Ugly No More 24 Feud on Broadway Pits Worker Against Worker

Don’t Ban Our Shifts: DC 37 member at Wednesday’s City Hall protests confronts counter-protestors fighting for passage of Intro. 303—Council Member Chris Marte’s No More 24 bill. Photos/Joe Maniscalco

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By Joe Maniscalco

Ugly tensions erupted outside City Hall on Wednesday as workers and advocates fighting to end round-the-clock shifts in New York City’s home care industry marched down Broadway and crashed District Council 37’s rally against the proposed ban.

The two parties taunted and jeered each other from opposite sides of steel NYPD barricades running down the block outside City Hall to Park Row where home care workers and other advocates of Council Member Chris Marte’s No More 24 bill assembled behind DC 37’s elevated stage.

“We are here on principle standing up for what we believe even if it’s not popular,” DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido told members while home care workers and their advocates continued their counter-protest.

Wednesday’s protests outside City Hall resulted in a number of heated exchanges between participants.

DC 37 is the largest public sector union in the city but represents just a fraction of the more than 100,000 home care workers toiling throughout the five boroughs. Many of them are forced to work 24-hour shifts whether they like it or not.

Home care workers and their advocates pushing for passage of Intro. 303—the No More 24 bill—have spent the last decade in the streets fighting to end mandatory round-the-clock shifts in New York City’s home care industry and the institutionalized wage theft that comes with them.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani had previously joined with No More 24 advocates in that fight before being elected, declaring that mandatory round-the-clock shifts paying home care workers roughly half the time they are in a client’s home—must end.

DC 37 member behind NYPD barricades on Broadway mocks No More 24 advocates as they march by.

Since becoming mayor, however, Hizzoner has done an about-face on what is widely acknowledged as modern day slavery, working behind the scenes to gut the No More 24 bill by making the exploitative round-the-clock shifts its seeks to end “voluntary.”

DC 37 members at this week’s dueling City Hall rallies held up placards declaring “Do Not Ban Our Shifts” as Garrido, who also serves as acting chair of New York City’s Municipal Labor Committee ostensibly representing more than 400,000 city workers, vowed to continue fighting to “amend 303, kill 303, to make sure the people are protected.”

Zishun Ning, a spokesperson for No More 24 coalition, called Garrido’s actions “shameful for the labor movement.”

Temperatures on Broadway soared to over 91 degrees on May 20 as tempers boiled over between DC 37 members and home care workers determined to help pass No More 24 legislation ending round-the-clock shifts in New York City’s home care industry.

“They see people come out against the 24-hour workday and that’s when they got nervous,” Ning told Work-Bites. “Where were they before? The only time we see them come out is to continue the culture of the 24-hour workday.”

The DC 37 members Work-Bites approached during Wednesday’s rally declined to comment saying that they were directed by leadership not to speak to the press.

Vittoria Fariello, Female Democratic District Leader and a member of the Ain’t I a Woman campaign advocating for passage of the No More 24 bill, dismissed claims from DC 37 and others arrayed against the legislation that it would result in patients being denied the 24-hour care many need.

District Council 37 Executive Henry Garrido looking nonplussed on Broadway this week before his members trade barbs with workers fighting to end round-the-clock shifts in New York City’s home care industry.

“It’s just a way to fear-monger and to pit patients against workers,” Fariello told Work-Bites. “They say that they’ve been trying to end this—we’ve seen no effort. We’ve never heard them once say that we need to end the 24-hour workday. So, to come out here and try to say they’re trying to fix this is just a lie.”

Furthermore, Fariello insisted, previous efforts to pass statewide legislation aimed at addressing the systematic exploitation baked into the way home care works in New York have all failed, in part, due to opposition from DC 37 leadership and other union leaders.

“Anytime there has been a bill that would actually end 24-hour shifts they have not supported it, nor have they, as far as I’m aware put any bill forward that would actually end the 24 hour workday without exception,” Fariello said.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin had pledged to home care workers fighting for passage of the No More 24 bill that the legislation would be brought to the floor for a City Council vote by April.

That has not happened, however, leaving the inherent exploitation baked into New York City’s home care industry to continue unabated as home care workers vow to keep fighting in the streets.

Work-Bites will have more on Wednesday’s DC 37 rally and No More 24 counter-protest shortly.