NYC NOW - September 20, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

Several New York lawmakers are suing Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams to stop the government from housing migrants in Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field. Meanwhile, the operator of a Bronx daycare center now faces federal drug charges in the death of a one-year-old boy exposed to fentanyl. Also with more than 100,000 migrants entering New York City's shelter system over the past year. WNYC's Ramsey Khalifeh takes a look at just how unusual the so-called migrant crisis really is. Finally, this week's United Auto Workers strike caps a summer of increased activism from organized labor. With unions representing workers for Metro North and NJ Transit threatening strikes, the potential for walkouts could disrupt travel for hundreds of thousands of daily commuters in New York and New Jersey. Politico New Jersey transportation reporter Ry Rivard explains the protest.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, September 20th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Several New York lawmakers are suing Governor Hockel and Mayor Adams to stop the government from housing migrants in Brooklyn's Floyd-Bennon-Field. The bipartisan group claims Hogle and Adams are flouting laws to protect federal park land. Mayor Adams says,

said this month the city had reached an agreement with the Biden administration to use the airfield as an emergency site. The lawmakers are asking the state court to immediately block the government from housing migrants at the airfield, and they're also preparing a separate federal lawsuit. The operator of a Bronx daycare center now faces federal drug charges in the death of a one-year-old boy exposed to fentanyl, and so does the man who lived inside the home base de vigno-nino daycare. prosecutors say they kept fentanyl in the daycare with plans to distribute it. Both have pleaded not guilty to state murder charges. An attorney for the operator told CBS New York, the daycare operator was unaware of the illegal activity.

An attorney for the tenant could not be reached for comment. The waning days of summer, high temperatures in the low to mid-70s and dry and cool nights in the 50s in the city, even cooler in the outlying areas. Today's sunny and 74, and we continue that theme tomorrow and end on Friday, and it looks like we'll have some rain come Saturday morning. More than 100,000 migrants have entered New York City's shelter system since last year. WNYC's Ramsey Caliphé takes a look at just how unusual the so-called migrant crisis really is. One word keeps coming up when Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hokel described the migrants arriving daily. to New York City. It's in an unprecedented state of emergency.

...to address the unprecedented migrant crisis. But is it really unprecedented? To find out, I took a trip last week on a ferry to Liberty Island, where Lady Liberty greeted immigrants arriving on boats that crossed the Atlantic Ocean. I also went to Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants were processed before entering the United States. Jay Denier is one of many tourists on the boat from the United Kingdom. He says Mayor Adams comments that the migrant issue will destroy the city are wrong.

There's a similar mindset back home. It's ridiculous. Statue of Liberty over there. Welcoming everyone to help build America and then you've got a change in attitude like that. A couple of hundred years down the line, it's ridiculous. The exhibits at Ellis Island make one thing clear. Many more immigrants came into New York City 100 years ago. In just one month in 1907, 100,000 migrants passed through Ellis Island. That's roughly the same amount that came to the city in the last year.

Shauna Broom, who's visiting Ellis Island from Scotland, says she can understand why some current New Yorkers are more critical of immigration. Now, perhaps, it may be a case of the people feel politically. We don't need any more. We've got enough. We've got enough. We're not in the position we were all those years ago. Historian Alan Crout noted that the busiest years at Ellis Island came in the early 20th century.

At its peak, more than a million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island in one year. Certainly, the idea of immigrants arriving in large numbers to New York, That's a story that's as old as the city and the context of the country's history. Of course, that doesn't mean immigrants from decades past were received with open arms. Representatives from City Hall and the governor's office emphasized that today's migrants benefit from a legal right to shelter, unlike previous generations. As the very return to Battery Park, I thought about how today's migrants face many of the same challenges as immigrants leaving Ellis Island. Where to get a meal, where to sleep, and where to get a job.

and where to get a job in New York City. But I'm Ziharifay, WNYC News. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. Hot Labor Summer may just carry over into the fall, at least as far as New York area commuters are concerned. This week's United Auto Workers' strike caps a summer of increased activism from organized labor. And with unions representing workers for Metro North

and NJ Transit threatening strikes, the potential for walkouts could disrupt travel for hundreds of thousands of daily commuters in New York and New Jersey. So here to walk us through the issue is Rai Rivard. He covered transportation for Politico, New Jersey. Hey, Ray, thanks for joining. Hey, thanks for having me. Let's start with Metro North. Those negotiations are looking pretty tense with the Transportation Workers Union of America launching an ad campaign targeting the head of the MTA, Gianna Lieber. What are the issues there? I think it all comes down to wages. You know, most labor negotiations are about wages. And I think you're seeing unions.

particularly transportation unions saying, hey, you know, we were the heroes through the pandemic. We've come out of the pandemic. Reward us for our heroism. Now, the TWAU says Metro Norse workers are not getting the same benefits that subway workers in New York City are. What do they mean? So John Samuelson, who's the head of the TWA, he thinks that, you know, other unions aren't getting the same deal that subway workers are. and he wants to see more salary for his folks. Ultimately, these are pretty simple things.

I mean, it's always about money and it's about recognition through money and through benefits. How likely do you think that it is that we'll have a TW strike? So there are two theories of the case right now. Samuelson's theory is we have a president in the White House who likes labor. He got beat up by labor for not seeming to side with labor unions in their dispute with the freight rail companies earlier in his administration. and that Biden heading into an election year or in an election year can't afford to disappoint labor. I think the other theory of the case is that, you know, most of the transit unions are in mediation. To go on strike legally, they have to get out of mediation.

And then there's basically a nine month or so cooling off period. And so for that to happen, we're talking well into 2024 or depending on when mediators want to release them, you know, after 2020. for it to have a legal strike. Let's move to New Jersey, where the NJ transit labor dispute is a bit further along. The union there, the brotherhood of locomotive engineers and trained men, already voted to authorize a strike. They say that their engineers are not paid as well as engineers on nearby transit systems like New York.

Is that true? It looks like it. You know, if you talk to everybody, though, they all say that they're not being paid as much as neighboring unions are. The union is looking at about a $50 an hour benchmark is something that everybody's shooting for. The union for NJ Transit said they're in negotiations, $5, six, $7 away from an agreement. But that's a big way away from an agreement. One of the other dynamics that we're dealing with in this post-pandemic world is that rail ridership on these commuter lines are still down significantly from pre-pandemic levels.

So can these agencies really afford to give workers what they're looking for? I mean, the unions will say, yeah, it's some small percentage of the overall budget. The rail providers will say in the Metro North case and in the New Jersey Transit case, both they will say, you know, other unions have already agreed to contracts. The non-engineers at NJ Transit, all of them, except for the engineers, have agreed to new contracts. At Metro North, there's a sort of similar picture in the MTA world, a similar picture. The management is saying people agree to like fixed percent increases. Everybody else is okay with this. And these unions that are threatening the strike are the outliers.

I think John Samuelson's case, he'll say other unions, they can do what they want, but I'm trying to get the most I can for our folks. And at NJ Transit, where it's engineers, they're saying, hey, you know, we're not getting paid compared to other engineers in our world. So it's a very muddy picture as all labor negotiations can end up being. but that's sort of the state of play right now. Ray Revard covers transportation for Politico, New Jersey. Ryan, thanks so much again.

Thank you. 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. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.