In recognition of International Workers Day, AAD invited JoAnn Lum, Executive Director of National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS), to contribute an op-ed on the organization’s fight to end the inhuman 24-hour work day in the home care industry. The NYS Department of Labor believes home care workers can be paid for just 13 hours of a 24-hour shift. The 13-hour policy is based on the assumption that workers are getting eight hours of sleep—at least five of which are uninterrupted—plus three hours for meals during each shift. Yet home care workers on 24-hour shifts say they routinely have to work through these required breaks without extra pay.
NMASS is a multi-trade, multi-ethnic workers center where working people unite across industry, race, nationality and gender to fight for the changes we need in our workplaces, communities and lives. NMASS works towards creating a society where the workers who produce society’s wealth and who make everything possible, are in control of their own lives. They believe that this work starts with ourselves and that the most fundamental problem for working people here in the United States is that we have lost control, not only over our government and over U.S.-based corporations and institutions, but over our very lives. The only solution is for all of us who work — either in paid jobs, or in our homes, or in other places like schools — to organize to take back control. While recognizing our differences, we have to come together around what we have in common, to transform the existing system according to our collective needs and interests as working people.
Isn’t this May Day the right moment to revive the movement that more than 150 years ago gave genesis to Workers’ Day: the fight for the 8-Hour Day? The continued need for this battle speaks to the realities many of us face today. We are overworked, while others don’t have enough employment. Much of our work like caregiving, community work, and art work is not valued. We are pitted against one another to profit the 1%.
At NMASS’ LES Workers Center we see workers facing these conditions everyday: busboys making $3 an hour and being stiffed of their tips by their bosses; home care workers working 24-hour shifts, sometimes 4 days a week, and getting paid for only 13 of those hours.
Locally and nationally, we’re seeing flaring divisions among workers. Unscrupulous employers are taking advantage of Trump’s immigrant bashing to extract more from immigrants and workers of color especially. However, this began and continued way before Trump. The employer sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 created an underclass with no rights, permitting the super-exploitation and abuse of undocumented immigrants. The law divided the working class, pitting citizens against immigrants, thus driving pay and conditions down for everyone. With Trump in office, this race to the bottom is even more apparent as wages drop and work-related health problems once thought to be in decline, like black lung disease in Appalachia, rise.
Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio claim to protect immigrants, women, and workers with sanctuary. But what is a sanctuary city when de Blasio’s pro-development agenda displaces more and more working people every day? What is sanctuary when Cuomo’s Department of Labor (DOL) promotes the inhuman policy of legalizing 24-hour work shifts for 13 hours of pay? We recently saw the NYS Court of Appeals defer to DOL’s interpretation of the wage order that allows employers to exclude payment from workers if they’re able to sleep an appropriate (at least 5 hours uninterrupted) amount and take meal breaks during their shift. This despite countless workers testifying that they are unable to sleep through the night since the people in their care often have medical conditions that require around-the-clock attention. In a dissenting opinion, Associate Judge Michael Garcia called the decision “unfair” and said the court incorrectly interpreted the role of home health care workers in relation to the wage order. Judge Garcia went further in stating that “DOL’s interpretation of the wage order not only enables this mistreatment of home health care aides, it directly affects their livelihood: with 11 hours of pay deducted from their earnings, home health care aides are paid an hourly rate less than the statewide minimum wage.”
Day-to-day, working people are coming together to protect our health, our communities and our right to control our time and lives. Right now, home attendants are leading a political fight to end the inhuman 24-hour day in the home care industry, paving the path for more workers to stand up against long work hours. Through the Ain't I a Woman?! campaign, we are sending a message that none of us should be forced to work overtime. Working people are fighting against all odds to demand systemic change that go beyond top-down reforms that undercut the fight for the 8-hour day (8 hours to work, 8 hours to rest, 8 hours to do as we like) in exchange for overtime pay.
In N.Y. state, 93% of home care workers are women; 79% are immigrants and women of color. Here at NMASS, we’ve been working together with home care workers from Honduras, Mexico, China, and the Dominican Republic as well as with African Americans, whites and Puerto Rican citizens. We work together to fight to end the inhumane conditions in which they are forced to work and we are uniting with others including the families of those they care for; other workers, women's groups and disability rights groups, to say enough is enough. Ending 24-hour workdays is in the interest of all working people.
We are galvanizing more workers to bring lawsuits and file complaints to recover their withheld wages. We are also calling for the right to end mandatory overtime, working with legislators to prohibit the 24-hour workday for home care workers and implement split shifts so two or more workers can provide around-the-clock care. This way, people can receive proper care and workers can go home, rest and see their families, returning to work with more energy and attention.
Uniting the working class means that we can fight together for our common interests. Gaining control of our time, we can come together to fight for better working conditions, more say in our communities and healthier working and living conditions for us and our families. By valuing the work that we do, we can lay the groundwork for more fundamental change. - JoAnn Lum, May 1, 2019
AAD UPCOMING EVENTS Vanessa ThillCleave-To exhibition openingLarrie, 27 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002afterparty to support AADMay 2 / 8:30 PM - LateBeverly’s, 21 Essex StreetWith DJ PRDIVA09 and video by Zishun NingBeverly’s will serve a special cocktail with proceeds to support the cause!_______________United Against Displacement: A Walk through Two BridgesMeet at Straus Square, East Broadway and Rutgers StreetMay 4 (11:00 AM) and May 5 (1:00 PM) As part of the Municipal Art Society’s “Jane’s Walk” series, Fran Benitez and Briar Winters host a free walking tour that examines how displacement is impacting the Lower East Side and how local residents are fighting back.________________
AAD Monthly MeetingSeward Park Library, 192 East BroadwayMay 146:30 PM - 8:00 PM Join Art Against Displacement (AAD) for their monthly meeting at the Seward Park Library. All are welcome to participate in a graphic session to brainstorm, discuss and produce visuals for our current campaign against the proposed luxury megatowers in Two Bridges. We will work on creating drawings, slogans, comics, banners, collages, memes, performance and other action ideas Join us as we explore these possibilities. Bring art materials to share.