The ‘No More 24’ Revolution is Not Yet Complete; DSA Members Condemn Mayor Mamdani

New York City home care workers on hunger strike for the last week vow to continue pushing for passage of the “No More 24” bill and ending the 24-hour workday. Photos/Joe Maniscalco

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By Joe Maniscalco

New York City home care workers fighting to ban the 24-hour workday capped off Week 1 of their hunger strike outside the gates of City Hall on Thursday confident City Council Speaker Julie Menin will finally green light a vote on legislation they want by mid-May.

But a closer look at what’s really going on with Intro. 303, Council Member Chris Marte’s legislation to finally end mandatory round-the-clock shifts in New York City’s home care industry, reveals Thursday’s celebration was premature—there is, in fact, no set date for the “No More 24” bill to be submitted for a vote—and the fate of the pending legislation still largely rests in the hands of Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“Although [Speaker Menin] did not fulfill her promise to submit the bill to the City Council for a vote in April, she has now publicly agreed to the version of Intro. 303 that we want,” home care workers said through an interpreter at a celebratory City Hall rally on April 23. “She has now handed the bill over to the Mayor to prevent any behind the scenes maneuvering on his part—and she has promised to submit the bill for a vote by May 14. This is an excellent outcome, one truly worthy of celebration.”

Advocates for home care workers came away from a meeting with Menin staffers on Wednesday, April 22 confident they had a commitment from the Speaker to finally bring Intro. 303—the “No More 24” bill—to the floor of the City Council for a full vote by mid-May.

Break the Chains of Modern Day Slavery: New York City home care workers plan to continue the “No More 24” push outside City Hall on May 1—and again on May 15.

Speaker Menin had previously pledged to bring the “No More 24” bill to the floor for a vote this month during a sidewalk meeting with home care workers demonstrating outside City Hall on March 19.

Since then, however, the Speaker has come under increasing pressure from Governor Kathy Hochul, District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, the Legal Aide Society, and Mayor Mamdani himself to either kill the “No More 24” bill, or effectively render it toothless, claiming that passing it and mandating split 12-hour shifts would “leave very disabled people without care.” 

“The Coalition met with two senior staffers from the Speaker’s office. It was a productive meeting and the Coalition walked away with the understanding that Speaker Menin would submit the bill by May 14th,” Democratic District Leader and Ain’t I a Woman Campaign member Vittoria Fariello told Work-Bites following Thursday’s City Hall rally.

Council Member Marte previously indicated that his office is more than happy to talk to colleagues and stakeholders about the language of the “No More 24” bill—and that significant changes have, indeed, already been made—but that “our fundamental line in the sand is to make sure we end the 24-hour practice.”

DSA-NY member Rachel Aaronson says Mayor Mamdani’s failure to support passage of the “No More 24” bill and ending the 24-hour workday is unacceptable.

Home care worker advocates insist the 24-hour workday and the legal fiction allowing regulated wage theft in the industry is nothing less than modern day slavery and institutionalized violence against the older immigrant women of color who do the majority of the work taking care of New Yorkers at their most vulnerable.

“Speaker Menin has long fought for strong worker protections and believes more must be done to prevent exploitation and ensure safe working conditions,” a spokesperson for Menin’s office told Work-Bites on Thursday. “As part of the ongoing legislative process, the Council has sent an updated version of this bill to the mayoral administration for review, and we remain in constant communication with stakeholders throughout this process.”

The elderly hunger strikers who have spent the last seven days subsisting on water and broth jeered the DSA-NY-endorsed Mamdani on Thursday for failing to meet with them at any time throughout the course of their week-old hunger strike.

“We have not eaten in six days, and he has not even come out and cared about us,” 62-year-old retired home care worker Xue Zhen Chen told Work-Bites through an interpreter on Tuesday.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for an end to the 24-hour workday during a home care worker rally in Brooklyn on May 11, 2024.

Now that condemnation of Mayor Mamdani includes members of the Democratic Socialists of America itself.

“It is shameful that we are a whole week into this hunger strike and the only sign we’ve seen from Mamdani has been through the cops he sent to intimidate and harass these brave women who are asking simply that they not be subject to the racist, sexist violence of the 24 hour workday,” Rachel Aaronson, a representative from DSA for No More 24, told Thursday’s rally. “There are a growing number of us who understand that anything other than full support in this fight is not acceptable.”

Home care workers announced a pause to their ongoing hunger strike following Thursday’s City Hall rally—but vowed to mobilize for a bigger May Day action in support of the “No More 24” bill, universal healthcare and an end to tenant displacement throughout New York City. They also plan to demonstrate outside City Hall on May 15.

“As the saying goes, ‘the revolution is not yet complete,’” home care workers said on Thursday. “And so, today we are passing on our hunger strike to mobilize the entire city of New York.”

Home care workers celebrated their week-old hunger strike on April 23, and vowed to return to City Hall and press the fight for the “No More 24” bill.

Repeated efforts to reach the Mayor’s Office for comment on this story were unsuccessful.

Mayor Mamdani was still on the campaign trail when he told home care workers at a rally outside the Labor Department’s offices in Brooklyn on Dec. 11, 2024 that exploitative round-the-clock shifts must end.

“We know that those technical breakups of thirteen hours and eleven hours for so many workers [assigned 24-hour shifts] mean nothing—that you are working every single hour of that shift—and that must come to an end,” he said.

At the time of this writing the “No More 24” bill has 18 cosponsors.