For years, Amazon has been able to extract profits from workers who hustle that last mile to complete a delivery while not actually employing them so the multinational can avoid having to provide the basic health and safety protections every worker should have.
Legislation pending in the New York City Council would end that exploitative business model. In our first hour we heard Council Tiffany Caban, Teamster International President Sean O’Brien, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani making the case on how to get that done.
Yesterday, hundreds of Amazon workers and their supporters from other unions packed the steps of City Hall to show their support for the Delivery Protection Act, introduced by Council Member Tiffany Caban. The last-mile industry, which is on track to deliver 1 billion packages this year, is rife with safety issues, workers’ rights violations, and environmental impacts that are all ignored under the present system.
“For too long, companies like Amazon have gotten away with subcontracting away any accountability as they put workers and our communities in danger, all so executives can make a quick buck,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán, lead sponsor of the Delivery Protection Act. “That ends now. We’re going to pass the Delivery Protection Act to make sure that workers’ rights are respected and that our streets and neighborhoods are safe.”
“The workers who deliver packages to our doors in every kind of weather deserve what every worker deserves: a fair paycheck, dignity on the job and a boss who is held accountable for how they treat their employees,” said Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. “Amazon has built a system that lets bosses avoid that responsibility. Drivers are standing up and demanding change. I’m proud to stand with them, the Teamsters and Councilmember Cabán in the fight for the dignity and protections every worker deserves.”
“Amazon is America’s most corrupt white-collar crime syndicate, wasting millions to rob warehouse workers of the right to collectively bargain while designing a nationwide subcontracting scheme to deny employment rights to its entire fleet of delivery drivers,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “New York City is a vital artery of Amazon’s global logistics operations, and it must be the first city to pass the Delivery Protection Act. Amazon’s unchecked exploitation of drivers and parcel delivery workers has got to end.”
“The Delivery Protection Act is underpinned by a simple principle: building an economy that puts people over packages. For far too long, giant corporations have designed working arrangements that let them reap the rewards while workers and the public bear the risks. It’s exactly what subcontracting has become: a way to outsource the work—and outsource the responsibility for safety on our streets. New York City has had enough,” said Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine.
DECENT FOOD FOR THE HOMELESS?
Over a century ago Charles Dickens chronicled the cruelty wrapped up in charity institutions like poor houses and debtor prisons where the food and conditions added insult to the injury done by poverty.
Here in New York City, there’s a similar situation brewing with the often inferior food supplied to the City of New York to the tens of thousands it shelters daily. And worse yet, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, when the suppliers deliver inferior food there are no consequences in this dysfunctional system where the lowest bidder gets the contract with some committing to spend as little as $5.50 a day for three meals.
What could go wrong? As it turns out, a lot. For the homeless, who often already have pre-existing health conditions like diabetes, or challenges like a high risk pregnancy, poor quality food can make matters much worse.
Luckily, for the homeless and the people who care about them, there's a potential remedy--the Food Vendor Watch List bill, Intro 1156, sponsored by Council Member Won. It would require the Department of Homeless Services to keep a watchlist of shelter food vendors after failed inspections or a determination by the DHS commissioner that the vendor's performance needed to be tracked.
"Vendors placed on the watchlist would lose agency approval for contracts," according to a press release from the Coalition for the Homeless. "Intro 678... would require City agencies operating homeless shelters to ensure food vendors are paid at least $15 per resident per day, adjusted annually for inflation, whether the shelter provides food directly or uses a subcontractor. DHS currently sets no citywide minimum, with per diems determined contract by contract, and some contracts as low as $5.50 per day for three meals.
"The city is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on shelter food contracts, and residents are getting meals that make them sick, do not meet their dietary needs, and get thrown in the trash. Three of the worst-performing vendors hold nearly a billion dollars in city contracts. Five dollars a day is undignified and reflects a procurement system designed to reward the lowest bidder at the expense of the most vulnerable," said Council Member Julie Won. "Intro 678 sets a floor. The Food Vendor Watchlist holds the bad actors accountable. Together, these bills end the race to the bottom and put dignity back on the table for the nearly 100,000 New Yorkers sleeping in our shelters every night.”
“Everyone deserves food that is safe to eat, nutritious, and meets their medical and dietary needs,” said Alison Wilkey, Director of Government Affairs and Strategic Campaigns, Coalition for the Homeless. "The City has a responsibility to invest enough to provide adequate meals and hold vendors accountable when they repeatedly fail to meet basic standards. People’s health depends on it."
“They say you are what you eat, well what is this food turning us into? It is making us sick, it is making us mentally unwell, or it's forcing us to pay out of our pockets to not deal with it... When I could be saving to figure out my path out of the shelter system, I am instead spending my money on getting proper food.” said Kiesha Gabriel, member of the VOCAL-NY Homelessness Union.
The Coalition for the Homeless (the “Coalition”) was founded in 1981, and is the court- and City-appointed independent monitor of the Department of Homeless Services (“DHS”) shelter system. It was the plaintiff in the precedent setting Callahan, Eldredge, and Boston cases that established the right to shelter in NYC.
AS THE WORLD TURNS.....
The Guardian is reporting that over this past summer, excessive heat was responsible for killing a staggering 50,000 people in over 800 cities tracked in a peer reviewed study in the scientific journal Nature Health. The highest heat mortality rates were flagged in Malta, Italy and Hungary with pre-existing health issues, social isolation and poverty contributing factors. "Hot weather marked by relentless heatwaves killed nearly twice as many people as it did in each of the two next most dangerous years," according to the Guardian.
Next week, on Oct. 27th, Israel is set to hold its first election since the Oct. 7th 2023 Hamas terrorist attack.
The New York Times is reporting that both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyhu plan on resuming their bombing campaign on Iran after the US midterm elections are over. The doubling down on the failed policy comes as the conflict widens with the US State Department ordering non-essential personnel and family members out of Saudi Arabia, which is fending off increasingly lethal attacks from Iranian-backed Houthis who have zeroed in on Saudi oil infrastructure and airports.
AlJazeera is reporting that the Israeli military launched a drone bomb attack in southern Lebanon and that Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered a full lockdown on the West Bank in the aftermath of shooting in Hebron that left two alleged Palestinian gunmen dead and several Israeli soldiers wounded.
The prolonged gun battle in Hebron, came as tensions continued to escalate in the West Bank as Israeli settlers, with tacit military support, accelerated their push to seize land long held by Palestinian families.
In Gaza, the New York Times is reporting, that despite a supposed cease fire, the IDF has continued to carry out regular air strikes killing more that 1,400 people on top of the more than 70,000 killed in what has been widely reported as a genocide after the Oct. 7th Hamas attack.
Early voting starts in New York and New Jersey tomorrow. Most of the country is already voting with the Associated Press reporting a surge in voter turnout, spiking 74 percent in Texas and in North Carolina and Ohio where it surged over 30 percent from 2022. Historically, non-presidential bi-annaul elections see a weak turnout well below fifty percent. Over the last 25 years the highwater mark was in 2018, of just over 50 percent during President Trump's first term when Democrats picked up 41 House seats.
We talked about early voting with New Jersey social justice activist Larry Hamm and we closed out with a conversation with lower Manhattan City Council Member Chris Marte, whose controversial bill to ban horse carriages in Central Park passed 40 to 7 with 2 abstentions yesterday.
Marte gave us an update on his legislation to guarantee that New York City's retired municipal workers can hold on to their free Medicare health coverage and not be forced into a predatory Medicare Advantage plan. He also discussed his bill to reform how 24-7 LIVE-IN home health aides are paid and scheduled.
