Mario Cilento
As a member of the Newspaper Guild-CWA since 1990, Mario Cilento has a long history of fighting for working men and women. His work at the New York State AFL-CIO began in 1992; he was first elected president in 2011. In August 2024, Cilento was reelected to his fourth full term.
Throughout his time in office, President Cilento has concentrated on harnessing the collective power of the State AFL‐CIO’s 2.5 million members by transforming the existing political campaign framework into a proactive, year‐round legislative action network.
Cilento’s renewed focus on membership engagement and new communication strategies have made the federation’s endorsement and the unmatched get-out-the-vote effort that comes with it a coveted designation for candidates up and down the ballot. The Union Movement also flexed its muscles at the ballot box when it helped lead the resounding and historic defeat of the 2017 constitutional convention referendum.
Cilento’s new approach to grassroots campaigns and success in electing pro-worker candidates to office has resulted in the enactment of legislation that has made a real impact on the lives of working families.
Under his leadership, the New York State AFL-CIO, working with its affiliated unions, has secured several protections for public employees, including crucial pension reforms, preserving public employees' right to join a union, and protecting their rights after joining.
To assist workers and their families through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union Movement secured several emergency protections.
Additional legislative victories include the historic Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, giving farmworkers labor rights including the right to organize, a mandatory day of rest, and the right to overtime pay.
Other successes include laws protecting workers from retaliation for refusing captive audience meetings. Unions also secured historic labor standards on renewable energy projects. Those protections include Buy American provisions, labor peace agreements, protections for public sector workers, and training for employment in the renewable energy sector.
The federation has successfully championed increases and indexation in the state minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and minimum workers’ compensation benefits. The State AFL-CIO and its affiliates have also secured additional funding for the Child Care Facilitated Enrollment program, ground-breaking Paid Family Leave legislation, and the permanent reauthorizations of the World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
President Cilento also launched the Federation’s “Union Strong” branding campaign, which promotes the benefits of belonging to a union, amplifies union victories, and demonstrates the strength of what working people can accomplish when we all work together.
President Cilento graduated from Fordham University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science Degree.