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.
State Senator James Sanders Jr. hosted his annual Earth Day celebration in the Rockaways on Saturday, Apr. 20, highlighted by his “Tuvalu Challenge” address, delivered while standing in the surf off Beach 86th Street with like-minded community leaders.
For the third year in a row, Sanders delivered his speech in the Atlantic Ocean to commemorate a similar address by Foreign Minister Simon Kofe of the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu on Nov. 5, 2021, to dramatize the plight of his endangered country from climate change by standing in the ocean.
Neir’s Tavern is set to celebrate its “Halfway to 195th” anniversary this Saturday, Apr. 27. Residents are invited to take part in a special spring edition of this beloved Woodhaven fixture’s annual block party, located at 88th Avenue, between 78th and 77th Street, from 12-6 p.m.
Police from two western Queens police precincts are looking for a pair of armed robbers who targeted several people miles apart in just over an hour last week.
Queens Council Member Robert Holden has introduced a series of bills that aim to impose tougher penalties on lawbreakers and provide law enforcement with additional tools to make arrests.
As Pro-Palestinian encampments emerged at over a dozen college campuses across the country following in the footsteps of Columbia University, local elected officials pushed out statements in response.
Upscale Upper East Side grocery store Butterfield Market is set to open a new location in Long Island City next year. The store will operate a retail space and a 9,000-square-foot commissary kitchen.
Rob Basch is not your average volunteer. While many might shy away from the idea of picking up trash for a living, Basch embraces it wholeheartedly. As the president of the Hunters Point Park Conservancy in Long Island City, he dedicates his days to nurturing the park and transforming it into a haven for the Queens community.
A school crossing guard from Jamaica was criminally charged with attempted rape, attempted use of a child in a sexual performance and other sex-related crimes after he allegedly tried to lure an undercover NYPD officer he believed to be 14 years old to participate in a sex act.
Jared Jeridore, 24, of Sutphin Boulevard, was arraigned Wednesday in Queens Criminal Court on a seven-count criminal complaint that also included counts of attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors, attempted endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct.