We are made up of some of New York’s most engaged and effective unions and community organizations
1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
We are a Union of healthcare workers. We work in the homecare, hospital and nursing home industries, as well as pharmacies, freestanding clinics and other healthcare settings. We care for the sick, the infirm, the elderly. Ours is noble work. We are dedicated to our patients, our members and our families.
The mission of our Union is to improve and expand quality patient care, to protect and improve the lives of our members and our families, and to work in solidarity with working people in our communities and around the world.
In 1998, we affiliated to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) which is, with 1.8 million healthcare and building service workers and public employees, the largest labor Union in North America.
Since that time, some 15 SEIU healthcare Locals throughout New York State, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Massachusetts have merged with 1199 and today are part of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.
Coalition for the Homeless
Coalition for the Homeless is the nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women, and children. We are dedicated to the principle that affordable housing, sufficient food, and the chance to work for a living wage are fundamental rights in a civilized society. Since our inception in 1981, the Coalition has worked through litigation, public education, and direct services to ensure that these goals are realized.
UFT United Federation of Teachers
The UFT represents approximately 200,000 members and is the sole bargaining agent for most of the non-supervisory educators who work in the New York City public schools. We represent approximately 87,000 teachers and 19,000 classroom paraprofessionals, along with school secretaries, attendance teachers, guidance counselors, psychologists, social workers, adult education teachers, administrative law judges, nurses, laboratory technicians, speech therapists, and 53,000 retired members. We also represent teachers and other employees of a number of and private educational institutions and some charter schools.
The allied Federation of Nurses/UFT represents some 2,800 registered nurses of the New York City Visiting Nurse Service and several private New York City hospitals and health care institutions.
Over 28,000 New York City family child care providers became the UFT’s newest members after a successful organizing drive that gained collective-bargaining rights in 2007. Their first contract was ratified in 2010.
Citizen Action
Citizen Action of New York is a statewide grassroots membership organization that works for economic, racial and social justice. Our power comes from the grassroots: people coming together to push the edge of the possible. We take on big issues that are at the center of transforming American society – issues like: quality education for all our kids; guaranteed quality, affordable health care; voter-owned elections with public financing; a more progressive tax system. We also work to elect progressive candidates to office who are committed to these issues.
Citizen Action of New York has eight chapters and affiliates across New York State. Each is a vibrant local organization with local leadership, paid professional organizing staff, a local agenda and an active, diverse membership. Citizen Action is also the New York State affiliate of USAction, which brings together citizen organizations from around the country to form a strong national progressive voice.
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW, CLC, represents workers throughout much of the United States and Canada. RWDSU members work in a wide variety of occupations that range from food processing to retail to manufacturing to service and health care.
Poultry workers in the south, supermarket workers in Canada and New York, retail workers in the northeast, candy, juice, cereal and dairy workers in the Mid West, soft drink bottlers in New England, and government employees in New Jersey are among the many workers who have a strong voice on the job through the RWDSU.
Diversity is one of the strengths of our union. Members of the RWDSU may work in many different industries. We may come from different countries and speak different languages. But what unites us is the belief that by standing together we can better advance our interests and protect our rights as working people.
NYSUT New York State United Teachers
NYSUT is more than 600,000 people who work in, or are retired from, New York’s schools, colleges, and healthcare facilities. We are classroom teachers, college and university faculty and professional staff, school bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, cafeteria workers, teacher assistants and aides, nurses and healthcare technicians.
NYSUT is a federation of more than 1,200 local unions, each representing its own members. We are affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). We are also part of organized labor – the AFL-CIO – and of Education International, with more than 20 million members world wide.
We range in size from tiny locals of fewer than 10 members to the United Federation of Teachers, which represents more than 140,000 teachers and other school employees in New York City.
We are dedicated to improving not only our working conditions, but also our professions. We’re united in a common commitment to improve the quality of education and healthcare for the people of New York.
Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York
The Professional Staff Congress is the union that represents more than 20,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY). It is dedicated to advancing the professional lives of its members, enhancing their terms and conditions of employment, and maintaining the strength of the nation’s largest, oldest and most visible urban public university.
In the past decade, unions have become increasingly critical to professional workers and higher education as pressure builds to corporatize the university and allow market forces rather than professional judgment to determine academic policy. With its long history and strong affiliations, the PSC is a forceful advocate for the professional conditions that allow its members to offer a serious education to all New Yorkers.
The union negotiates, administers and enforces collective bargaining agreements; protects the rights of staff through the grievance and arbitration process; engages in political activity on behalf of CUNY and its staff and students; and advocates for the interests of the instructional staff in its various forums. It also provides benefits and services to its members through such related organizations as the PSC/CUNY Welfare fund and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT).
New York State AFL-CIO
The New York State AFL-CIO has a rich and proud history, which is deeply embedded in labor’s continuous struggle for dignity and economic and social justice.
New York State has always been the largest and strongest of any state labor movement and, with its current 2.3 million members, remains so today. Victories won by the labor movement in New York State were the first of their kind in the nation and often became models for federal legislation as well as for other states.
From the very beginning, organized labor, acting through the state federations, was the champion not only of labor’s right to organize and bargain collectively but of improving the working conditions and daily lives of all New Yorkers. It also fought for safe and healthy workplaces, a fair and equitable workers’ compensation system and disability benefits, unemployment insurance, minimum wages, an end to child labor, and job-related training to mention a few.
Furthermore, the state federation served as the voice of labor in public policy determination on issues affecting all citizens-education, housing, transportation, taxation, and the role of government in strengthening the State’s economy.
New York Communities for Change
New York Communities for Change is a coalition of working families in low and moderate income communities fighting for social and economic justice throughout New York State. By using direct action, legislative advocacy, and community organizing, NY Communities’ members work to impact the political and economic policies that directly affect us. Through neighborhood chapters and issue-based committees, we are working to ensure that every family throughout New York has access to quality schools, affordable housing, and good jobs. It is through the power-in-numbers approach that NY Communities is able to win REAL change for our towns and neighborhoods.
32BJ SEIU
With more than 120,000 members in eight states and Washington, DC, 32BJ is the largest property service workers union in the country. 32BJ is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), an organization of over 2 million members united by a belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide. To raise industry standards and improve lives, SEIU and 32BJ focuses its resources on organizing new members into the union.
We are security officers; doormen, porters, and maintenance workers; bus drivers and aides; window cleaners and food service workers.
We work in residential buildings, commercial offices, airports, university and college campuses, public schools, theaters, museums arenas and stadiums.
As part of SEIU Justice for Janitors, Stand for Security and Multi Service Workers campaigns, 32BJ helps property service workers lift themselves out of poverty and into the middle class by wining livable wages and meaningful benefits, including healthcare, paid sick days and job protection.
We come from 64 different countries and speak 28 different languages, but are united in a single fight for fairness and decency. Our members are a diverse coalition of hard working immigrant and native born individuals coming together in pursuit of the American Dream.
Make the Road New York
Make the Road New York* promotes economic justice, equity and opportunity for all New Yorkers through community and electoral organizing, strategic policy advocacy, leadership development, youth and adult education, and high quality legal and support services.
CWA Communication Workers of America
CWA, the largest telecommunications union in the world, represents over 700,000 men and women in both private and public sectors, including over half a million workers who are building the Information Highway.
CWA members work in telecommunications, broadcasting, cable TV, journalism, publishing, manufacturing, airlines, customer service, government service, health care, education and other fields.