(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – If things are to truly change, than reality must be addressed in order to change them - and that’s why the Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF) decided to partner with several other local organizations and the Partnership For The Public Good (PPG), which unveiled this week its new Working Toward Equality Report.

In 2016, a coalition of Organized Labor, community and religious organizations commissioned the PPG to produce a comprehensive study on Racial Employment Inequality in the Buffalo-Niagara Region. The Working Toward Equality Report found that local racial disparities were worse than national averages, with an African-American Unemployment Rate from 2010 to 2014 of 17.3% and a Hispanic rate of 13.6%, compared to a White rate of 6.4%.

In addition, the report provides a rich trove of updated data on race and employment and then focused a spotlight on one of the barriers to equal opportunity: The distance between Workers of color and jobs and the lack of adequate public transit to connect the two.

“I think it shows ‘good judgement why we were involved in it,’” WNYALF President Richard Lipsitz told WNYLaborToday.com before its unveiling Thursday (July 6th) evening at the Merriweather Library, located in Buffalo’s predominant African-American East Side.

“Part of (Labor’s objective) is to ‘improve wages and by working together as a group, this is very beneficial for all concerned.’  We used last year’s report to help push employers to provide some kind of small improvement (to those they employ).  ‘Now, we want to keep the momentum going,’” Lipsitz told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.

Among the report’s findings: Of the five major employment centers in the region, only one is located in the City of Buffalo; Over 50,000 households in the region lack access to a car; Over half the region’s jobs are not accessible by public transit; Workers of color use transit more.  In the City of Buffalo, only 5% of White Workers commute via public transit, but 15% of Hispanic, 21% of African Americans and 26% of Asian and Pacific Islander Workers commute by public transit; Workers of color have longer rides. The average African-American Worker who rides the bus spends 59 more hours per year in transit than the average White Worker who rides the bus.  The average Hispanic Worker spends 80 more hours; Buffalo’s East Side is served by 35 bus lines, but 23 of them are infrequent, with fewer than two busses per hour; To get from Buffalo’s West Side (the corner of Niagara and Porter) to a major employer (GEICO) in Amherst takes 21 minutes by car - but 77 minutes by bus; and There are no high frequency bus lines that serve the communities of color in Western Lackawanna and the Cattaraugus Reservation.

The report concludes that improving public transit is an imperative for promoting economic development, reducing racial disparities, fighting poverty and decreasing air pollution. 

It recommends New York State increase its funding for public transit and adjust its funding formulas to treat Western New York more equitably relative to other regions. 

It also recommends the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) improve its service by adding more busses and routes, with a particular focus on connecting communities of color to employment centers, that the NFTA pay its Workers more adequate wages (Bus Drivers currently start at $12.95 per hour), and that it offer reduced fares to people with low incomes.

“The study called upon the NFTA for better mass transit for the underserved in Buffalo, which was one of the main issues the Labor Movement was interested in moving forward,” Lipsitz said.

Sam Magavern, who serves as Executive director of the Partnership, presented the study’s findings during the public event held at the Merriweather Library.

In addition to WNYALF President Lipsitz, Buffalo Urban League President Brenda McDuffie, the Reverend Mark Blue – who serves as President of the Buffalo Branch of the NAACP), the Reverend George Nicholas of the Concerned Clergy Coalition of Western New York, and Jeff Richardson, who serves as President of Amalgamated Transit Union ATU) Local 1342 - which represents Unionized Bus Drivers employed at the NFTA, also addressed those in attendance.

In addition the WNYALF, the report was commissioned by the New York State AFL-CIO, the Buffalo Urban League, the Concerned Clergy of Western New York, the Baptist Ministers Conference of Buffalo and Vicinity, the NAACP’s Buffalo Branch, the Coalition of Black Trade Union’s (CBTU) Buffalo Chapter), and the Western New York Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA).

The Partnership for the Public Good is a community-based think tank with more than 260 partner organizations.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: To Read The Partnership For The Public Good’s Working Toward Equality Report, Go To:  https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/working_toward_equalityfinal.pdf.  For More On Partnership For The Public Good, visit: https://ppgbuffalo.org/.