Click here to download the full CWA D1 2021 Legislative Agenda + Memos of Support

TELECOM

Broadband For All: This package of legislation ensures that all New Yorkers have access to high-speed, high-quality, affordable broadband.

• Oversight for Quality & Resiliency of Broadband by the PSC: This legislation explicitly grants the PSC state oversight authority of broadband and VoIP to ensure quality, resiliency and public safety.
• NYS Lifeline Broadband Program: This legislation establishes a state broadband lifeline program to ensure subsidized broadband for low-income New Yorkers.
• Regional Broadband Councils: This legislation establishes regional broadband councils which provide forums for stakeholders, allowing them to develop broadband plans and apply for state grants in order to further broadband access in their region.

Preventing Exclusive Arrangements in Multiple Dwellings Unit: This legislation would prevent building owners of multiple dwelling units from having exclusive arrangements with cable providers ensuring that consumers have multiple options for service.

HEALTHCARE

Safe Staffing: This legislation would protect healthcare workers and patients by establishing mandatory staff to patient ratios. 

NY Hero (Sen Gianaris / AM Reyes): This legislation would create health and safety standards for workplaces, including PPE and social distancing, in order to protect workers and the public in the case of an airborne infectious disease, like COVID-19. Additionally, this legislation would authorize the creation of health and safety committees to allow employers and employees to work together to ensure safety in the workplace.

PUBLIC SECTOR

Mandatory Access Information for Public Sector Unions: This legislation would mitigate the impacts of the JANUS decision by ensuring that phone numbers of new hires/transfers are included as part of the information that public employers are required to provide to public employee unions. Currently, only the name, address, job title, employer information and work location are the required information.

Funding for CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies: CWA is one of the three founding unions of CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies and its predecessor, The Murphy Institute. Since 1984, CWA Local 1180 has collaborated with CUNY’s labor program to offer higher educational opportunities to its members. The CWA 1180 Urban Leadership program is a special sequence of courses and projects for students in Urban or Labor Studies degree and certificate programs. It offers students opportunities for experiential and applied learning. In 2020, we will continue to fight to secure the necessary funding for the hiring of faculty, the development of new programs, and an increase in student enrollment.

GRAD STUDENTS

Graduate Student Worker Fee Waiver (Pichardo / Stavisky): This legislation eliminates fees for full or half time graduate student teaching or research assistants.

LABOR & ORGANIZING

Worker Retention in Call Center Contracts: This legislation would require that incumbent workforces of Government contracted call centers are retained if the contract is rebid and awarded to a new contractor.

Banning Captive Audience Meetings (Sen. Ramos / AM Reyes): Captive audience meetings are mandatory meetings often used in union-busting campaigns. This legislation would prevent employers from requiring employees to attend any mandatory meetings during work hours.

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Progressive revenue streams:

1. Ultra-Millionaires Tax: This would institute a series of bracket increases in the income tax, starting at $1,000,000 a year, to ensure that high-income New Yorkers pay their “fair share” on ultra-millionaires. Raises $4.5 billion.
2. Pied-a-terre tax (S.44 Hoylman / A.4540 Glick): This bill would create a progressive tax on absentee owners' second luxury condos in NYC worth $5 million dollars or more. Raises $300-$600 million.
3. Banning Stock BuyBacks: a small "sales" tax that would be paid by corporations on "stock buybacks," a practice that was long illegal and only serves to pump up the value of stock shares held by CEOs and short-term investors. Raises $3.2 billion.
4. Stock Transfer Tax: Sales tax on Wall Street stock transfers, which are currently rebated under State law. Raises $13 billion.

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA): Building on the Climate and Community Protection Act, this legislation would help fund the transition to a renewable energy economy by making polluters pay for the damage they’re doing to our climate and our communities. The revenue from this would be used to implement the CCPA and ensure a just transition.