ALBANY – State Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha has responded to the withdrawal of the re-election endorsement of the Hudson Valley Building and Construction Trades Council.
“This was the first time I was endorsed by the Hudson Valley Building and Construction Trades Council, and no new information developed between the time of the endorsement and the rescinding of the endorsement,” she said Tuesday in a statement to Mid-Hudson News. “What is happening, though, is that the trade unions are finally getting jobs from Central Hudson after we introduced our bill, and now the unions are leveraging it to get more—as they should.”
“The Hudson Valley Power Authority Act would not only replace Central Hudson with a publicly-owned utility but would also require the kind of Project Labor Agreement they’re signing today,” the Esopus Democrat said. “Additionally, the passage of the Build Public Renewables Act, led by democratic socialists, has already resulted in an investment of $500k from NYPA to the Laborers Local 17 in the Hudson Valley for the purpose of workforce training.”
Shrestha quoted FDR who the “birch rod” effect of public ownership “where sometimes you don’t even need a successful takeover, but only the threat of it, for the investor-owned utilities to start behaving better.”
“I look forward to continue working with the Council as we push the state to build massive amounts of public renewables and permanently affordable green social housing with the strongest labor standards in the state,” the Assemblywoman said.
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