Dear friends,
It is the last day of November, which has been a rough month here on earth. Flipping the page on the calendar won’t necessarily change anything, though I appreciate fresh starts when I can get them.
Today, we start close to home with some small victories and a few good initiatives that just need a little push.
Mayor De Blasio announced a vaccine mandate for all child care workers in the city, who must have their first shots by December 20. This extends the existing child care worker mandate — which only covered those in organizations that contract with the city — to more than 100,000 additional workers.
The mayor, the mayor-elect, and the governor also seem to be sending a unified message about COVID policy, which is a refreshing situation. Yesterday is also the first day in recent memory with fewer than 900 COVID deaths reported in the US.
New York City council members will vote on a bill to extend voting rights to green-card holders in municipal elections on December 9. The bill is almost certain to pass, as it has 35 sponsors. Nonetheless, the Staten Island Borough President-elect, Vito Fossella, has vowed to challenge the legislation in court.
Please tell your council member that non-citizen residents of NYC are a vital part of our populace and our tax base and they deserve a voice in local government.
There are many signs of energized worker activism that point to a new era. We’re watching the unionization drive in Buffalo-area Starbucks. Yesterday, the NLRB ruled that Amazon must allow workers in Bessemer a do-over on their unionization vote because of the company’s “flagrant disregard for procedure[, making] a free and fair election impossible.”
The United Federation of Teachers, long ruled by the not-very-bold Unity Caucus is facing an upstart coalition called United For Change (UFC). UFC is made up of several caucuses (MORE, New Action, Solidarity, and ICE, for you insiders) and is angling to assume leadership and pushing for big reforms, including class-size reductions.
This is a big deal for teachers and students and part of a very long-term struggle for equity. The class-size issue has come to the fore because of COVID and social distancing, and right now, there is a bill before the city council to reduce class size that has an overwhelming number of sponsors. It just needs to come to a vote.
Send a letter today to Council Speaker Corey Johnson to demand that he schedule a vote for the class size reduction bill, Int 2347. This is a 30-second action from NYC Kids PAC and Class Size Matters.
To participate in Thursday’s emergency briefing and strategy session on class size hosted by NYC Kids PAC and Class Size Matters, sign up here.
Last week, NYC council passed two important pieces of legislation which will require the city to count time a young person has spent in youth shelters and foster care toward their eligibility for housing assistance. These new laws will speed the process for those aging out of shelters and foster care to get direct access to housing vouchers. Aging out has been an especially vulnerable time for young people, and this is an important improvement.
Tickets for those blocking NYC bus lanes are up, thanks to cameras mounted on buses and fixed-location cameras. This is good news for the folks who rely on buses. The recidivism rate is less than 20 percent for ticketed offenders, especially since fines go up with multiple offenses. DOT plans to increase the number of cameras trained on bus lanes.
How great would it be if there were cameras on the bike lanes for the same purpose?
Write to NYC DOT to let them know where the trouble spots are!
Watch this new video about the Shell River 7, a group of Water Protectors and one journalist who are facing charges for their protest of Enbridge’s Line 3.
Demand that Minnesota Attorney General Ellison and Governor Walz drop the charges against the Water Protectors.
Former president Trump is under more legal pressure for his pattern of overstating (lying about) the value of his real estate holdings when applying for loans and understating (lying about) their value when it’s time to pay taxes. The shameless grifter is going to run out of legal maneuvers eventually, right?
Hondurans elected their first female president, democratic socialist Xiomara Castro.
As promised, the wiffij will be back in your in-box four days each week beginning this week. For everyone’s sanity, I will try to be more concise.
Have a great day!
with love,
L