Home healthcare workers resumed a hunger strike Tuesday in an attempt to pressure City Council Speaker Julie Menin to strike changes from the \u201cNo More 24 Act,\u201d a bill that would prohibit 24-hour workdays for home health aides.<\/p>\n
The aides want the original version of the bill, known as Intro. 303<\/a>, brought to a full vote in the City Council. But members of Menin\u2019s team told amNewYork that the speaker does not have a specific timeline for bringing the bill to a vote and stood behind the modifications to the proposed legislation, which they said would ensure a sustainable outcome for both workers and the patients they serve.<\/p>\n Outside City Hall on July 29, protesters with the Ain\u2019t I A Woman Campaign \u2014 a coalition of home healthcare workers, retirees, workers\u2019 rights advocates, and political organizations opposing the practice \u2014 charged that Menin\u2019s actions amounted to \u201clies\u201d and \u201cbetrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n Luz Estrella worked 24-hour shifts as a home healthcare worker for more than a decade. She said all those years with constant sleep interruptions eventually contributed to her developing a heart condition.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThat liar Menin showed her face to us, but made false promises,\u201d Estrella said in Spanish.\n<\/p>\n Under a state law called the 13-hour rule, employers may schedule workers for a 24-hour shift, but only pay them for 13 hours, provided the employee gets an uninterrupted 8-hour break to sleep and 3 hours of meal breaks. Workers say this rarely happens and that they are constantly working during sleep and meal breaks at the expense of their own health.<\/p>\n The No More 24 Act, sponsored by City Council Member Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan), would require agencies to split round-the-clock care into two 12-hour shifts and prohibit agencies from scheduling any worker to a shift of more than 56 hours in a workweek.<\/p>\n Trey Good of the men\u2019s group Brothas Express, which seeks to challenge patriarchal views in modern society, addressed the crowd Tuesday to support home healthcare workers who are overwhelmingly immigrant women of color.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aDo we believe in a system that can only function by robbing the livelihoods of immigrant women of color?\u201d Good asked the crowd. \u201cDo we agree with insurance companies and Speaker Menin when they say we don\u2019t have enough budget to end the 24-hour workday? \u201c<\/p>\n Tensions over the bill escalated this spring once council support for the bill began to fracture,<\/a> and a vote on the original bill, which Menin tentatively predicted<\/a> for April, never materialized.<\/p>\n