‘Hiding Behind a Socialist Banner’: Working Class New Yorkers Call Out Mamdani’s May Day Hypocrisy
May Day protesters outside the gates of City Hall on Friday demand an end to round-the-clock shifts for New York City home care workers and passage of Intro. 303—the “No More 24” bill. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood inside Washington Square Park on May Day waxing poetically about socialist icon Eugene V. Debs and the battle for the eight hour workday.
But just 20-some-odd blocks away outside the gates of City Hall home care workers and their allies fighting to end the 24-hour workday and other working class struggles against privatization and displacement called out Hizzoner’s hypocrisy in turning a blind eye to all those ongoing battles.
“During our hunger strike he ignored us, and even today he is working with Governor [Kathy] Hochul to block the bill,” home care worker and “No More 24” advocate Cai Qiong Liu said through an interpreter. “As working women we’ve had enough of this hypocrisy hiding behind a socialist banner while forcing women of color to work 24 hour workdays, planning to build a jail in Chinatown, and forcibly demolishing public housing in Chelsea.”
New York City home care workers pushing for passage of Intro. 303—the “No More 24” bill—completed their latest weeklong hunger strike on April 23 with democratic socialist Mayor Mamdani never having once met with them.
Home care worker Cai Qiong Liu worked round-the-clock shifts at roughly half the pay for nearly a decade—here she calls out Mayor Mamdani’s hypocrisy and his failure to support working class New Yorkers like her.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin had pledged to allow the “No More 24” bill to the floor for a vote in April, but Mayor Mamdani, Governor Kathy Hochul, District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, and an array of other powerful politicos continue to oppose the effort to end what is widely acknowledged as modern day slavery in the home care industry.
“It seems Mayor Mamdani has taken a step back,” New Kings Democrats member Janice Henderson told the City Hall rally. “He now wants language to include consent to work 24 hour shifts. In response to that, I would like him to work 24 hours straight for weeks at a time. I would like to ask him to take the place of a home care aide and walk in their shoes a weekend to see what it’s like—then let’s see if the world ‘consent’ is needed to be added to the bill.”
Other home care workers called on Mayor Mamdani to “break” with “snake Kathy Hochul” who has been working hard behind the scenes to guarantee Intro. 303’s demise.
Bisma Punjani [behind mic] and other members of Central Brooklyn DSA and the Marxist Unity Group say socialists need to stand with home care workers to end the 24-hour workday.
Retired teacher and Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Sarah Shapiro, meanwhile, called out Garrido’s ongoing opposition to the “No More 24” bill.
District Council 37 is the largest public sector union in the City of New York, and Garrido has led the charge against both Intro. 303 and Intro. 1096—long-languishing legislation banning further attacks on municipal retirees and their Traditional Medicare.
“He is still getting in the way of what the workers need and deserve—a 12-hour shift paid in full—not a 24-hour shift while only getting paid for 13 hours,” Shapiro told the May Day rally. “He should be protecting workers’ rights, not promoting slavery.”
Growing anger and frustration with Mayor Mamdani’s ongoing failure to stand with working class New Yorkers against the “No More 24” bill, plans to privatize and demolish public housing in Chelsea, and ongoing attacks on retiree healthcare, now also includes members of his own party—the New York City Democratic Socialists of America.
“No More 24” sponsor Chris Marte denounces the “banality of evil” and those in government willing to ignore the plight of New York City home care workers fighting institutionalized wage theft and the 24-hour work day.
“Our legislative campaign by DSA against privatization is necessary, but it cannot succeed without home care workers leading it, organizing from below,” Central Brooklyn DSA representative Bisma Punjani, told the May Day rally. “DSA cannot silo itself. It cannot substitute itself for worker antagonism because we don’t reproduce the healthcare system, these workers do. So we must fight alongside these homeware workers where the grueling [24-hour] shift is what defines their lives.”
Under the state’s system of legalized wage theft, home care workers in New York City—the overwhelming majority of them older immigrant women of color—are subject to round-the-clock shifts while only being paid for 13 hours.
Opponents of the “No More 24” bill argue that without securing additional funding to pay employment agencies like the Chinese-American Planning Council to cover 12-hour split shifts, patients in need of round-the-clock care will ultimately be harmed.
New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, chair of the Committee on Health, reiterated that argument when “No More 24” advocates confronted him at forum in support of the NY Health Act held in Brooklyn a day after the May Day rally outside City Hall.
Assembly Member Ron Kim calls BS on “No More 24” opponents during the May Day protest outside City Hall.
“The bottom line for me is this is something that needs to be resolved at the state level,” Senator Rivera told Work-Bites on Saturday. “I am more than willing to work with folks to pass something at the state level. If somebody wants to come with me and write a bill, strategize how to get it passed, as well as secure the funding, I am more than willing to.”
Former City Council Speaker, and current Hochul running mate, Adrienne Adams, spent her entire tenure as head of the New York City Council continually blocking both the “No More 24” bill and Intro. 1096 from getting a vote, claiming that ending the 24-hour workday was a state problem, and attempts to strip municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare and MediGap coverage was an issue for the courts.
“No More 24” bill sponsor Chris Marte [D-1st District] talked about the “banality of evil” in government during the May Day rally outside City Hall and dared demonstrators to “challenge these popular politicians” and the status quo.
“Workers in our government who choose to just read the laws and apply them as it is, people who say getting paid for 13 hours in a 24 hour shift is okay—that’s the evil that we’re fighting,” Council Member Marte said. “Yes, there’s evil developers, yes, there’s evil insurance companies, yes we have a governor who doesn’t support everyday workers—but the evil is the people that allow those actions to take practice every single day.”
Protesters outside the gates of City Hall on May Day call on Mayor Mamdani to keep his promise to working class New Yorkers.
New York State Assembly Member Ron Kim [D-40th District], author of a 2021 report called “The Nonprofit War on Workers”in which he cites tens of millions of dollars in stolen home care worker wages, was even more blunt on May Day.
“It’s easy to say it’s the state, it’s the insurance companies, it’s too complicated—that’s all bullshit,” he said. “We can’t get [Intro. 303] done because too many people are making money off of your lives. Too many people are fundraising off of your lives and they don’t want to end that.”
The Mayor’s Office refused to respond or acknowledge repeated requests for comment on this story.
On May Day, the mayor posted on X saying, “I owe my position as Mayor of New York City to the power of working people and I will always govern with them in mind.”
93-year-old civil rights icon and New York City municipal retiree Evelyn Jones-Rich tells Mayor Mamdani he’s in big trouble.
“Mayor Mamdani, you are in big trouble,” 93-year-old civil rights icon and New York City municipal retiree Evelyn Jones-Rich told the May Day rally. “You must support public housing. You must support the reintroduction of 1096. You must stop the wage theft of Brown, Black, Asian, and White old ladies like me. We are not going to take it from you and your crew. Let the world go out—this is a new day. Our time has come.”