and puts their needs first; essential workers kept the City alive dur‐ing the pandemic. When you think about essential workers, we were part of a strong union and other labor unions, includ‐ing hotel workers, city workers, nurses, communication work‐ers, and all of our workers who went to work every single day. And all of our workers are ma‐jority black and brown and im‐migrants. We want someone who is thinking about that de‐mographic, first and foremost. And so, if it's a man, if it's a woman, if it's a person of color, that should be their priority."

American Dream Fund The discussion moved to the 'American Dream fund,' a fund that Ms. Tolliver explained that members of the union fund to‐wards supporting any political project that benefits the union." The American Dream fund is a fund that is created at 32 BJ, which allows members to give money toward the union to work on politics. And so we have to be able to communicate with all types of folks, people who look like us, and people who don't look like us, and make sure they understand what's im‐portant in that election. And so the American Dream fund al‐lows us to do that work."

Rank Choice Voting Concerning the use of rank choice voting in New York poli‐tics, there is room for much im‐provement." I think rank choice voting did in a lot of ways what it was designed to do. But there were a lot of snags or snaffles if you will. I think we have a long way to go to educate our com‐munities on what rank choice voting is and how we can use it to better our community," she says. Voting Rights for Green Card Holders On the issue of supporting the bill in the City Council to allow green card holders to vote in municipal elections, Ms. Tolliver believes that it is complicated as it has a more significant impli‐cation at the state and federal levels. Hence, all angles are being explored." So, we are sup‐portive of the idea of having green card holders vote in mu‐nicipal elections. Here's the problem. There are significant consequences for non‐citizens' voting in elections, especially federal elections or state elec‐tions, there could be criminal consequences. So, we want to make sure that whatever sys‐tem we have protects those in‐dividuals and does not put them in trouble while giving them any liability for voting and doing something that we all do. And once it's done right, then I think we could be fully on board sup‐porting that progress."

Governor’s Race When asked about her thoughts about the New York governor‐ship election, she noted that it is an 'interesting race' to watch as things unfold in the future, es‐pecially with the potential can‐didates that will be vying for the position. She explained that "There are a lot of players this time around. We have a lot of other names and speculations around who's running. Once all the candidates have announced and officially started running, we'll know more, and we'll have a better take on who can win this thing. I think the thing we forget in New York City is that a governor's race is statewide, not just in New York City. And so whoever becomes the next gov‐ernor has to have votes from all corners of New York State. And whoever can do that will be our next governor.

Importance of Voting She reiterated the importance of voting because a person's vote is their voice. "One thing I always say to our members at 32 BJ is if we don't vote, we don't get to say. We have to vote. We have to make our voices heard to change the system if we want it to be changed or make it better. And so, our voice is our vote. And so there's a lot of new ways to make sure you can get to vote. And so I employ people to use one and make sure you vote this time," advised Ms. Tolliver.t