Home Health attendants on hunger strike in front of city hall
Monday March 25 saw an end to a 5-day hunger strike by home health care attendants which began on March 21. Roughly 20 home attendants participated in the strike in front of city hall park, a spokesperson stated a lack of response from The New York City Council and concern for the health of the hunger strikers who were mainly middle to senior aged women as a reason to end the strike.
Hunger Strike – Bayard Bugle (link to previous article by Bayard Bugle)
Hunger Strikers had camped out by city hall park 5 days
Council Member Christopher Marte was rebuked by NYC Council speaker Adrienne Adams a week before the strike started for misleading the home attendants with false information. However, Marte appeared before CB3’s full board on Tuesday March 26 (community board 3) to claim significant progress. He wildly claimed the strike spurred Speaker Adams to introduce a resolution calling on lawmakers in Albany to act and protect workers. Quite a stretch since Marte has been at odds with speaker Adams and criticizes her at every turn. Marte who has few allies in the city council and with no leadership role would be hard pressed to forward any intro (legislation) he submits.
Text of speaker Adams release through a council liaison.
{Rendy Desamours, a spokesman for the City Council, said the effort was misdirected, because home health care is funded primarily through Medicaid, which is managed at the state level.
“It has been counterproductive and harmful to mislead people into believing that this can be resolved at the city level,” he said in a statement, adding that Adrienne Adams, the council speaker, planned to introduce a bill to urge the state legislature to improve working conditions for home care workers.)
GoFundMe for hunger strikers
A GoFundMe page by the Chinese Staff Workers had raised just under $27,000. No word who will benefit or where funds are earmarked.