Every legislative session has unique challenges and 2024 has already shaped up to be a critical year. Working with our affiliates and our elected officials we are confident that we can address the challenges and maximize the opportunities for working families and communities across the state. Addressing institutional poverty, ending food insecurity, building housing that is affordable for working-class families, and fully funding Medicaid reimbursement to safety net health care providers are all issues we have been supporting for years but still need to be addressed.

Continuing the work on combatting climate change and ensuring we have a just transition to clean energy for workers and disadvantaged communities is also a part of our anti-poverty platform and we will continue to advocate appropriate labor standards in each of these programs to ensure we create family-sustaining union jobs.

Staffing shortages continue to plague employers but have worsened in the public sector, endangering vital services. We need to reform Tier 6, which has become an impediment to recruitment and retention. Working with our affiliates we are calling on all of our elected officials to prioritize equalizing the Tier 6 employee contributions and benefits with other tiers. Issues surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) have risen to the top of the priority list. We need to make sure that AI is developed and used responsibly and transparently so that we know the job impacts and potential use of AI before it is implemented. We need to make sure we are protecting the privacy of workers and the security of sensitive data and we need to make sure that when AI is used for employment purposes, such as screening applications or evaluating job performance, that it is fair and unbiased.

We need to get our state’s unemployment maximum benefit, which has been frozen since 2019, back on track with scheduled increases that are already in law. We also need to end the penalty for workers who go on strike. Right now, those workers must wait three weeks before they are eligible to collect benefits while all others only have to wait one week.

We are encouraged Governor Hochul proposed an increase in the maximum weekly benefit in the Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program, which is required for all private sector workers. This important program ensures that workers receive wage replacement if they become ill or are injured outside of the workplace and cannot work. The maximum TDI benefit has been frozen at $170 a week for decades and it is well past time to increase it.

There are many other needs, including childcare, worksite safety improvements, and better enforcement of labor laws. With each of these challenges comes the opportunity to make the lives of New Yorkers better. On behalf of our affiliates, we wish everyone a happy and healthy new year as we address these issues and the many more that will arise during the legislative session.

Mario Cilento is president of the New York State AFL-CIO. This article originally appeared as a Legislative Alert on Jan. 12, 2024 and is reprinted in Allegro with permission of NYS AFL-CIO Communications Director Darcy Wells.