By Joe Maniscalco

Advocates pushing for passage of the “No More 24” bill in the New York City Council put 200 or more people in the streets outside City Hall on Thursday, Nov. 16, loudly demanding Speaker Adrienne Adams stop blocking the measure or step down. They promise to be back and be even louder — next month.

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, and Shèngdàn Kuàilè, indeed, Adrienne!

All of which makes us wonder how long Speaker Adams can keep saying "modern day slavery” is not her problem.

The most powerful person in the New York City Council insists the “solution” for home health aides being forced to work 24-hour shifts “must be pursed on the state level.”

That’s because…well…uhm…regulatory…and…uhm…payment structures…and…uhm — it’s because of money.

Yup. Money.

Advocates for Intro. 175 altered the bill in an effort to address the concerns of critics - but it’s still not good enough.

“The Speaker's position remains the same on Int. 175,” a spokesperson for Speaker Adams told Work-Bites in an email. “The changes to the legislation do not alter the fact that the regulatory and payment structures that govern home care work flow through Medicaid is controlled by the state and thus a solution must be pursued on the state level.”

That legislation aimed at amending state labor law, however, is also sitting around frozen in committee.

There’s not a person inside or outside state and local government who can seriously argue forcing home health aides to work 24-hour shifts — while only getting paid for 13 hours, by the way — is anything other than modern day slavery and wage theft. They just argue there’s not a goddamned thing anybody can do about it.

And that’s because while it is perfectly tolerable and quite all right to subject New York’s more than 210,000 home care workers — the overwhelmingly majority of them older women of color — to backbreaking round-the-clock labor caring for the sickest among us — it would be really horrific and absolutely out of the question to expect wealthy employers to take a dime out of their profits to hire more employees to cover 12-hour shifts.

That, of course, is just crazy talk.

What would be even crazier than that, however, would be to expect the State of New York to push for more federal dollars to fund Medicaid — because, you know, there’s always endless money for the U.S war machine — but nothing for the plebes trying to eke out a living providing dignified care to neighbors in need. 

“Every single night, these women in front of me and home attendants throughout New York City are doing God’s work,” Council Member and “No More 24” lead sponsor Chris Marte [D-1st District] told rally-goers on Thursday. “They’re saving our most vulnerable population. But our city who claims to be a sanctuary city…a city who says this is a union town…a city that says immigrant workers of color matter…turns their backs on you. They turn their backs for powerful unions, for special interests, for insurance companies — because they know they can get away with it.”

Advocates who turned out en masse outside City Hall last week demanding an end to 24 hour shifts in the home care industry, and for Speaker Adams to finally take action, made all of these connections.

In addition to opposing Intro. 175 — the current speaker is also blocking Intro. 1099 —legislation aimed at stopping the City of New York from herding municipal retirees into a privatized Medicare Advantage health insurance plan run by Aetna.

Speaker Adams is also opposed to Resolution 423 — the “Move The Money” effort that seeks public hearings on Pentagon spending and the reasons why the human needs of New Yorkers are going unmet.

The speaker is considered a close ally of Mayor Eric Adams. And you’d think a mayor who bemoans the lack of federal dollars the city is getting as much as he does — would do everything he could to try to do something about that — including backing a resolution aimed at shining a much-needed light on the whole mess. 

Yeah, that’s what you’d think being a rational person.

“Why won’t Council Speaker Adams allow the No More 24 Act — Intro 175 onto the floor for a vote thereby putting a stop to this inhumane treatment by disallowing 24 hour work shifts… perhaps to protect insurance companies profits which they now enjoy?” UFT retiree and Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Gloria Brandman told Work-Bites.

CROC, one of the retiree organizations that formed in direct opposition to the ongoing campaign to push municipal workers into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance program, has long been in solidarity with home health aides fighting for passage of the “No More 24” bill.

“The Speaker is also keeping Into. 1099 from coming onto the floor of the council. Possible reasons might be pressure from the union leadership as well insurance companies such as Aetna, which was the company that created the NYC Medicare Advantage Plan,” Brandman added. “Adams is also preventing  Move the Money Reso. 423 from being put on the agenda in the Cultural Affairs committee for hearing and vote prior to going to full council — despite having majority of council members as endorsers.”

What’s up with that? 

“We are not sure, but it is quite apparent that the speaker has excessive power — democracy is limited in the NY City Council,” Brandman said. 

The New York City Council’s own rules prohibit the speaker from blocking any committee chair from hold meetings within its jurisdiction. But that’s just what it says in the rule book — in reality, as Work-Bites reported here — “protocol” ensures that the speaker actually calls the shots.

“Speaker Adams’ tenure as Speaker of [the] NY City Council has been disastrous and has harmed women of color–despite her being the first Black woman Speaker,” Intro. 175 advocates said in a statement released after Thursday’s rally. “She has used her power to ensure that NYC, alone among cities, continues to force tens of thousands of women into unimaginable grueling shifts and chronic wage theft.

Corinthia Carter, president of the 600-member Legal Services Staff Association Local 2320, pledged support for home health aides demanding a vote on Intro. 175, and said her union wants to “fight Speaker Adams against the 24 hour workday.”

“Any Harm to a laborer or a worker is a harm to us,” Carter said at the rally.

Home care worker, Dellanira Soto further lambasted Speaker Adams in a statement following the rally.

“Speaker Adams, 24 hours destroyed our lives! It’s like being in jail,” she said. “We are tired of missing Christmases with our children. We are gone from our families for four days at a time. Why won’t you stop it! We work without sleep so that the bosses of this country can wage wars — it’s not just!! We’re not going to stop until 24-hour workdays are ended. We will be back on December 18th.” 

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