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Politics & Government

A Trail of Broken Promises? AFL-CIO Thinks So

Long Island Federation of Labor canvasses Port Washington LIRR station detailing what the group views as broken promises to working families by Sen. Craig Johnson.

Monday morning at 7 a.m. as commuters were rushing to catch their respective trains, members of Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, handed out yellow fliers, some of which were within free copies of The Wall Street Journal.

"We are here canvassing for working families, many of which live in Port Washington," said Roger Clayman, executive director of the Long Island Federation of Labor, who handed out fliers at the Port Washington Long Island Rail Road station with three local school janitors, Michael Prudenti, Orlando Donado and Jimmy Olford. "Craig Johnson is trying to raise revenue through methods that hurt these families, and we feel that he should enhance revenue in other, more beneficial ways, one of which might be raising the LIRR fares, instead of laying off engineers and conductors."

The fliers detailed what the AFL views as broken promises to working families by Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington). Some of those include the loss of construction jobs, the withholding of public employees' raises, the failure to enact the Farm Labor Bill, and not increasing unemployment benefits. In addition, members of the AFL feel that Johnson has hurt working families by protecting a failed tax system, increasing health insurance taxes, supporting charter schools, attacking public employee pensions, and being in favor of a property tax cap.

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"We are also canvassing Craig Johnson to get the budget out of the legislature already, when he already passed damaging charter school legislation," Clayman said. "Charter schools take money out of the state budget proportionally to how many children they take out of public schools, but they usually take the better kids, leaving public schools with the more expensive kids and less money."

This local AFL campaign in Port Washington is part of a larger AFL mid-session protest against many New York State Senate Democrats. Johnson, who represents the 7th Senate District in Nassau County, as well as Senate Majority Leader Jeff Klein of the Bronx, are two of the senators that the AFL is focusing on.

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"So many things need to get done, and we don't seem to be getting a hearing on our issues," AFL President Denis Hughes said. "So now is the time to push back."

And push back they are, as hundreds of Port Washington commuters now have a better view of these issues. While Johnson does not seem to be in danger of losing his seat, it is clear that the AFL is sending a message of its displeasure with Senate Democrats. It will remain to be seen how much their message stirs Port Washington residents.

When asked about how often he spoke to the commuters this morning about policy issues, Prudenti, one of the flier distributors, said, "We don't really speak to anyone, since no one wants to be bothered as they rush to their trains. We just hope that people read our fliers on the train and then voice their discontent to Craig Johnson."

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