A coalition of student and faculty-led organizations at NYU condemned Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s refusal to outlaw 24-hour shifts for home health aides in a Tuesday open letter, one day before workers paused their six-day hunger strike protesting the same issue.
The letter — signed by 67 students and faculty, as well as Chinese left-wing organization YeCao Collective and NYU’s chapters of the American Association of University Professors and Students for International Labor Solidarity — slammed Mamdani for reportedly delaying the passage of No More 24, an act that would cap workers’ hours at 56 per week and eliminate shifts longer than 12 hours. The bill primarily applies to home care attendants, many of whom are female immigrants from China or Latin America.
Tisch senior Moriori Chen, a member of the New York City-based group Youth Against Sweatshops, told WSN that his group collaborated with student and faculty organizations at universities across the city to send letters in support of the bill.
“People don’t have time to take care of their children or talk to their families, so their families break apart,” Chen said. “That sometimes drives them into long-term mental conditions, such as depression. Sometimes they will get physical injuries from working super long hours. This is a really inhumane, slave-like condition.”
The petition came five days into a hunger strike held by 15 elderly home care workers in front of City Hall. The strike ended the next day, when City Council Speaker Julie Menin promised to demonstrators that she would introduce a vote on the act. Mamdani has yet to make a public statement on the bill, but reportedly pushed to water down its language at the advice of the Legal Aid Society, which raised concerns that it would come into conflict with state law.
Chen said that YeCao Collective, which primarily focuses on NYU issues, tabled in front of Bobst Library to draw support for the hunger strike. On Saturday, the student group donated $800 to the strike’s GoFundMe, which was organized by the Chinese Staff and Workers Association to buy equipment like blankets and chairs for demonstrators.
Proponents argued the No More 24 Act, which was first introduced by Councilmember Christopher Marte in January, would prevent workers from being underpaid. Current state law allows employers to pay home care attendants for only 13 hours of a 24-hour shift, writing off the remaining time as meal and sleep breaks. Nearly 18,000 New York City residents received 24-hour home care in 2022, according to 1199SEIU, the largest health care union in the state.
Menin initially promised to introduce the bill for a vote by April, but Mamdani intervened to propose giving workers the option to work 24-hour shifts rather than banning them outright, according to reporting by Documented. As a state assemblymember in 2022, Mamdani co-sponsored a similar state bill to outlaw 24-hour shifts for home care aides.
“A lot of times people will think about NYU — or just university in general — as this ivory tower,” Chen said. “We’re living under the same system that allows for 24-hour workdays to happen in New York City. A lot of the students and NYU alumni joined the organizing because we saw that there is this systemic problem out there, and 24-hour workdays are the most prominent demonstration of it.”
Contact Zachary Karp and Selin Kemiktarak at [email protected].