Delivery Workers Cheer Restroom Access and Tip Transparency Alongside AOC and Chuck Schumer
Gabriel Lopez, who has been making a living as a food delivery worker for over 18 months, braved the elements in Midtown, Jan. 21, 2022. Hiram Alejandro Durán/ THE CITY
Starting Sept. 24, New York City’s app-based food delivery workers are entitled to increased clarity on their daily earnings and tips, and the right to use most restaurant bathrooms, as new laws begin their rollout.
The Deliveristas celebrated the new protections Sunday afternoon with a rally in Times Square, flanked by allies including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-The Bronx/Queens) and Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has advocated for federal funds to create rest stops for the workers and other supports.
Also joining were city Comptroller Brad Lander and Councilmembers Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan) and Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), among the lawmakers who introduced the Council bills.
The rally drew dozens of Deliveristas, many of whom hail from Indigenous communities from Mexico and Guatemala. Workers from Bangladesh and Mali also participated.
“We’re going to see big, big changes with these laws,” upper Manhattan delivery worker Manny Ramírez, 34, told THE CITY on Friday. “The discrepancy between what the client thinks we get paid and what the apps actually pay was immense — but now there is more awareness, and we felt like we’d won with that alone.”
“We feel like winners,” said Ernesta Galvez, 40, who works for the Relay app and is one of the few women among the Deliveristas. “It’s emotional to think about how far we’ve come.”
Ocasio-Cortez said in a phone interview on Sunday that the local gains for delivery workers send important signals nationally.
“What we’re seeing with the Deliveristas and the working class in New York, particularly tech workers, is such a strong counterpoint to what we’ve seen in California,” she said, noting that state’s ban on gig workers being recognized as full time employees.
Police from the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills and Transit District 20 are looking for a suspect who weaponized a skateboard to bludgeon an E train rider last month.
The attack went down during the early morning hours of Monday, Sept. 16, as the 36-year-old victim was sitting on a southbound E approaching the Forest Hills–71st Avenue station at around 3 a.m. when a stranger approached. The intruder attempted to remove property from the victim’s pocket. The targeted rider began to record the older man with his cell phone. The stranger grabbed a skateboard from another rider and smashed the victim in his head, police said Tuesday.
Amazon Teamsters, drivers, and elected officials rallied in front of the company’s DBK4 warehouse in Maspeth on Wednesday, Oct. 16, to address key concerns affecting workers at the massive facility.
A former FBI agent from Queens Village is criminally charged with possessing an arsenal of illegal ghost guns and a stockpile of ammunition after law enforcement raided his home and a storage unit in Port Washington, L.I.
Scott Chiang, 53, was arraigned Friday in Queens Criminal Court on a 242-count criminal complaint after the searches at the two locations uncovered 18 illegal firearms, including eight ghost guns and six assault weapons, as well as high-capacity magazines, ammo and gun manufacturing tools.
The Maspeth Lions Club will host its annual Halloween Ragamuffin Parade along Grand Avenue on Oct. 31, giving hundreds of children in the neighborhood the chance to show off their best Halloween costumes.
The NYPD has confirmed that a local veterinary hospital euthanized an injured 8-year-old pit bull last night after it was found abandoned in Glendale earlier that day, suffering from advanced Stage 4 mammary cancer.
The number of homes entering contract across New York City increased significantly year over year, thanks in large part to a decline in mortgage rates, according to a report by the real estate listing site StreetEasy.