Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that more than 100 faith leaders in communities across the state have joined the “Fight for Fairness,” endorsing his proposal to enact 12 weeks of paid family leave and raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2021 in New York State. The announcement came as the governor visited the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York, the Christian Cultural Center, and the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem for Sunday services. Together, these proposals would lift millions of families out of poverty and bring economic justice to New Yorkers statewide. More information on the Governor’s announcement is available here.
PHOTOS of the Brooklyn event will be available on the Governor’s Flickr page shortly.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks at the Christian Cultural Center is below:
Thank you. Thank you very much and good morning. First, thank you to the District Attorney who has been a friend for many, many years. It’s nice when you elect someone to office and they actually do what they said they were going to do. Isn’t it? He is a start. I’ve been watching him. He’s done great in the job. I see him on TV all the time now. I don’t think his future is going to be in continued elected office. I think he’s going right to Hollywood, Ken Thompson. I can see it now: “Brooklyn Justice, starring Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, the voice and figure of justice. But he really is doing a great job and it’s a pleasure to be with him. Congressman Jeffries, let’s give him a round of applause because he’s doing a great job. He was in Albany with me. He was in the state legislature but he moved on up to Washington. We miss you in the minor leagues, but he’s doing great and it’s a pleasure to be with him and with Roxanne Persaud who is my colleague now. Thank you Roxanne, give her a round of applause.
George Gresham from 1199. George and I were having dinner one night. We were having a glass of wine and we thought it was a great idea that we are going to push these two issues we wanted to really communicate across the state. We were going to rent a big recreational vehicle, an RV, and we were going to put signs on it and drive from one end of the state to the other. We’ve been in that RV for about seven days now. It’s one of those ideas that was a good idea for about ten seconds and then is a bad idea for the rest of the time. But we’re getting the message out. Give him another round of applause, George Gresham.
And Reverend Bernard, I cannot tell you how deeply I feel about Reverend Bernard. Not just in his capacity as a spiritual leader and a pastor but this is a great civic leader. This is a great national leader, a man who is there for the entire community and his presence and his voice is a national treasure and we’re just proud that he is a New Yorker. Reverend, thank you very much for having us here again to join the CCC.
And to the CCC Family – I came to you when I was running for Governor in the first place. I came to ask for your support, I asked for you to remember me in your prayers. And luckily for me, your prayers were heard and I can’t thank you enough for the friendship and the support.
Two issues which the District Attorney did a very good job summarizing. The truth is, I don’t want to talk about the political environment that’s out there now and what’s going on politically, because I can’t figure out what’s going on politically, to tell you the truth. I have no light to shed on that matter. And if you figure it out, please call me. My number is 518-474-7516. But leaving the politics aside, we have a couple of governmental issues that are on the table in the state legislative session. The state legislative session is going to pass the budget in just under one month. That will have most of the legislation in it and there are two issues that are presently important.
The truth is, this economy is very, very difficult. What you hear in politics – who can appeal to the anger that is out there. What they don’t talk about is who is the anger, what is the anger and how do you resolve it? That’s actually a more prudent conversation. And the anger is real – it’s not emotional, it’s not a feeling – it’s real. The working class, the middle class families in this economy are going backwards and they have been going backwards for years. That’s what’s driving the anxiety, that’s what it’s all about. And it’s true. It’s not just an emotional feeling. You look at the situation in the middle class today, earing power wise, they’re back where they were 20 years ago. You’re supposed to be going forward. People are worrying about it their children are going to do as well as they did. What was at one time a salary that you thought you could live on - $50, $60, $70, $80,000 – you have two kids in college, forget it. It wipes out everything. Your home was supposed to be your retirement account, equity in your home. You have homes today that aren’t worth what they were worth seven years ago. So the economy is making more millionaires and billionaires on one hand, but on the other hand, the working class is getting left behind and that’s what makes it even worse. There’s an economy for the lucky and the left out.
It’s hard to hear all of these great stories of millionaires when the vast bulk of society is going backwards. That’s the problem. That’s what’s driving the anger and that’s what they’re playing with in politics. But I want to find ways to actually help make the situation better to reduce the anger and help address people where they are.
First is raising the minimum wage. It is simple, it is math, there is no philosophy, there is no democrat, republican, liberal conservative. FDR passed the minimum wage. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a great governor of New York and then a great president. The minimum wage was supposed to provide a decent living to people who worked full time. A decent living. Why? Because FDR’s point was all work is dignified. Whatever you do should be dignified, it should be honored and it should be respected. And if you work full time you should have a decent living above the poverty level.
The minimum wage is about $9.00 an hour. We just raised it to $9.00. But the truth is, on $18,000 a year, you cannot support a family in New York, let alone decently. We need to raise the minimum wage. Our proposal is $15.00, which is about $30,000 a year, which, by the way, does not mean you’re going to take a vacation to Florida. But it means you could at least pay for food and clothing, etcetera, and we want to get that done this year.
The second issue is paid family leave. And this gets into a different part about this economy. This economy requires you to work all the time. We created over 700,000 new jobs. And the expression is, “I know I have three of them.” People are working harder than ever before. One job, you can’t get by. And work, work, work, new technology, you’re on a BlackBerry, you’re on a cell phone, it never stops. We need a balance between work and family. Because life was never just about work. It was really about family and those connections and community and giving back and living in your community. And people just don’t have enough time to be there with family, either the good times or the bad times. When a woman has a child, she should be able to spend time with that baby and bond with that baby. When a man has the gift of being a father, he should have the time to stay home and be with that baby.
Likewise, on the other end of the spectrum, when you have loved one who is sick and needs help and needs assistance or is passing, you should be there. You should be there. Those are the times in life that priorities are clear. I just went through this with my father last year. The Reverend and I were just chatting upstairs about loss and we knew we were losing my father. Good news was we were given some time. Doctors said, you now, it’s a matter of weeks and my father would call and say, “You know, pal, if you find some time, maybe you pass by,” and I would pass by and just to be there. There’s no purpose, everything had been said, but just to hold the hand, just to smile, just to tell a bad joke. Just so he could tell me what I messed up that day and what I messed up the day before and how if he was Governor he would have done a better job than me and didn’t I learn anything and what was I just listening to my mother and I should have listened to him and go back and read his speeches and. Those days were precious days. If I had to do it all over again, I would have been with him every day during that period and it was always something that was important and the office is calling and this is important and this is important. I don’t even remember what I did that was so important at that time, but that’s where I should have been and I kick myself that I wasn’t there.
Many people, many families don’t have the choice. Why? Because the federal law gives you 12 weeks that you can take off to be with a loved one in one of those situations, but the 12 weeks, they don’t pay you. So, who can really take off 12 weeks with no money? And I don’t want to be cynical Congressman, but I think Washington passed a law knowing nobody could use it anyway because nobody can afford to take off 12 weeks. Not your side of the house Congressman, I was talking about the other side of the house, just so we’re clear. I don’t want any trouble with the Congressman now. The New York State law says that people have the right to take off 12 weeks and we will pay them to take off the 12 weeks so it’s a meaningful decision.
This is coming up literally in the next few weeks. We pass these two laws, we change people’s lives. When I came and asked for your support, I said, “I don’t want to be in government just because I want to be in government. That doesn’t have a thrill for me. Government can be a vehicle to change people’s lives and make life better for people who needs help. Government can be a champion for people who have no voice. Government can be a champion for the people who don’t have the power in society, so they’re left to their own devices and it’s the powerful that win.” We pass these to laws, it will be direct assistance to the middle class and working families who have been getting the short end of the stick for 20 years in this economy, but I need you.
Martin Luther King used to say “the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice.” It does. Martin Luther King also said, “It doesn’t bend on its own. We must bend it.” Every struggle he said, every fight he said, takes effort. The good fight is still a fight and this is a fight because I want to raise the minimum wage. There’s a lot of corporations that say “I don’t want to pay a higher minimum wage.” I want to say “12 weeks paid leave” and a lot of corporations say “I want my employees staying in the office. I don’t want them taking paid leave. So, we have a lot of powerful forces on the other side, but we have on our side, is you. We have the people. We have mouths. We have people. We have voices and we have to make them heard. You speak up, you make a difference, we will get this done and we will be the better for it. Thank you and god bless you and enjoy your Sunday.
