Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation

United for Justice

Who We Are:
Founded in June, 2001 as part of the New Alliance Movement, the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation represents 113,000 union families across seven counties: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster.  Our goal, working with our partner Central Labor Councils (CLCs), is to lay the foundations for a more visible and bold labor movement that reflects the hopes and dreams of working families in the Hudson Valley.

By pooling the resources of our four partner CLCs we have been able to hire staff to drive an aggressive agenda of labor programs to serve our affiliate unions and build power for all of organized labor.
Our core program areas include:

Policy and Legislation campaigns for responsible economic development, affordable housing and childcare, quality education, and other community-benefit initiatives. 

Multi-Union Mobilization to support labor struggles, internal organizing trainings, new member organizing, and coordinated political action.

Community Outreach to social and economic justice organizations, faith leaders, student organizations at area campuses, and other community partners that share our vision for power and unity in the hands of working families.

Political Action to elect candidates that serve the needs of working families through coordinated labor-to-labor worksite leafleting, door-to-door canvassing, phone banks and GOTV, voter registration drives, and political mobilization trainings.

Communications on all the latest policy issues and area labor news through regular newsletters, e-mail messaging and advocacy campaigns, blast fax, and press outreach.

For more information regarding our affliliated unions, visit the Union Directory section.  We serve four Central Labor Councils: Dutchess County CLC, Hudson Catskill CLC, Rockland County CLC and Upper Hudson CLC. For more information regarding our Central Labor Councils, please visit the Central Labor Councils section.

 
Our Purpose:
We are the unions of the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation AFL-CIO. We have dedicated our lives to defending the right to have a good job and our families to receive adequate medical care. We have dedicated ourselves to achieving protection from dire poverty in old age, and during periods of sickness, accident or unemployment. We are dedicated to defending the right of every child and workers to get a good education and to live from of fear and prejudice with our families in decent homes.

We believe that without seeking to achieve and defend economic justice, freedom and democracy are undermined. The less justice there is in our society, the less freedom there is in our world. Economic injustice is as great a danger to our democracy as that was ever posed by any foreign military power. We will always seek to identify the things that we can do to keep us free.

We are the LABOR MOVEMENT, we will not wait meekly to be told what to do. We build justice whenever we take a stand. We support and defend the efforts of all working men and women to exercise their rights to join unions and enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining.

We recognize that bringing the benefits of collective bargaining to the unorganized is vital to the process of producing economic progress in the Hudson Valley.

When We Organize, We Build Justice, We Defend Freedom

Executive Board:

President, Paul Ellis-Graham NYSUT (845) 567-7760	Executive Vice President, William Riccaldo CSEA Southern Region 3 (845) 638-4844
Recording Secretary, Janette Clark PEF (Taconic DDSO)	Treasurer, Adrian Huff IBT Local 445

Vice President, John Kaiser IBEW Local 320	Vice President, Sam Fratto IBEW Local 363
Vice President, Karen Roberts NYSUT Newburgh TA	Vice President, Brian Spillman CSEA Region 3
Vice President, Cynthia Wolff SEIU 1199	Vice President, Dona Lansing CWA Local 1120 (845) 451-6065
Vice President, Gerard Lyons SEIU 200 United	Vice President, Brendan Sexton UFCW Local 1500
Vice President, Ed Lynch UFCW International	Vice President, Deborah Szeredy APWU
Vice President, Luclle Sollazzo NYSNA	Vice President, John Ulrich IBT Local 812
Vice President, Lisa Brown 1199 SEIU	Vice President, Don Hale AFGE Local 2367
Vice President, Mike Hellstrom LIUNA 108	Vice President, Deborah Szeredy APWU Mid Hudson Local
Rockland County CLC Rep, Gil Heim Serving Rockland County	Dutchess County CLC Rep. TBD Serving Dutchess County
Upper Hudson CLC Rep. Mike Lonigro Serving Ulster, Columbia & Greene Counties	Hudson-Catskill CLC Rep. Sparrow Tobin Serving Orange & Sullivan Counties

Contact:

Elizabeth Soto, HVALF Executive Director (845) 567-7760 Email: Esoto@hvalf.org Cell: 845-527-5554

John Speedling, HVALF Coordinator (845) 567-7760 Email:Jspeedling@hvalf.org Cell: 845-636-0499

To view a PDF of the HVALF Constitution, please click here.