Economic Development
After years of booming development, New York City now faces the challenge of rebuilding its economy while grappling with issues of high unemployment, affordability, aging infrastructure and decreased quality of life for many of its residents. At the same time, upstate metropolitan regions have continued their long decline, exacerbated by policies that encourage sprawl, divestment from urban centers, and the rapid growth of low-wage jobs.
Publicly-sponsored economic development does little to counter these trends. Our current tools for job creation are little more than lavish corporate subsidies that have failed to deliver good jobs or to revitalize local communities.
Faced with these challenges, ALIGN has collaborated with and coordinated allies throughout New York City and State to develop policy proposals, organize our members, and educate elected officials and the public about more accountable and sustainable economic development for our communities.
Our vision of economic development centers on creating and preserving good jobs, building and maintaining what people want in their communities, expanding and preserving the services people need to live well and be healthy, and promoting diverse, affordable, green and livable neighborhoods—in New York City and across the state.
We believe government must make smart investments that grow a strong and sustainable economy and increase opportunity for all New Yorkers, and that requires changing the way economic development is done both at the state and local level. For more information on our initiatives in New York City, visit One City/One Future, and in New York State visit Getting Our Money’s Worth.
Government and Corporate Accountability
In the last few decades, our country has experienced an extreme expansion of corporate power and the concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people, while the wages and quality of life of the average American have dropped. Government at all levels has failed to act on the needs of the majority and protect citizens from risky corporate behavior that has threatened our homes, jobs and retirements and is responsible for our country’s worse economic crisis since the Great Depression.
We need a new guiding economic and governance model —one that asserts the need for regulatory standards and accountability for businesses and a strong role for government. Public officials at the federal, state and local level must challenge the failed “trickle-down” economics policies of the past and stand against the corporate special interests that have led us down the wrong path.
ALIGN is working to advance a new economic and governance model that meets the needs of our communities and families—one that is transparent, equitable, accountable and sustainable. To do so, we develop and coordinate education campaigns on sound economic and governance policies that create good jobs, strengthen communities, and involve communities in decision-making. We mobilize people to become more involved in the political process and in the policies that impact their lives. And we take action against corporations that are violating workers’ rights and to make sure the government is acting in the best interest of all New Yorkers.
Worker Justice
Jobs with Justice was formed on the principle of solidarity—“being there” for someone else’s struggle as well as your own. Since NY Jobs with Justice was founded in 1992 and merged with Urban Agenda to form ALIGN, we have “been there” for workers who are organizing, bargaining for a contract, battling in court or otherwise standing up for their rights.
We believe that workers organized into a strong labor movement are the most effective force in battling corporate greed and building a more just society. Throughout our history, we’ve worked to support:
Workers fighting back in the global economy
We’ve stood with workers fighting back against outsourcing, layoffs, and drastic cuts in wages and benefits that enrich corporations, but pit workers against one another and drive a “race to the bottom” in job standards for all workers.
Low-wage and unprotected workers
Many New Yorkers are working in the shadows, fearful of confronting abusive employers because of their immigration status, or denied dignity because their jobs aren’t adequately protected under current labor law. We’ve fought alongside domestic workers, farm workers, low wage and immigrant workers to confront exploitative underground economies, end rampant employee misclassification and wage theft and support policies that protect the rights of all workers.
Workers in emerging industries
The retail and service sectors are the fastest-growing sectors of our economy, but these jobs often pay much less than jobs in declining middle class industries. In order to save the middle class and foster a strong economy, we’ve helped make these jobs, along with new jobs in the emerging green economy, good jobs.
We believe that being there for one another’s struggles is necessary to build the power we need to win real social change in New York City and New York State and across the country.
As part of the Jobs with Justice network, we support national efforts to improve the lives of working families through grassroots action as well as education about progressive policy solutions.
