New York City Council is no stranger to butting heads with Mayor Eric Adams on numerous issues. This was the case last week when councilmembers voted to override his vetoes on several pieces of legislation related to street vending and food delivery worker protections.

The council has been struggling to address ongoing issues impact Black and Brown immigrants including the excessive misdemeanor criminal penalties for street vendors and a wage raise for app-based grocery delivery workers. This led to advocates and council members pushing to pass bills Introduction 47-B, Introduction 1133-A, and Introduction 1135-A. Adams ended up vetoing all three, which the City Council has slammed as anti-immigrant.

“Mayor Adams’ vetoes were another example of him prioritizing Trump’s agenda above our city by disregarding the work of his own administration on these bills and harming working-class New Yorkers,” said New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in a statement. “The Council’s override of the Mayor’s senseless vetoes enact these laws that advance and protect the working people of our city.”

Street vending

In 2023, Adams moved the oversight for street vendors from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) to the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), with assistance from the NYPD.

Concern among advocates immediately arose that the shift would lead to more criminalization and discrimination since the city’s street vendors, licensed or not, are primarily Black, African, or Caribbean immigrants, and Latino migrants. At a City Council hearing later that year, a diverse group of vendors testified to unfair ticketing, arrests, confusing rules and regulations, being waitlisted for years to get a license, and instances of discrimination while vending. According to the City Council, the NYPD issued more than 1,000 criminal vending tickets in 2023 — the majority of them to Black and Latino New Yorkers.

Councilmember Shekar Krishnan sponsored Introduction 47-B in 2024. The bill was based on recommendations from the Street Vendor Advisory Board, established by Local Law 18 (LL18) of 2021. This bill would remove all misdemeanor criminal penalties for general vendors and mobile food vendors, but vendors who set up shop without a license could still be subject to a violation, a fine, or a civil penalty.

As a staunch advocate for immigrants, Krishnan celebrated overriding the Mayor’s veto. “The City Council will protect immigrants from intimidation and fear, from the horrifying conditions of 26 Federal Plaza, and from Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda,” he said in a statement. “We will ensure that safeguards are in place so that even if this Mayor, who is beholden to the President, tries to undo them, we stand strong.”

Grocery delivery workers

In 2021, the City Council passed Local Law 115 (LL115), which gave minimum pay protections to restaurant delivery couriers — not to be confused with app-based grocery delivery workers — who were excluded from the city’s standard minimum hourly wage of $16.50.

Councilmember Sandy Nurse initiated Introduction 1135-A last year, which would require grocery delivery services to pay their workers a set minimum wage. Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez also sponsored Introduction 1133-A, a complementary piece of legislation that would require worker protections like access to bathrooms, distribution of fire safety materials, and insulated delivery bags.

When Adams vetoed and disapproved both bills, council members were shocked since they were essentially an extension of a package of DCWP bills passed in 2023 that had the mayor’s support.

“For a mayor who loves to brand himself as a champion of working-class New Yorkers, these vetoes weren’t just disappointing — they were a slap in the face,” said Gutiérrez in a statement. “These bills were designed to protect the very delivery workers his own administration once claimed they wanted to help. That City Hall is now wasting energy trying to block its own idea is as cynical as it gets. The Council will do what we always do — stand up for workers and override these vetoes, because New Yorkers deserve better than political backpedaling.”

Nurse added, in a statement, that groceries don’t magically appear and that “behind every delivery is a worker trying to earn a living and put food on the table” who deserves to earn a minimum wage.

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