Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at the Long Island Federation of Labor 22nd Constitutional Convention

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the Long Island Federation of Labor's 22nd Constitutional Convention.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Well, it's great to see everybody. I just went to a brewery. You didn't realize how much fun it is to be the Governor of the State of New York. You can do breweries on Long Island at 10 o'clock in the morning. So, I'm really ripe and ready for this conversation. So great to see everyone and I want to thank all of you. I come here with just a heart full of gratitude for all of you to be such an important part of our economy and our recovery, but also that sense of we're going to be okay.

When I know you and your members are working and we're finding a way to navigate through some really challenging times, I get energized. And I really feel optimistic about where we are right now. We came through some challenging times and I can't tell you, there are no better people to be with than my partners here in labor as we navigate through some really turbulent waters.

I want to thank John Dorso for his incredible leadership of this Federation. He has been at my side since we first met way back in 2014 and people were like, "Kathy who? How do you pronounce her name?" John has been there and I thank you for just being such a champion, a great champion in every sense of the word of labor on Long Island. And we've been great friends and allies. I want to thank John Dorso.

Also, Mario Cilento, our Statewide President of AFL-CIO. He has traveled every corner of the state. He was an important part of our conversations around the budget as we talked about priorities for labor, making sure that labor was at the forefront of all of our conversations on economic development and our energy future in so many other areas. So, his voice has really made a big difference in our decision making. I want to thank Mario Cilento for his great work as well. So Mario, thank you for your friendship.

Matt Aracich, good to see you again. I see Matt every single week at some other great announcement. And Dominic, thank you for all you do for us and Nora Higgins and everybody. Ryan, I see Ryan a lot. And also, I am so fortunate to have the dream team in state government. I have exceptional people. My talent is finding talent.

And I want to thank Roberta Reardon for what she has done. Trial by fire is what she went through during that pandemic to make sure that the hardworking men and women, who no fault of their own, lost their jobs and were so anxious at time of great fear to make sure that they had that unemployment check. And we had to redo an antiquated system, get the money out there and you are tireless, unrelentless in your pursuit of making sure we did that. So, Roberta Reardon, thank you for your friendship here today.

I want to also talk about how I feel. I really do feel optimistic about where this state is heading. We can handle these challenges, my friends. We have some on our plate, but everybody does. We are getting through them with an intentional sense of optimism to tell people we're going to be okay.

And I think about Long Island, and I'll get to the labor issue. We think about some of the questions I'm always asked about like affordable housing because you're trying to bring more workers here, but you get the young people who say, "I can't afford to live in the hometown I grew up in." And that is sad. That is sad for themselves and is sad for their families. We are going to be laser-focused on making sure that we increase the affordable housing stock here on Long Island and I want you to build it. I want that to happen.

Also, people are anxious about crime. I understand this. We're not blind to this. We talk about this. I have a gun interdiction task force, and we've had four times the number of cases where we've seized guns that the bad guys were going to use on our streets. We're fighting back and we're fighting back hard. And I want you to know that. This is what I think about day in and day out is making sure people feel safe on our subways and our trains and in our communities, that we focus on not just the shooters and places like Uvalde. My God, is it heartbreaking to watch the news this morning? The people that did not respond and save those children's lives.

But also where I come from in Buffalo, a community is still trying to heal from what they had to experience. We are focused on those issues, but also the everyday instances of quality of life and how people feel that sense of insecurity. As your Governor, this is my priority to get people feeling good again, and also dealing with the crime issue in our state and working with our partners as well. So we're going to deal with affordable housing, we're going to deal with the crime issue, but also we are going to give people so many more opportunities for good paying union jobs. And that's what I'm focused on. That's what it's all about.

Let's take roads and infrastructure, for example. $32.8 billion. Have you ever heard numbers like that before? When it comes to our Capital Plan, we are going to be fixing everything. And for every pothole on Long Island, I've got your number. I'm coming after you because I'm sick and tired of having my teeth feel like they're going to fall out every time I hit a pothole on Long Island. So we are actually making a difference. I received some phone calls and they said, "Hey, those potholes that used to traumatize me on my commute every day, they're gone now." So we're warming up. We're just getting started, but a billion dollars, a billion dollars to deal with pots mostly here on Long Island. We're going to take care of it as well.

Pavement and building affordable housing, as I mentioned, our offshore wind plan, we've been at so many great announcements because we are transitioning to the energy future with union labor making it happen. And this is where you belong. There is no doubt in my mind that these projects should be built with union labor. I want the highest quality. I want people coming to apprenticeship programs who actually know what they're doing, and also how we can drive more people to those programs. We have to lift those programs up, but I want to see more people from communities of color. I want to see more women on these job sites. I want us to tackle the issue of childcare, which is a barrier for so many women to be able to do the work of these good paying jobs and opportunities.

So we've invested over $7 billion in childcare alone, opening up 400,000 slots. So we have to deal with all the reasons that there are barriers for people to walk into these great paying jobs because I know what they can do. I know what a union card can do for a family because it did it for mine. My parents grew up in poverty. My grandparents grew up in poverty. When my dad and grandpa got those jobs at the steel plant, their lives were changed forever. And I'll never forget that. I'll never forget what that did for my family. That they could have the dignity of a good paying job and actually buy a little house for their eight kids and have a car and have their kids go to college. And someday a granddaughter could actually become a Governor because of the work that they were able to do because they were union members. And that's exactly what happened.

So my friends, we're just getting started. We're just getting started. We have so much to do. Let's keep building back Long Island. Let's build back the state and let's do it with union labor. Thank you, everybody.