New York City’s ‘No More 24’ Fight is Getting Even Uglier…
Cops arrest a demonstrator protesting unpaid wages and round-the-clock shifts in New York City’s home care industry. Photo courtesy of the Ain’t I a Woman Campaign.
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City’s already ugly battle to end round-the-clock shifts in the home care industry took a brutal turn this past week outside the Chinese-American Planning Council’s 60th Anniversary gala on Wall Street when police hauled off 14 people and charged them with disorderly conduct.
Those taken into custody late last Thursday afternoon, according to advocates for home care attendants, included a pregnant woman and a 60-year-old. At least one picketer was also reportedly hurt before the arrests even began.
“It is unbelievable to us that CPC would tell police to terrorize and arrest their workers who are elderly Chinese women,” Ain’t I a Woman Campaign spokesperson Sarah Ahn told Work-Bites. "We demand justice for those arrested, for being unjustly terrorized for demanding justice from CPC, while the real criminal gets protected. We also want justice for all CPC workers and home care workers who are being enslaved by this 24-hour system, routinely having their wages stolen, and destroying their health.”
Home care workers and their supporters with the Ain’t I a Woman Campaign set up a picket line outside the upscale Cipriani event venue at 55 Water Street at around 3 p.m. on Feb. 27 to denounce the CPC—the nation's largest Asian American social services organization—for continuing to assign home care attendants in its employ to punishing 24-hour shifts.
New York City home care attendants and their supporters picket outside the Chinese-American Planning Council’s 60th Anniversary gala on Wall Street late last Thursday afternoon. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
Those round-the-clock shifts are widely denounced as nothing less than “modern day slavery” and outright “violence” towards older women of color—even CPC President and CEO Wayne Ho acknowledges the practice is "not fair to workers." Nevertheless, it continues.
Hard-pressed home care attendants pressing the “No More 24” fight insist other home care agencies in New York City have stopped assigning workers to round-the-clock shifts and moved to 12-hour split shifts—so why can’t the CPC?
“Thanks to the organizing pressure of the home care workers, there are now dozens of home care agencies across New York City that have stopped assigning 24 hour shifts, instead splitting 24-hour care into 12-hour shifts,” New York City Council Member Chris Marte [D-1st District] told Work-Bites. "This is also the case for home care agencies across New York State, as only NYC agencies assign 24 hour workdays. The Chinese-American Planning Council is not above the law, is not an exception to any kind of City, State, or Federal rule, and should follow the example being set by above-the-board agencies who have paid back stolen wages and ended these brutal conditions.”
Council Member Marte is the author of Intro. 175, pending “No More 24” legislation that seeks to cap home care attendant work shifts to 12 hours. Additional hours would be okay in emergency situations.
Gala attendees are welcomed into the Cipriani event venue at 55 Water Street in Manhattan.
The CPC, however, argues that the State of New York creates and enforces 24-hour cases, and it does not actually have the power to split 24-hour shifts on its own because they are “mandated by state law and determined by insurance companies.”
“This includes capping reimbursement at 13 hours and determining whether such cases can transition to two 12-hour split shifts,” a CPC spokesperson later told Work-Bites in an email.
CPCHAP, the subsidiary of CPC, employs 4,500 home care workers and provides services to 2,500 patients. Currently, 80 workers are assigned to 39 cases of 24-hour shifts, and 152 workers are assigned to 38 cases of 12-hour split shifts.
According to the CPC, the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) and Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) specifically “assign 24-hour live-in care and authorize split shifts for home care services based on patient needs.”
“We have spoken with other home care agencies who have shared that they face similar challenges and are unable to split 24-hour cases on their own,” the CPC spokesperson added. “We would welcome a list of agencies that have successfully navigated this issue so we can learn from their experiences.”
Ahn, nevertheless, accused Ho of ripping off home care attendants.
“Ways Ho should pay back the women he stole millions of dollars of wages from,” she told Work-Bites. “Until he does so, we do not care what he has to say about the 24-hour workday because it is all dishonest.”
On the Picket Line
Work-Bites spoke to 71-year-old retired home care attendant Lai Yee Chan on the picket line just before the mass arrests started late last Thursday afternoon.
Members of the NYPD kept tabs on demonstrators outside the Chinese-American Planning Council’s 60th Anniversary gala on Wall Street last Thursday before taking 14 people into custody for disorderly conduct.
“I worked 24-hour shifts for the CPC for more than eight years—it destroyed my health—and they only paid us thirteen hours for 24-hour work days,” she told Work-Bites through an interpreter.
Last fall, a state Supreme Court judge in Albany annulled the New York State Department of Labor’s decision to cancel its investigations into wage theft from home care attendants who worked 24-hour shifts but only got paid for 13 hours.
However, the legal-fiction the retired 1199 worker described above is still being used to justify compensating home care attendants for only 13 hours out of a 24-hour work shift because the 11 hours supposedly allocated for eating and sleeping is considered “time off.”
Chan was also critical of her own union’s role in advocating for home care attendants who continue to be subjected to round-the-clock work.
“The CPC has been colluding with the insurance companies, 1199, and Governor [Kathy] Hochul to continue this,” Chan continued. “1199 used arbitration to try and solve the case, but they only paid us one minute for every 24-hour work day, so many of us didn’t sign the arbitration agreement. The union refused to tell us how much back pay we would get before we signed, so we didn’t sign.”
Home care attendants hold signs denouncing the Chinese-American Planning Council’s role in perpetuating round-the-clock work. Another picketer reportedly hurt in a scuffle sits on the curb.
A spokesperson for 1199 told Work-Bites the union strongly supports legislation ending 24-hour shifts that includes “full Medicaid funding for the additional hours (to prevent consumers from being forced into nursing homes and subsequent job losses for home care workers) and does not place unfair limitations on workers’ hard-won right to earn overtime.”
“We have aggressively pursued legal action to win back money owed to workers for interruptions on 24-hour cases,” the union spokesperson continued. “At 1199SEIU-organized employers, we won an arbitration which established a close to $40 million Special Wage Fund to address, among other things, employers’ failures to pay for interruptions of break time on 24-hour cases, travel time, and overtime.”
More than 60% of the Special Wage Fund, according to the 1199 spokesperson, went directly to the 5-7% of workers who work on 24-hour cases.
“This is by far the largest recoupment of lost wages to date, far surpassing the minimal amounts that non-union workers have been able to achieve through class action lawsuits against employers,” she said.
The fight for additional federal funding has only gotten more challenging, of course, now that the Republican-led House has approved an $880 billion budget resolution targeting Medicaid.
Those protesting outside the CPC gala on Wall Street late last Thursday afternoon insist they are owed tens-of-millions-of-dollars more, however. A further street action—this one outside CPC One at 45 Suffolk Street in Manhattan—is set for Wednesday morning, March 5, at 10 a.m. to protest last week’s arrests, continue the fight for unpaid wages, and finally end round-the-clock work.
“Stop The 24hr Workday Now” and “Stop Racist Violence” — New York City home care attendants send a clear message to gala attendees late last Thursday afternoon.
“Prior to the arrests, workers and supporters were peacefully picketing the gala, demanding CPC pay back the $90 million of wages stolen from home care workers and stop the 24-hour workdays that are destroying the lives of immigrant women of color,” the Ain’t I a Woman Campaign said this week in a statement released ahead of the planned protest.
CPC officials insist they did not call police on demonstrators picketing outside Cipriani late last Thursday afternoon.
“The local precinct was aware of the protest because the Ain’t I a Woman Campaign submitted an application for a permit,” a spokesperson for the organization told Work-Bites. “When the police arrived, we asked them to de-escalate the situation and allow the protest to continue. We cannot control the actions of the police or the protesters, and any behavior that ultimately led to arrests.”
The spokesperson further commended CPC staffers for their “professionalism in not engaging with the protesters and ensuring the safety of all attendees.”
“We are deeply committed to the well-being of those we serve and employ, including our dedicated home care workers,” she added. “We recognize the essential role they play in supporting our communities and will continue to advocate for fair wages, improved working conditions, and policies that protect and uphold their rights. We believe in addressing challenges through dialogue and collaboration and in advocating to decision-makers who have the authority to make the necessary reforms in home care. As we have for 60 years, we remain steadfast in our mission to empower and uplift Asian American, immigrant, and low-income communities in New York City.”