New York, March 29. A group of immigrant workers demanded this Wednesday that the city of New York “immediately” approve legislation that reduces their work day for the care of patients in the home from 24 to 12 hours and puts an end to what they called theft of their wages and “racial injustice”.
“No more 24 hours” they yelled at the president of the municipal council, Adrienne Adams, whom they demand to bring to a vote the project that would convert the new 12-hour work day into law, something that already exists for workers in the state.
“Adams refuses to bring the bill to a vote. We cannot allow this aggression to continue,” said the organizers – Latinos, Afro-Americans and Asians – at a press conference just a few steps from the City Hall, where on April 12 they will hold a protest called by a coalition of organizations.
They ensure that the project has the bipartisan support of 26 of the 51 members of the municipal legislature. There are thousands of women as domestic workers, but according to the coalition that called the press conference, held in English, Chinese and Spanish, those who work 24-hour shifts are immigrants.
The women, who demand “humane working conditions”, denounced that despite working 24 hours, they are only paid for 13, and that since 2000, since before that date they received salary for 12 hours of work.
“Adams, stop racist violence against women. Take the project to a vote”, “Will the next governor finally end violence against women? No more 24″, was the message of some of the signs displayed by the workers ” .
“The 24-hour shift has stolen my physical and mental health and my salary,” said Dominican Belkis Cid de Bruno, who for 13 years worked 24-hour shifts for up to 4 consecutive days. I don’t want others to go through what I experienced,” said the 76-year-old woman, who continues to work, albeit in 6-hour shifts.
De Bruno recalled that they are responsible for caring for the sick, the elderly, many of them with dementia, the disabled, and other vulnerable people, whom they change diapers, bathe, feed, and give their medicines, and that it is time for the city to “end the 24-hour brutality” that has led to lifelong injuries from the physical force they need with their patients, and other illnesses.
Luz Estrella, 79 years old and also Dominican, spent 12 years working 24-hour shifts. “They have operated on me three times for a hernia” for having used force with patients,” he said, recalling an occasion in 2006 when a patient grabbed her neck tightly, which led her to be hospitalized for a week and three months without able to work “and they didn’t pay me a penny.
She also recalled that with one of her patients, connected to oxygen, she spent the night sitting in a chair next to him. “And if they live with relatives, you can’t even sleep because they say we’re being paid to do that job,” she lamented.
The workers urged New Yorkers to call Adams and ask him to bring Bill No More 24 to a vote and join them in the April 12 protest. EFE
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