A past year of great achievements for all workers!

Home attendants and many other workers recovered tens of millions of dollars in stolen wages. Two hundred workers and young people became new members. Our community also won the following important victories, which are truly worth celebrating.

Justice for Homecare Workers!

With the support of our organization, home attendants successfully exposed the reactionary alliance between CPC, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Governor Kathy Hochul. As a result, despite being backed by many high‑ranking Democratic politicians, Adrienne Adams suffered a devastating defeat in the mayoral race, winning only 4% of the vote. The new City Council Speaker Julie Menin has already signed onto the “No More 24 Act” abolishing the 24‑hour workday, so the bill is certain to pass in 2026!

Unionized home attendants, with the help of attorneys and our organization, successfully sued the Department of Labor for failing to enforce the law. The court ordered the Department of Labor to assist unionized workers in recovering their unpaid wages. Although Governor Hochul appealed this ruling, she only further exposed her misconduct, following the same path as former Speaker Adams.

Fighting Against Displacement and Taking Back Our Community

Big real estate developers spent over one million dollars trying to defeat Councilmember Christopher Marte in the election. But with strong support from workers across industries, Marte won re‑election by a wide margin — winning the majority of votes at every polling site in his district. No candidate in this district had ever achieved this before. As a result, certain Chinese‑language newspapers that deliberately smeared Marte have lost much of their influence. People’s will cannot be hindered by reporters who promote racism.

Thanks to the labor movement, the anti‑displacement campaign, and Councilmember Marte’s persistent negotiation with the City, the Elizabeth Street Garden near the Chinese community has been preserved, and the City has committed to building more truly affordable housing nearby. This paves the way for stopping the construction of a mega-jail in Chinatown and for building more low‑income housing instead.

Let’s continue our efforts in the new year!

Join us to organize more people to pressure Governor Kathy Hochul to recover stolen wages. Caring for everyone’s health and future, we will also fight for universal healthcare, expanding worker‑led victories across all of New York State!

If you have not yet paid your membership dues or wish to donate and join our organization, please stop by our center!

Wishing everyone good fortune in the Year of the Horse and success in all endeavors. Please bring your family and friends to join our annual Lunar New Year celebration.

On Feb 27, Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) had NYPD arrest 7 workers in an attempt to suppress the picket line demanding CPC pay back $90 million in stolen wages. Yesterday, the 7 protesters arrested at CPC’s Gala had their court hearing, and all their charges were dismissed! The judge ruled that the NYPD didn’t have sufficient reasons to make the arrests.

In a statement released by the arrestees, they said, “Today we were joined by home attendant supporters in court. The judge heard what it is that we are fighting for – the end to the violent, 24-hour workday that CPC perpetuates. In the end, the judge dismissed all the charges.”

“CPC tried to intimidate workers by using police violence. But it failed! Workers are more angry and determined than ever and vow to continue to picket CPC until they pay back their hard-earned wages!”

They urge people to join the weekly picket in front of CPC’s luxury building at 45 Suffolk St, Wednesdays, 10am-11:30am.

NY, New York – Thursday night, the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) used a brutal NYPD crackdown to attack over 100 women-of-color home care workers picketing outside its decadent 60th Anniversary fundraising gala at Cipriani on Wall Street, committing 7 arrests — including that of a pregnant woman and a 60-year-old senior.

“Tonight we have over a hundred of fellow home care workers protesting,” said Ai Yu Zeng, a home care worker who was arrested. “All we’re doing is exposing CPC’s lies! We’re condemning their abuse of us immigrant women with continued 24-hour workdays. Now, CPC not only refuses to pay us back the $90 million stolen wages, but even calls the police to arrest me on the spot! When young people saw that and condemned the police’s violence against me, they, in turn, were also arrested. How evil!”

While many home care agencies have already implemented split shifts, CPC still assigns 24-hour home care shifts and just received contracts worth $7 billion a year from Governor Kathy Hochul to monopolize the consumer-direct home care market in NYC, Long Island, and Westchester. Protestors were peacefully picketing on the sidewalk when CPC sent violent cops to suppress protesters and arrest elderly Asian home attendants. 

“Cops moved in shortly after CPC sent someone to rob a journalist of her live-streaming phone from mid-air, so as to abruptly shut down the media coverage of the protest,” said Sarah Ahn, who was also arrested. “Cops went after the elderly Asian women home attendants and the young people who were using their phones to document the arrests!” 

Photos show CPC Chief of Staff Alice Wong sent a thug to violently snatch a journalist’s phone and walk into the gala with it so the brutal arrests could not be recorded. The perpetrator was Ken Paskar, friend of the corrupt former Assembly Member Sheldon Silver and CPC’s lawyer Alan Gerson. Under people’s continuous outcry over police’s protection of CPC, the police were eventually pressured to arrest Ken Paskar. High-level elected officials crossing the picket line included Chuck Schumer and Grace Meng.  
(Ken Paskar, who was sent by CPC to snatch the reporter’s phone, was arrested)

“This is CPC’s true face, as they think they are above the law with Governor Hochul’s backing. They’re also run by a board that consists 90% of bank, real estate, and insurance company executives. Instead of paying back wage theft, they are raising more money with their allies of casinos, DoorDash, and lobbyists to oppress immigrant communities,” said Kathy Lu, a working mother who was also arrested.

CPC’s violent repression did the opposite of stopping the protest, as home attendants and supporters became more determined and continued to protest for more than an hour, and their furious chants were heard all over Wall Street. The protesters ended by strongly condemning the unlawful crackdown. They also called on everyone to join the protest on March 12 at 11am in front of Governor Hochul’s office (919 3rd Ave) to demand she stop colluding with CPC, enforce the law to pay back stolen wages and end the 24-hour workdays.

David once again defeats Goliath! Community members of Chinatown, Lower East Side, SoHo and other downtown areas gathered last Tuesday 9/24 with Council Member Christopher Marte to celebrate our victory against a developer’s latest attempt to build luxury high rises on the Two Bridges waterfront. 

A month ago, Chetrit, the developer and owner of 265-275 Cherry Street, announced that they were in the final stages of bringing on a development partner to help finance their megatowers project, and planned to break ground within a few weeks. Our community, with Council Member Marte’s leadership, swiftly condemned Chetrit’s greed in pushing this project and their disregard for people’s lives. Three weeks later, the tide has quickly turned in the community’s favor: Chetrit, abandoned by their development partner, is backing out of the project and has defaulted on their loan. The lot now heads to the auction block.

Chetrit’s surrender is the latest victory in our community’s years-long fight against the megatowers. By organizing with Two Bridges residents, neighbors from the Lower East Side and Chinatown, as well as workers, students and small businesses who are a part of these communities, we have proven that a unified community can triumph over the greed of billionaire developers.

These two towers, each 60- to 80-story tall, were planned to be built right next to two existing buildings that provide affordable housing. If built, they would damage the structure of the buildings, threaten the health and safety of their residents and drive up real estate taxes and rents in the surrounding area. In 2017, with the support of former Council Member Margaret Chin, developers proposed to build these luxury megatowers. Chin sent a letter to residents saying they “could not stop the towers from going up” and at best they could ask for some crumbs from the developers. Since then, multiple developers have taken over the project only to abandon it, due to consistent community organizing against displacement. 

Mr. Chen, a longtime Two Bridges resident, said: “These developers don’t care about the people, they only care about money. But because our community is very united, and because we have a very good City Council Member, Chris Marte, who stands with the tenants and stands with the community, we are able to fight back!”

Council Member Chris Marte said: “Today is a testament to the will of the people. It’s a major win for our neighborhood, for our city. When people on the street say this is just the way it is, there’s nothing we can do, you’re going to say: however, in Two Bridges, we took on developers & won!”

In celebrating this victory, community members call on the City to pass the Chinatown Working Group Rezoning Plan, which would stop luxury high-rises and limit real estate speculation in Chinatown and the Lower East Side by capping the height of new developments and mandating truly affordable housing. 

Our community sends a clear message to any big developers threatening to take over our neighborhoods: do not build luxury towers that destroy people’s lives, or else you will encounter our united opposition and lose.