Persistence Prevails - Mission Accomplished

From the City & State A new law on the books in New York State will help to honor our veterans with the deep respect and appreciation they so deserve. On June 1, 2016, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Veteran's Service Credit bill, recognizing honorably discharged servicemen and women who sacrificed so much for all of us. The new law recognizes the service of all of our veterans and for the first time equally acknowledges the women who proudly served our country. Now, moving forward, all members of public retirement systems who are honorably discharged veterans will be eligible to purchase up to three years of retirement credit for their service, irrespective of when and where they served in the military. This is a huge win for our veterans who fought hard to make this a reality. It is also a big victory for labor. We stood proudly, in solidarity with all of our affiliates on this issue for decades. Improvements were made over time, but until now barriers prevented all veterans from being treated equally. While we can never show enough gratitude to those who provided the ultimate public service, this law validates the service of all who spent time in the military. It was an honor to work alongside New York State veteran's organizations and our brothers and sisters in the Labor Movement for this long-fought victory. Together, we walked the hallways of our state government, made countless phone calls, and sent letters, emails and texts - anything to garner support for the veteran's pension credit legislation. We also recognize it would not have been possible without the years of leadership from Senator William Larkin and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin who never gave up. We thank Speaker Carl Heastie, Majority Leader John Flanagan, and Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeffrey Klein for understanding how critically important this legislation is to our veterans and we thank Governor Cuomo for signing the bill. But mostly, we thank our veterans for their sacrifice, courage and commitment to serving the public. Our veterans not only defended our freedom, many continued in public service choosing careers as police officers and firefighters, or in fields of transportation, teaching our children or caring for the mentally ill. Now, we can finally give back to them. Mario Cilento President, New York State AFL-CIO