NEW YORK HOTEL AND MOTEL TRADES COUNCIL AFL-CIO ENDORSES LAURIE CUMBO FOR CITY COUNCIL

(BROOKLYN, NY) -- The Hotel Trades Council AFL-CIO, which represents more than 32,000 men and women in New York, today announced its support for Laurie Cumbo, Democratic candidate for 35th District City Council. HTC Political Director Josh Gold cited Cumbo’s plans to increase the resources of the working class in the district and work with unions to ensure that safe working environments and fair wages are protected.

“We are thrilled to announce our support for Laurie Cumbo today,” Josh Gold, HTC Political Director said. “Laurie knows first hand the struggles of New York's working families, and we cannot think of a more qualified representative of the 35th. Our 32,000 members are ready to start work on her campaign and I am looking forward to working with her in the City Council.”

“Today’s endorsement has great meaning for me, both of my parents were union workers and because of that I was able to attend college and receive my Master's Degree. Union's are the pathway to the middle class and I am a living example of that,” 35th District City Council Candidate Laurie Cumbo said. “As a City Councilmember I will work tirelessly to ensure all working men and women are treated fairly, earn living wages and have every opportunity to grow a thriving family here in Brooklyn. I am excited to have the support of the Hotel and Motel Trades Council on my team, and I am honored to receive their endorsement today.”

The Hotel Trades Council represents more than 32,000 members. The HTC is part of the AFL-CIO and is the union of hotel workers in the New York City metropolitan area and the Capital Region of New York State.  

More on 35th City Council Candidate Laurie Cumbo:  

• Laurie Cumbo is a cultural leader, entrepreneur, activist, college professor, educator, lecturer and small business owner working in the not-for-profit sector, Cumbo has dedicated her life to community development and preserving the dynamic elements of diversity that have made Brooklyn, New York what it is today.
• She has worked at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, WNET Channel 13, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Grey Art Gallery.
• At the age of twenty-two, while pursuing her graduate studies at NYU, Cumbo used her course work and thesis as a guide for developing the business plan for MoCADA, Brooklyn’s first Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts. She incorporated MoCADA as a 501c3 non-profit institution with enthusiastic support from the Brooklyn community of Bedford Stuyvesant and surrounding neighborhoods
• Cumbo served as a graduate professor in the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute from 2001 – 2011 in the Arts and Cultural Management Program. She is also a member of ARTTABLE, the American Association of Museums, the National Alliance of African and African American Art Support Groups, the Cultural Equity Group, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance and the Spelman College Alumni Association. She is an alumna of Achieving Leadership’s Purpose (ALP), Jack and Jill of America Brooklyn Chapter and Delta Sigma Theta Brooklyn Chapter Teen Lift.
• She is a graduate of the Berkeley Carroll Day School in Park Slope and Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene. She is also a graduate of Spelman College with a degree in Fine Art. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. During her education she has studied at the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands and the Fuji Studios in Florence, Italy.