Video, B-Roll, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Marches in Buffalo Labor Day Parade, Signs Four Pieces of Legislation to Boost Workplace Safety and Put More Money in Workers' Pockets

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul signed four pieces of legislation to help boost workplace safety and put more money in the pockets of working New Yorkers. The bills establish a demonstration program to implement speed violation monitoring systems in work zones to keep workers safe and make construction contractors liable for the wages owed to their subcontractors. They also require the payment of prevailing wage to building service employees at high-end co-ops and condos and extend Shared Work Benefits. After the bill signing event, the Governor marched in the Buffalo Labor Day Parade.

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks at the bill signing event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

B-ROLL of the Governor marching in the Buffalo Labor Day Parade is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

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

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

There's no place like home.

This just warms my heart and on this spectacularly beautiful Labor Day in September in Buffalo, New York, as a famous coach used to say, where would you rather be than right here right now? And I'm excited to be joined by so many friends and joined by an incredible leader. Roberta Reardon has been through the trenches and back and back again, doing what she had to do to allocate over a hundred billion dollars of assistance to people in their time of need during this pandemic. I wanted to give her a round of applause for her amazing leadership. Thank you.

We have a grand marshal of our parade here too, John Mudie, and I want to thank him for all his great work and he'll be leading us off, and our Congressman Brian Higgins. You look up "fighter for labor" in Wikipedia, the word Brian Higgins appears right next to it. Brian, thank you for using your own, your personal story of what your father did and grandfather and others who came from this community and worked so hard, and a similar story for Tim Kennedy, local boy, made good. I remember him in his early days. He has become a real significant force of influence in our State Capitol as well. I'm really proud of him. State Senator Sean Ryan really hit the ground running from his experience in the Assembly and he's been out there for us. Also, I saw that our Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly, Crystal Peoples-Stokes is here in person, in the flesh, Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Assemblymembers Bill Conrad and John Rivera are here as well. I want to thank them. Mayor Byron Brown is here, Mitch Nowakowski our council member, and someone who, whether it's a snowstorm or a pandemic, you want them at your side, Mark Poloncarz.

Denise Abbott, another woman who likes to go and lead and I want to thank her for her incredible leadership as well. Denise Abbott, the president of the Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. Peter DeJesus, our Western New York Area Labor Federation. Peter, it's great to have you on the team. We have been through so many battles, so many battles, all of my friends, I can't name all of you, I'm going to get yelled at, but I want to tell you, I love all of you and I want to thank you for the way you've lifted me up personally, the way you supported me on my long journey in 27 years of public life. But more importantly, what you have done for the men and women of labor. That's how we'll all be judged.

Do we lift people? Did we take them to a better place as a result of us being where we are in our positions, and my friends, the answer when I look at all these friends in labor, labor leaders, men and women who put themselves out there on the line, fighting for men and women every day, the answer is yes. They answered that call. They served, they took us to a better place. I want to thank every one of them.

I was reflecting on what's Samuel Gompers, anybody else read Samuel Gompers before you go to bed at night, just saying, just checking, the first president of the AFL-CIO, and he was a strong advocate for making labor day a national holiday. And I was struck by what he said back at that time. He said the struggle with labor is to free man. And I'm going to add "and women," free men and women from unfair, unjust, and unnecessarily cruel environments, and bring forward a day of deliverance from absurd economic burdens and cruel burdens as well. Doesn't that resonate today, too? Isn't that what we're all about? Isn't that why we gather here to celebrate what the accomplishments, but also know that our work is unfinished? So Samuel, you hit it right back then and we're going to continue to live those words here today.

I want to make sure that all of you know, my commitment to labor is unwavering. This is the neighborhood from my grandfather who started life in this country after leaving great poverty in Ireland, and he didn't come alone.

He left with his brothers. My grandfather Jack came with his brother, Tommy, and his brother, Mike. Where are they all ended up in this community was living the American dream because they all became union members, steelworkers, longshoreman, pipe fitters, iron workers. They help build this community. And therefore, and my own father worked at the steel plant, their blood is running through my veins, the iron we built, the steel we built, the work we did on the wars to make Buffalo the great city it is.

And I'll never forget that, how my family was elevated from extreme poverty to a middle-class dream. Even grandpa had season tickets to the Buffalo Bills one year.

Unfortunately it was the year, I think, 1970 when they didn't win a single home game, but that's in the past. That doesn't happen anymore. That doesn't happen anymore, but also we celebrate them, but also, what about the men and women who just came through this pandemic? Our hospital workers, our aides, the cleaning people who went in there, the people who drove the buses and got us to our jobs, the grocery store workers, the people who work in pharmacies, they, my God, they did something so extraordinary.

They left the security of their homes, where they knew they were going to be okay, and they said, I've got a job to do and I'm running into the flames, and they did it day after day after day. And our gratitude will be undying for those individuals who answered that call. You showed us courage. You showed us compassion, and you showed us what it's like to be fearless, and I am forever in awe of all of you.

And so in my first visit officially back home, I was home for a couple of hours last weekend and then the New York City subway broke down and I had to leave. So I'm back. That trip was cut a little bit short. I'm back again, but I wanted to celebrate my first Labor Day as your governor in this very community.

I also want to send a message that there are bills that have been passed by our legislature. Crystal Peoples-Stokes has been a leader on this, Tim Kennedy, Sean Ryan, all of our elected leaders. They have been out there fighting and now their bills need to see life. They need me to take a pen. Despite the best efforts of my Catholic grade school nuns, I never developed good handwriting.

So you can all be a judge yourself. But it works. I get it done, and I'm looking forward to putting a pen in my hand and bringing forward some legislation that I believe is going to make a difference for our workers.

The first of all is speed monitoring in work zones. It came forth by our own Tim Kennedy who's been fighting for speed cameras in work zones to protect the lives of so many individuals. Also Assemblymember Magnarelli from Syracuse. I was literally at the Syracuse Fair this past week, we dedicated a memorial and I had a chance to hug the widow of a man whose husband was doing nothing but his job on the highway, working for the DOT and another for the Thruway Authority, out there, putting out the flags, making it safe for motorists, and their lives were wiped out like this because of an accident. We celebrate them at a memorial, but we celebrate them every day by passing this legislation. Again, thank you to Tim Kennedy for your leadership on this legislation.

I'm also passing legislation supported by Senator Ramos and Assemblymember Joyner in New York City to fight against wage theft. What I'm talking about is there are unscrupulous people out there who take advantage of others and do not pay them what they're entitled to in defiance of our laws. And in some cases it's a subcontractor on a project. So we needed to have accountability. We need to make sure that those people are. It's not their fault if an unscrupulous subcontractor walks off a job or doesn't pay them what they should or tries to pay them under the table. So our contractors will be engaged in this, being held responsible for what happens with the subcontractors. So I'm making sure we sign that into law as well.

I want to make sure that we get this bill signed. It's important, particularly for New York City, but it was introduced by my new Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin, so I wanted to give him a special wind before he becomes lieutenant governor and that's to make sure that we have prevailing wage laws expanded to building service employees at some of our condos and co-ops in New York City who take advantage of taxes. You take an advantage of tax breaks to put these buildings up in New York City, you ought to be paying your workers, particularly the office cleaners, a prevailing wage. So I want to thank Senator Benjamin, my new Lieutenant Governor, upcoming Thursday officially sworn in, and Assemblymember De La Rosa for getting it done.

I also want to sign one more piece of legislation for shared work benefits. People didn't think a lot about shared work. What is that all about? You know all about this. We talked about the people who lost their jobs, could get a part time job to go back, but if they took that part-time job to go back, they lost their unemployment. So the people wanting to get back out there, but still didn't have the same income they had before were being penalized. And we talked about this. So we're going to fix that. We're going to lift the cap on shared work benefits from a strict 26 weeks to an amount equal to 26 worth of benefits, meaning workers can be more flexible, whether they're in the gig economy or others, so they can stay longer, working longer while at least receiving partial benefits. It's good for our employers. It's good for our workers. And I want to thank Senator Ramos and Assemblymember Joyner for getting it done.

Lastly, I mentioned the individuals who put their lives on the line during the pandemic. This year the legislature, and it was signed last May, they passed historic legislation known as the New York HERO Act. And that requires workplace safety and health precautions in response to infectious disease outbreaks. Thank you, Department of Labor, Roberta Reardon, our Department of Health, they developed new standards, but they only take effect when the commission of health triggers it. I've talked to the commissioner of health. I said, let's get it done. Back when this was signed, we all had this vision that the pandemic would be behind us. That didn't happen. That didn't. This pandemic, particularly the Delta variant, is continuing to rage. It's creating unsafe conditions in some workplaces and if we want to get people back to work and get our kids back in schools, we need to have standards that not just are on law but are actually enforced, and that's the action I'm going to take here today by signing this directive to the commissioner of health, to make sure that the New York HERO Act, which has been talked about for a long time but we're finally going to make it become a reality right now.

I also did neglect to mention Assemblymember John Rivera is here as well. I'm not going to forget Sean Rivera when I come to his hometown. Thank you, my friends. It is so heartwarming to be here once again, to see you in person, to know that I'm a Buffalo girl through and through, and I'm taking those values and sharing them with others. We know what hard work is. We know what it's like to sacrifice. We know what it's like to build the American dream because of labor unions. And this is the most unionized part of the most unionized state in America. So where else would you rather be than right here right now?