No More 24 Advocates Tell NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin: ‘Buckle Up, Girl’—This Fight is Not Over!
Hundreds of marchers encircled City Hall on Oct. 3, demanding City Council Speaker Julie Menin help bring an end to the 24-hour workday. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Two women. Two City Council Speakers. Two machine party politicians proving once again that in the City of New York, big money and special interests count for a whole lot more than the needs of working people—and even more so if those working people happen to be older immigrant women of color.
In that case you can look them right in the eye, as City Council Speaker Julie Menin did on the sidewalk outside City Hall back in March when she promised to advance Intro. 303—No More 24 bill—and simply lie.
Former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams spent her entire tenure blocking No More 24 legislation seeking to finally bring an end to the 24-hour work day in New York City’s home care industry—and the institutionalized wage theft that comes with it.
Retired home care worker Andrea Weatherspoon worked round-the-clock shifts for six years before being injured on the job.
Today, she’s on track to become New York’s next Lt. Governor on a widely-touted all-woman ticket alongside current Governor Kathy Hochull.
Before being injured on the job, Andrea Weatherspoon spent six years of her life working round-the-clock shifts as a home care worker while only being paid for 13 hours. That’s legal in the State of New York, and District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, head of the largest public sector union in the City, says that’s the way it has to be, too.
The entrenched 24-hour workday meant that Weatherspoon, just like scores of other older immigrant women of color like her, rarely ever saw her family and friends.
“Do you know what my husband said when I had that injury?” Weatherspoon asked No More 24 advocates rallying outside the gates of City Hall on Oct. 3. “He said, ‘Oh God, I thank you—I can see my wife every day!’”
Weatherspoon’s husband spent the next three years caring for her after switching to the night shift—then he died.
“Speaker Menin,” Weatherspoon continued on Saturday, “if you don’t believe Black women are rising up to put an end to the 24-hour shift you better buckle up, girl—we are coming, and we are not stopping!”
The Ain’t I a Woman Campaign—the advocacy group spearheading the No More 24 fight on behalf of home care workers like Weatherspoon—later put the number of vocal advocates and allies who encircled City Hall on Oct. 3 at 1,500.
No More 24 bill sponsor Member Chris Marte wonders when the plight of women in the home care industry is going to matter to his City Council colleagues—just 14 have signed onto Intro. 303
No More 24 sponsor Chris Marte [D-1st District], himself a one-time candidate to succeed Adrienne Adams as City Council Speaker, said he’s spent the last four years watching his colleagues continually priorititize the needs of male-dominated industries—“tackling any opponent” and passing legislation without a second thought—while long-languishing women in the care economy just didn’t seem to matter.
Marte introduced Into. 303—the latest version of the No More 24 bill—back on Jan. 29.
“In the past four years, we've had a woman majority Council,” Marte said on Saturday. “But I don't remember a time when we passed legislation that would affect and change for the better a woman-led industry.”
The issue couldn’t be more personal for Marte—his own mother worked for years as home care worker subjected to punishing and exploitative round-the-clock shifts.
“When will my mom matter to my colleagues?” Marte continued. “My mom who worked 24-hour shifts for years on end—who would leave on Tuesday and wouldn’t be back until Friday—when will those women, those family members, those children—when will they matter?”
Previous to this weekend’s No More 24 rally, Speaker Menin slated an “emergency all hands meeting” or Committee of the Whole to convene on Oct. 5 to grill representatives from SpaceXAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Meta about the potential dangers of Artificial Intelligence.
Marte couldn’t help but highlight the contradiction.
“It's funny, because recently I know many people have heard what's been happening with AI,” he said on Saturday. “A whistleblower has said AI is going to destroy humanity in the next 10 years—and so on Monday, we're having an emergency all hands meeting where everyone in the Council has to report and ask questions to the corporations in front of us. But where was that level of urgency for the crimes against women?”
No More 24 advocate Alexis Kaloyanides and her 7-year-old daughter Vivian both spoke out in support of Intro. 303 and ending the 24-hour workday.
There are 31 women currently serving in the New York City Council earning a base annual salary of $175,500. But at the time of this writing, the No More 24 bill has just 14 cosponsors—and the majority of them are men.
Community organizer and education advocate Alexis Kaloyanides felt compelled to bring seven-year-old daughter Vivian to Saturday’s No More 24 demonstration after learning about the struggle while helping to organize against the construction of three large-scale casinos slated to soon debut in New York City.
“Many of home care workers see the connection between the exploitative nature of gambling and care work, the breakdown of family structures, community stability, and public health,” Kaloyanides said. “So, why can't Julie Menin see that about the 24-hour shift? Julie Menin, you are a working mother. You hold one of the most powerful positions in New York Cty. Ask yourself, would you have risen to this level without a team of people to help care for your children; without your vast family wealth and resources?”
Ain’t I a Woman Campaign organizer Yuyi Chen and retired home care worker Shao Jing Ye press the No More 24 fight outside City Hall on Saturday.
Shao Jing Ye, a retired home care attendant who spent more than a decade working round-the-clock shifts, noted how many agencies and insurance companies in New York are already splitting 24-hour care into two 12-hour shifts.
“Are we going to keep fighting until there isn’t a single one left?” she said on Saturday. “Many people ask me, you’re already retired, why do you continue demand the end of 24-hour workdays? I say, I do this for justice, but I am also doing this for my next generation.”
Work-Bites made repeated attempts to reach both Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani to get their take on the No More 24 fight, and the issues home care workers and their allies raised on Saturday. Those attempts were all unsuccessful.
No More 24 advocates vow to return to City Hall in January.