NYC NOW - July 21, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

New Jersey officials are suing to halt New York City's congestion pricing plan which would charge drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th street. In Brooklyn, migrants who established a tent encampment under the BQE are in the process of being relocated. Finally, a judge is blocking a pay increase for thousands of gig food delivery workers a day before the it was set to take effect. Sean Carlson speaks with Patricia Campos-Medina from The Worker Institute at Cornell University about the controversy surrounding the wage law.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, July 21st. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. New Jersey officials are suing the federal government to stop New York City's congestion pricing plan that were charged drivers entering a Manhattan south of 60th Street. They argued the government improperly rubber-stamped congestion pricing, ignoring it would create more traffic and pollution in New Jersey. That lawsuit, the Federal Highway Administration, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. New York officials are raising concerns that young people

on Medicaid may not know they'll soon have to renew their health coverage after being allowed to stay on public insurance rolls during the COVID-19 pandemic. W&MIC's Caroline Lewis explains. This month, state health officials are starting to trim people from Medicaid, the Essential Plan, and Child Health Plus. The goal is to transfer. for members who are no longer eligible to another insurance option. Of the 500,000 New Yorkers who could be struck from the rolls to date, about three quarters have taken the necessary steps to avoid any lapse in coverage. But among New Yorkers, age 18 to 34, the figure is lower. About 62%. Health officials don't know how many have gained insurance through a new employer.

Migrants who set up a temp in campment under the BQA in Brooklyn are getting new Diggs, the dozen or so occupants were relocated this morning to the Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street. City sanitation workers and the NYPD had dismantled the encampment hours earlier. The encampment went up after some of the occupants were booted from a nearby shelter under a new city policy. Singer Tony Bennett has died. He was 96 years old. Bennett was born in Queens in 1926 and started performing while he was just a teenager at amateur shows. Ultimately, he became a mentee of Frank Sinatra. The singer's longtime publicist confirmed his death. Bennett won almost 20 Grammy Awards. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's

disease in 2016, but continued to tour for years. Upper 70s right now and mostly cloudy, some sunshine out there. Shows and thunderstorms could reduce gusty winds, heavy rain, and flash flooding today a high near 81. I'm David First for 10s of thousands of gig food delivery workers were about to get a pay increase until a judge blocked the city's new minimum wage law one day before it was set to take effect earlier this month. The new pay standard would require largely unregulated gig companies like DoorDash and Grubhub to pay delivery workers about $18 per hour, not including tips. My colleague, Sean Carlson, recently spoke about the legal wrangling around the new minimum pay law, with Patricia Campos Medina. She's the executive director of Cornell's Worker Institute. A few years back, the Worker Institute at Cornell did a survey of 500 app-based delivery workers.

Can you tell us more about what you heard from them? We were looking at the working conditions of up-delivery workers in New York City because it was an industry that was growing. And at that point, we had estimated that there were about 15,000 app delivery for the workers. by the time of the pandemic, that number went up to 65,000. The top concern was low pay. It was estimated that a worker monthly expenses are about $2,345 per month. It turns out that at the end of the month, they might be making around $11 per hour. So raising the minimum wage for these workers became the top priority.

There were other concerns, the lack of safety, the lack of equipment that they get provided, and the fact that they take on the entire liability of the business model for Uber Eats and Gravap. So the survey found that 42% of workers reported experiencing underpayment or no payment at all. Can you talk about how that happens? Because the moment you log onto a platform to sign up for the day, You are basically at the mercy of the algorithm. So you might get a job that is far away or might be $100 food order or it might be a burger for $5. And the app company has a set rate for how much they pay you.

Also, how much you take home is depending on how much tips you get. What does a typical day look like for one of these workers? They begin very early and then very late to be able to put. a whole paycheck together. They go from order to order. They are exposed to rain, heat, and for a long time, they didn't even have access to bathrooms.

One of the victories that we had at the beginning of last year was that restaurants were mandated to actually allow delivery workers to use their bathroom. Let's talk about this new pay standard that the city council passed. Now, that passed in 2021. it's mid-July of 2023. Why is it taking so long to go into effect?

The city, when it first was approved, it has been dealing with a lot of oppositions from the app companies. There was a period of public hearing. Now that it's implemented, and now they're battling in court. And they're trying to claim that an increase of minimum wage

will damage consumers. That argument, I think, is not as receptive anymore as it was pre-pandemic because most consumers after the pandemic understand that our own welfare is tied to the welfare of low-wage workers. Do any other cities or states have pay standards when it comes to delivery workers? Other cities have tried.

Seattle, California has tried, and every time they have companies use legal maneuvers to stop any improvement on the conditions. activists who work around increasing the standards for this workforce has always stated that what we need is a federal mandate to actually classify this workforce correctly. And the Labor Department issue a rule that I think is still on the review to try to reclassify this worker so that we have a federal standard and is not up to cities to do it on their own. Is there still a chance for the city to implement this minimum wage law? Yes. That is still.

a chance, you know, the city has the ability to regulate local commerce. So it's within their jurisdiction to create this type of policy. And in the meantime, I think the workers will continue to demand more, to organize more. They're not asking to make $50 an hour. They're asking for a minimum wage that is comparable to the already existing minimum wage. Patricie, before we let you go, You know, you mentioned other victories like bathrooms. Anybody's walked around New York City knows how hard it is to find a bathroom to use. What else are delivery workers saying that they need? Well, they ultimately need the right to organize and to be considered employees rather than independent contractors

and to have a union that can bargain standards for this workforce. They also get assaulted. We have very tragic circumstances in which some of them were. attack and kill just to steal their bike. Because these workers are considered independent contractors, if something happens to them, there is no worker compensation. The longer we take to regulate them, the more workers are being impacted.

That's Patricia Campos Medina, the executive director of Cornell's Worker Institute. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having us. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday. Three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives.

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