The Voice Podcast

New York AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento talks about his role in leading one of the most powerful state federations in the country on the latest episode of The Voice Podcast.

Cilento and UUP President Fred Kowal, the podcast’s host, talk about Cilento's role in making the state AFL-CIO into a year-round legislative action network that has only grown stronger since he became president in 2011. The NYS AFL-CIO represents more than 2.2 million members across the state in both public and private sectors.
They also discuss the November 2024 presidential election and the state AFL-CIO's role in helping Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats running for Congress and state office win their races.
A new segment, Labor Lookback, spotlights important milestones in labor history. In this episode, Labor Lookback highlights songwriter and political activist Joe Hill, the House Un-American Activities Committee's 1947 hearings on alleged Communist influence in Hollywood’s film industry and singer/songwriter Merle Travis, who wrote the smash working man's hit "Sixteen Tons."
In his Kowal's Coda segment, Kowal questions why MAGA supporters have the temerity to call themselves patriots when they—and their leader, Donald Trump—
are anything but.

In this episode of The Voice podcast, host and UUP President Fred Kowal talks about the American Labor Studies Center and its connection to female union trailblazer Kate Mullany with ALSC Executive Director Paul Cole and Jolene DiBrango, the chair of the ALSC’s Board of Directors and executive vice president of the New York State United Teachers.
Located in Troy, New York, the ALSC works to promote teaching and learning about the American labor movement and its history in schools. The nonprofit organization offers curriculum materials for elementary and secondary school teachers on labor history, labor songs, art, literature, and issues affecting the labor movement.
The ALSC also owns the Kate Mullany House in Troy, which is a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Site. It is the only National Historic Site with a combined focus on labor, women’s and immigrant history. Mullany, who formed the first all-female union in 1864, lived in the Troy house from 1869 through 1871.

Then 24 years old, Mullany, an Irish immigrant, organized 200 women in February 1864 and became the president of the Troy Collar Laundry Workers Union. Days after forming the union, the collar workers went on strike, demanding a 25 percent increase in wages and safer working conditions—which they won. In 1868, she became assistant secretary of the National Labor Union. She died in 1906.

There are also plans to build a new National Trade Union Women's Memorial on the Mullany historic site.

For more information about the ALSC, go to https://www.labor-studies.org.
For more information about Kate Mullany, go to http://www.katemullanynhs.org.

In 2007, Congress enacted the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program as a way to attract talented professionals to careers in public service. Under the program, borrowers who work in nonprofit or government jobs for 10 years or more and meet other program requirements can get their remaining federal student loans forgiven.

Sound simple? Navigating the PSLF program has been anything but easy.
Complex eligibility rules, misinformation, predatory lenders and little oversight has made it nearly impossible for eligible borrowers to achieve loan forgiveness through PSLF. According to NPR , 99 percent of PSLF applications were denied in 2018.
But things have begun to change under the Biden Administration. In October 2021, the administration put in place a limited PSLF waiver, which temporarily sets aside complicated program rules, allowing more borrowers to qualify for loan forgiveness.
But this offer won’t last for much longer. It expires Oct. 31.
In this episide of The Voice, host and UUP President Fred Kowal talks about the PSLF waiver with UUP statewide Secretary-Treasurer Jeri O’Bryan-Losee, who runs UUP’s virtual student debt clinics, which have helped thousands of our members get more than $2.1 million in student debt forgiven through the PSLF program. You can register to attend a debt clinic HERE.

O'Bryan-Losee will explain the limited PSLF waiver and the first steps borrowers must take to get their loans forgiven under PSLF. Last year, she served as a primary negotiator representing student loan borrowers for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, Affordability and Student Loans Committee. The committee’s work resulted in changes to the PSLF program and proposals for state-level changes.
In 2021, O'Bryan-Losee had $74,000 in student loans forgiven under PSLF.

Kowal also talks with Pattie Samson, a UUP member at SUNY Morrisville, who had $84,000 in federal loans forgiven through PSLF. Sampson. A senior counselor at SUNY Morrisville’s Senior Health Center, attended UUP’s student debt clinics.

From finding new homes for desks and other surplus items at SUNY to electric cars, New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and the federal Inflation Reduction Act, this episode of The Voice podcast is fully focused on the environment.

Host Fred Kowal discusses the landmark Inflation Reduction Act and the positive impact it can have on the environment and how it advances environmental justice for low-income areas, communities of color and Tribal communities.

Kowal also talks about the CLCPA and where the process to implement New York’s sweeping environmental protection stands. And there’s conversation about several state bills being pushed by UUP to make SUNY greener and a green energy leader.

Kowal speaks with Sue Fassler, director of sustainable operations at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Fassler is a UUP member who co-chairs UUP’s statewide Environmental Issues and Advocacy Committee.

He also speaks with Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates NY. Iwanowicz has served as acting commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation and deputy secretary for the environment. He was the first director of the New York State Office of Climate Change.

On this episode of The Voice, UUP president and host Fred Kowal discusses steps being taken to preserve and guarantee abortion rights in New York state just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The court's 6-3 ruling nullified the landmark Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, which recognized abortion as a constitutional right.
On the show, Kowal speaks with state Sen. Cordell Cleare and state Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, prime sponsors of the Reproductive Freedom and Equity Program. If approved, the bill would set aside $50 million to fund grants to help women access safe abortion services—including women traveling to New York from states where abortions are illegal.
Cleare is also sponsoring a bill that would require SUNY to offer abortion services at all of its campuses.
Kowal also speaks with Alissa Karl, UUP's statewide vice president for academics, and the liaison to UUP’s Women’s Rights and Concerns Committee.