Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Council Member Avilés introduces resolution for Labor History Month in NYC schools
1:07:15
·
117 sec
Council Member Alexa Avilés introduces Resolution 870, which aims to establish May as Labor History Month in New York City schools. She emphasizes the importance of educating young people about labor rights and history, highlighting the decline in union membership and recent attempts to weaken child labor laws in some states.
- Avilés stresses the need to prepare the future workforce to understand and protect their rights against exploitation.
- She mentions that 10 states have introduced legislation to weaken child labor standards, according to a 2023 study.
- The council member encourages her colleagues to support the resolution and hopes New York State will follow California's example in including labor history in the curriculum.
Alexa Avilés
1:07:15
Thank you majority leader.
1:07:16
Today I'm introducing a resolution eight seventy alongside council member De La Rosa and council member Joseph, which would establish May in New York City schools as labor history month.
1:07:28
While New York City is still a union town with the highest union density rate in all of the country, it probably doesn't come as a surprise to many of you that union membership has been steadily declining since the seventies.
1:07:41
This is something we need to fix and if we have any hope at all of addressing inequity.
1:07:47
With so much of our education system focused on job readiness and career prep for young people, little to no work has been done to prepare our future workforce to understand and protect their rights and guard themselves against exploitation both now and in the future.
1:08:03
And now with anti immigrant sentiment and fever pitch, states like Florida looking to child labor law looking to roll back child labor laws to fill labor shortages created by the fulfillment of their own racist fantasies to deport all brown people.
1:08:21
While it might seem that this trend is new as of the most recent Trump administration, a 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that 10 states have introduced legislation to weaken child labor standards, dismantling gains made over a century ago after the triangle shirtwaist fire.
1:08:41
Such loosening of these critical laws not only leaves our children vulnerable, but creates opportunities to further dismantle unions and exacerbate inequality.
1:08:52
Nurturing young people to understand their inherent dignity is one of the greatest investments we can make to ensure a more just and equitable future.
1:09:01
I encourage all my colleagues to sign on to this resolution and hope that our state will follow California in ensuring that this is part of our curriculum.
1:09:10
Thank you for your consideration.