Working Partnerships USA is extending its search for a Senior Policy and Research Associate until 5/30.
For more information, take a look at the Job Announcement: Senior Policy and Research Associate.
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Progressive Caucus of the New York City Council Seeks Coordinator
The Progressive Caucus of the New York City Council seeks a full-time Coordinator to facilitate the operations of the Caucus. This individual will be hired by the Caucus as a whole, and will be an employee of the New York City Council.
The Progressive Caucus was founded in 2009 as an advocate for social and economic justice within the City Council. The Caucus has been instrumental in the passage of a living wage, paid sick days, and police accountability reforms in New York City. After an influx of progressive Council Members in the 2013 NYC elections, the Progressive Caucus has grown in membership and influence this term.
The duties of the Coordinator include (but are not limited to):
Policy Advocacy
- Develop, research and advocate for a progressive policy agenda
- Act as a liaison with advocates requesting the support of the Caucus for ongoing issues
- Disseminate information to Caucus members on upcoming events related to progressive issues
- Organize events and activities of the Caucus such as rallies, town halls, forums, etc
Communications Strategy
- Respond to current events via public statements, podcasts, video responses, etc.
- Maintain an effective social media presence and regularly update the Caucus website
- Send out a regular e-newsletter and build up the Caucus’ contact list
- Utilize new communications tools to enhance engagement with NYC’s progressive community
- Track Caucus press coverage
- Field inquiries from members of the press
Internal Administration
- Schedule monthly Progressive Caucus meetings and prep the leadership team to facilitate
- Send meeting notices, confirm attendance of Members, and take minutes
- Coordinate regular communication between the members of the Caucus’ leadership team
- Connect key staff members to ensure cohesive strategies among Caucus members
- Manage the Caucus’ email address
- Plan regular social events for Caucus members
- Execute an annual retreat for internal strategic planning
Preferred Qualifications:
- At least 2-3 years of work experience in government, public policy, community organizing or other relevant fields
- Knowledge of NYC politics, government and current issues
- Detail-oriented, strong organizational skills, and the ability to coordinate multiple busy schedules
- Experience with building and maintaining a strong communications strategy
- Excellent writing and communications skills
- Experience with NationBuilder a plus
- A commitment to the Caucus of at least one year
Please send a resume and cover letter to progressivecaucusnyc@gmail.com with the subject heading “Coordinator Application” to apply.
Standard City Council employee benefits are provided.
The Service Economy is Growing – What Does it Mean for LGBTQ workers?
South Asian Contract Workers at NYU’s Abu Dhabi Campus Exploited
Dr. Stephen Brier is part of the Consortial Faculty at The Murphy Institute
As if we needed yet another indication that New York University (NYU) exploits its employees (while also blatantly disregarding the needs and desires of its downtown neighbors), The New York Times reports on the deplorable conditions experienced by South Asian contract workers who were brought to build NYU’s glittering monument to its own hubris, the Abu Dhabi campus of the college in the United Arab Emirates. Being forced to pay labor recruiters as much as a year’s wages in order to gain the privilege of working 6 or 7 days a week, 12 hours a day (much like indentured servants in the 17th and 18th centuries), and to live in numbered “labor camps,” which are little more than prisons, led many contract workers to go out on strike for better wages and working conditions. Their efforts were met by stark repression by the Abu Dhabi government. Five years ago, NYU offered a fig-leaf when these conditions in Abu Dhabi were first revealed, claiming it had issued a “Statement of Labor Values,” which turns out not to be worth the paper it was printed on.
This system is a perfect example of who pays the price for academic and cultural globalization and exploitation, a system that NYU and its tin-eared leader, John Sexton, have proudly perfected over the past decade. If you are interested in learning more about conditions in Abu Dhabi, check out this online article by NYU journalism student Kristina Bogos, who visited one of the UAE labor camps.
Updated: 5/20 at 3:30 PM
Responding to the May 19 article in the New York Times, NYU offered “our apologies” to exploited Abu Dhabi contract workers, as reported in a follow-up article in the Times. The Times piece ends with a quotation from Ramkumar Rai, a Nepali immigrant who worked on the Abu Dhabi project who is still waiting for his final six months of pay 16 months after he left the UAE: “When will the money? If the money comes it will be O.K.”
A Great Place for News about NYC Unions and Working People
Dr. Stephen Brier is part of the Consortial Faculty at The Murphy Institute
The Labor Press is a regular, trustworthy source of news about NYC unions and working people’s struggles in the city and beyond. You can subscribe to it via email, which arrives weekly, and it’s a must read for anyone interested in workers’ battles for a fairer and more equitable world.
Two articles in the current issues are especially worthy of attention, focusing on the efforts to organize low-wage workers in the city:
- A report on the challenge by a Haitian immigrant, Pierre Metivier, who works in the fast food industry, to Andrew Cuomo to switch paychecks for a day so the governor can know what it’s like to live in NYC on a hourly wage of $8.
- A victory by “carwasheros,” who won a contract and a wage increase after three strikes at the Off Broadway Car Wash in Queens, the seventh victory in the campaign to improve the working conditions and pay of car wash workers.
Check out these and other reports and articles at http://www.laborpress.org/ .
Precarious Solidarity – Labor and The Environmental Movement
This post was written by Penny Lewis, an Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at The Murphy Institute
For the second time in two weeks the New York Times has devoted its lead news story to reports about our unfolding environmental cataclysm. Last week’s lead brought home the fact that climate change is happening now, covering reports that track contemporary shifts in temperature and rainfall across the United States. Yesterday’s story, far removed from our borders, is even more disturbing: the western ice sheet of Antarctica is fatally compromised, and the oceans will rise at least 4 feet this century from this alone. Quite possibly they will rise much more, and most certainly much more – 10-12 feet – in the following period.
If you’re like me, you read these stories with a churning set of feelings: powerlessness, frustration that approaches rage, a sense of profound loss. And you might also find yourself revisiting the same question: how can we engage this central problem of our time?
Continue reading Precarious Solidarity – Labor and The Environmental Movement
