Regions 9 & 9A Meet with New York Governor Kathy Hochul to Push Working Class Priorities

This morning, UAW Region 9 Director Dan Vicente and Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla along with 9A CAP Representative Aaron Eisenberg met with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and her top staff. In their first joint meeting with the Governor, Directors Vicente and Mancilla used their time to highlight ongoing key UAW issues and legislative priorities.

Director Vicente opened the meeting by highlighting GM’s promise to invest in the Tonawanda Engine Plant home to UAW Local 774. The record contract our membership won through the 2023 Stand Up Strike resulted in $300 million in new investment for Tonawanda, as well as investment in Lockport and Rochester. So far, GM has yet to follow through on their contractually obligated product commitment and investment plans for Tonawanda. During Governor Hochul’s tenure, our membership in Tonawanda has gone from 1,400 members to 800 members due to lack of investment. Directors Vicente and Mancilla emphasized that while the UAW is ready and able to do whatever it takes to make sure that GM keeps its promise to the membership, we also need our elected leaders in government to call on the company to push for this investment to be realized immediately. The future of Tonawanda is important not only for our membership’s job security, but for the health and wellbeing of working-class communities in New York.

As a result of our conversation, Governor Hochul committed to discuss the implementation of the product investment with GM leadership as soon as possible. GM’s $300 million commitment to Tonawanda is for electric vehicle drive unit production. The Governor shared that one of her priorities is for the state to become a leader in the green economy transition, which means that fulfilling the promise to Tonawanda is key to a just transition in Western New York. She also committed to visiting our members at our plants in Western New York to assure them that she is fighting for them and to guarantee this investment comes into New York.

Director Mancilla shared that the new Stellantis PDC in Fishkill is now open and key pieces of legislation that UAW is pushing for in New York beyond the auto industry. One of our priorities is to allow all academic workers to collect unemployment during the winter and summer sessions when they are out of work, which they are currently ineligible for. Another is adding legal service workers to the New York State Pension Fund (NYSLRS). We then discussed issues that are close to the finish line that we have championed for years, including Temporary Disability Insurance reform and student loan forgiveness for legal services workers, which both the UAW and the Governor’s team agreed to try to solve this year. The Directors thanked the Governor for her support of the Cornell strike and making a call to Cornell leadership, as well as signing the warranty tech justice bill for auto tech workers led by Local 259.

The Directors then discussed the discontent working class people feel towards the political status quo, and how our work as leaders in both the labor movement and in government is to deliver for working people. Despite our record wins in the last year, workers still feel the strain of mounting inflation, housing, and childcare costs. Debt takes up too much of our paychecks. Elected leaders need to talk directly to and hear from working people more. An agenda that fights for working people is a winning agenda.

Throughout the meeting, Governor Hochul reiterated her longstanding work with the UAW. She shared her personal history from serving as former UAW Region 9 Director Tom Fricano’s Communications Director during his 1996 Congressional run, hosting the victory party for her first Congressional race at the UAW Region 9 Office, and walking the picket line during the GM strike of 2019. We will continue the conversation with Governor Hochul’s team as conversations with GM ensue as well as continuing to push our legislative priorities. As always, we will fight for the future of our membership and the entire working class in New York.