On Wednesday, May 20, 2015, the Murphy Institute conducted an executive briefing on labor in New York City for City Council members convened by Council Member I. Daneek Miller, Chair of the City Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor.
The briefing provided City Council members with an in-depth view of the role and status of organized labor in New York and the nation. It included presentations by Murphy Institute faculty, DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, and New York Central Labor Council Political & Legislative Director, Anthony Thomas.
Distinguished Professor of Sociology in the CUNY Graduate School, Stanley Aronowitz delivered a brief history lesson of the New York City labor movement, while Murphy Associate Professor of Labor Studies Penny Lewis, presented a succinct overview of the purpose of unions, highlighting four key roles: 1. Worker Solidarity. 2. Better jobs. 3. Job Security and Protection. 4. Expansion of Civic Engagement in our Democracy. Her presentation was substantiated with statistics, including: union members earn twenty-seven percent higher wages than non-union employees, and the earnings of unionized women and people of color match or outpace those of non-unionized white male workers. Following Professor Lewis was Henry Garrido, Executive Director of District Council 37, giving an impassioned address including personal examples of the necessity and power of unions in achieving worker rights.
Unions’ work in the political sphere is often poorly understood. A conversation facilitated by Ed Ott, Distinguished Lecturer at the Murphy Institute, was initiated to explain the broad range of union member interests — including affordable housing, mass transit, immigrant rights, and economic development ̶— that cannot be addressed at the bargaining table and, therefore, become public policy concerns. In response to the prompt, ‘Why Unions Do Politics,’ Professor Ott said simply: “Because they have to.” Highlighting health and safety in the construction industry in particular, he illustrated the manner in which laws can make the difference between life and death, adding “There are no unimportant issues.”
Afterward, time was dedicated to a Q&A session which elicited conversation on matters like a need for labor education at the high school level and zoning decisions contributing to the decline of New York’s manufacturing sector.
