Home Attendants Conclude Hunger Strike with Good Results including UN Support
Announce Mobilization for Big Protest Against Speaker Menin on Oct 3
August 4, Home attendants concluded their eight-day hunger strike in front of City Hall. The hunger strike has led to significant developments in the fight to end the 24-hour workdays.
Ah Lin Lok, one of the hunger strikers, summed up the wins and announced the next step, “Many people have come during these days of the hunger strike; they didn’t come merely to support us, but to join us in fighting side by side with us! Why? They say that it is precisely because all women are devalued that City Council Speaker Julie Menin has not passed the No More 24 Act (Intro 303). I would like to ask you all to think about the mother who gave birth to and raised you, and to reflect on your own roles as wives, daughters, and mothers. If the children aren’t doing well in school, the blame falls on us women; if the laundry isn’t done, it’s our fault; if the meal isn’t cooked, we are blamed again. All household chores are simply taken for granted as women’s work. Speaker Menin now wants to continue the 24-hour workday to torture us—doesn’t this further trample upon the status of women everywhere? We’ve had enough! We concluded the hunger strike and won very good results: now the whole world is saying that the 24-hour working day in New York City is wrong; many home care agencies have changed to a 12 hour-shift; we have also successfully got the Labor department to reopen all illegally closed cases of unionized home care workers for the unpaid hours in 24-hour shifts; and the United Nations has sent a letter directly to City Council Speaker Julie Menin. The UN condemned the 24-hour working day in New York and told her that we are on a hunger strike! On October 3rd, we will return to the gate of the city government again. We will mobilize the whole world to condemn you!”
Vittoria Fariello, member of Ain’t I A Woman?! Campaign (AIW), said “Yesterday, on the 7th Day of workers’ courageous hunger strike, the UN took an extraordinary step and formally sent their allegation letter to Speaker Menin as well as to Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul. Speaker Menin’s refusal to submit intro 303 is so disgraceful that now even the United Nations must step in! Speaker Menin, even the UN sees that this is violence against women, yet you refuse to end it. Do you think so little of care work that you just ignore it? A true leader would not let this continue and all of us at AIW will not stop until it ends!”
Christopher Marte, City Council Member of District 1, said, “When you think about women-led industries, especially industries about care and making sure that the most vulnerable are protected, our state and employers always turn a blind eye to them and their working conditions…the United Nations has sent a letter to the Speaker, the Mayor, and the Governor. We have an international government body that recognizes the work and the courage of these women. However, the people in power in our state refuse to acknowledge that, and refuse to submit Intro 303 to a vote.”
Laurel Gwizdak, a member of DSA, UFT, and a public high school teacher, said “Home care workers are expected to do care work for 24 hours straight. And this is possible because care is treated by all of us, as something women naturally do out of love, at all hours, unpaid and out of sight, which allows employers to demand more and more while paying less and less. The result is a care system built on the mass exploitation of immigrant women of color. The victory of this hunger strike is its unifying force in bringing people together in the call for care-giving to be valued.”
Melissa, from the International Woman’s Alliance US Country Chapter, said “The normalization of working women as willing to endure the worst of working conditions at the expense of their own health is a stereotype that must end. For Speaker Menin to rely on this stereotype, to justify the ongoing exploitation of these home care workers, is a betrayal that comes at the expense of the health and lives of elderly, migrant working women. It is despicable that these migrant, working women have had to resort to yet another hunger strike for such a simple demand: to end the 24-hour workday.”
Isa V from Disabled People for Universal Healthcare said “Julie Menin wants to distance herself from care work, from feminized and domestic labor altogether, by spitting on the women that do it. She belittles our caregivers and keeps them low. Julie Menin is just like every other female white supremacist, who co-opted the language of feminism to justify her racist policies; to boost her own career, while closing the door on all those behind her. By refusing to submit Intro 303, she has aligned herself with patriarchal powers, exploiting the most vulnerable women of our city.”
Raine Reilly, a disabled person, said “Right now, Julie Menin is hiding her crimes behind disabled nonprofits. She thinks she owns the narrative, and she thinks she controls marginalized women. Julie Menin serves the patriarchy, she serves white supremacy, and she thinks disabled people are too scared to see how she is exploiting us. She is the epitome of a fake, white feminist. Your actions are against the liberation of women, against disabled lives, and against ALL care-givers! We are uniting and standing up against you, and we will be back on October 3rd even louder, and with even more conviction!”
Jasmin Sanchez from Three Bridges Democratic Club said “This society does not value women’s work. It applauds caregiving but refuses to pay for it. It relies on women but refuses to protect them. It celebrates their sacrifice but expects them to keep sacrificing everything. And nowhere is this more evident than in the lives of home care workers, who are forced to work 24-hour shifts caring for our seniors, our neighbors, and people with disabilities.”
As Speaker Menin is condemned by the international community, workers will return on October 3rd to pass the No More 24 Act and to stop Speaker Menin from torturing women workers and devaluing care to the detriment of all women.
