Carmen De La Rosa is a New York City Council Member who represents Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill. She is also the Chair of the Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor. De La Rosa penned an interesting Labor Perspective that recently was published in City & State New York that involves the EmPIRE Act.  It read, in part: We are working to introduce a resolution in the New York City Council supporting the EmPIRE Worker Protection Act. This critical State Legislation would give New York’s Working People the tools to enforce their rights under Labor Law when the State doesn’t have the resources or political will to do so. It’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a Labor oversight crisis at the Federal level. President Donald Trump, billionaires like Elon Musk and a Right-Wing Congress have declared open war on the institutions that protect Workers, gutting the National Labor Relations Board, closing the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Offices and threatening massive cuts to the U.S. Department of Labor. We’ve felt the effects here at home, with recent closures of offices responsible for overseeing Wage and Hour compliance in Queens, the safety and health of Mine Workers in Albany and Workers’ Comp in Buffalo. Unless we act now in defense of Working-Class New Yorkers, wage theft and discrimination will go unchecked, and unsafe job sites will become the norm. Workers who dare speak up will continue to have their lives upended, whether in the form of retaliatory firings by unscrupulous employers or the ever-increasing threats of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the workplace. The EmPIRE Act offers Workers recourse. The Bill empowers Workers, Whistleblowers and Unions to level the playing field and bring public enforcement actions on behalf of the State if the State Attorney General’s Office and Department of Labor do not take the case. This legislation will generate over $100 million annually in new revenue for the state Department of Labor, allowing for urgently needed staffing and enforcement expansion, including rebuilding the agency’s Anti-Retaliation Unit to protect Immigrant and vulnerable Workers. Beyond resources, we need transparency and accountability. The EmPIRE Act would also move many cases out of secret arbitration and into the public courts, where Working People can tell their stories and demand justice in the light of day.

To Read This Labor Perspective In Its Entirety, Go To: Opinion: New York’s workers are under attack. The EmPIRE Act is how we fight back. - City & State New York

Photo Courtesy Of NYC Council Member Carmen De La Rosa’s Website.