ICYMI: Amalgamated Transit Union Endorses Governor Kathy Hochul
NEW YORK – The Amalgamated Transit Union today endorsed Governor Kathy Hochul at a campaign rally in Jamaica, Queens.
“I am honored to be endorsed by ATU and grateful for their support today and every day,” said Governor Kathy Hochul. “Together, we will invest in public transportation and in the people that keep New York running — the hardworking members of organized labor. I thank all of our frontline transportation workers for the work they put in every single day to keep our State moving forward.”
ATU International President John Costa
“On behalf of our more than 25,000 ATU members across the Empire State, we proudly endorse Governor Hochul. A longtime friend of the ATU, in 2011, when she ran for Congress in Western New York, we were among the first to back her. Now as Governor, she’s been leading the state out of this horrible pandemic. We thank her for supporting our Union, members, public transit, and working families across New York. The ATU will be out in full force, registering and encouraging our members to vote, and participating in other actions to ensure a victory for Governor Hochul.”
Photos from the rally can be found here.
Queens Daily Eagle: Transit union endorses Hochul
By Rachel Vick
Amalgamated Transit Union members from across the state came to Jamaica by the busload on Thursday to announce their support for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign.
Hochul was joined by former Queens City Councilmember and former ATU President I. Daneek Miller, ATU International President John Costa and dozens of members, who pledged to support her bid to serve her first full term as governor.
“The ATU saw she was for working families, she was for transit… and she became one of the most powerful and labor-spoken lieutenant governors New York has had,” Costa said. “We’re going to go out like we did before and get the word out.
Attendees applauded Hochul’s commitment to support unions and their members and pledged to do more than support her campaign in words alone.
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“Transportation is the great equalizer; if you want to suppress a community or if you want to lift the upward mobility, it is lifted by transportation – nobody understands that more than Kathy Hochul,” he said. “She knows and understands the value of transportation whether we’re in Queens or Buffalo.”
Hochul accepted the endorsement from the group that she described as “the hardest working, most dedicated individuals, who showed up day after day… during this pandemic.”
“I come from a long line of hard working union men and women,” Hochul said. “We’re not going to rest on our laurels; we have to continue fighting for your rights that are constantly under attack.”
“You truly are the frontline of the frontline workers and I don’t take that for granted,” she added. “You showed up, and showing up is what life’s all about.”