Dear John,

May Day has a dual history. As an ancient celebration of spring, with outdoor festivals and dancing. And as International Workers Day, honoring the organizing of workers who fought for and won campaigns for an 8-hour work day, the minimum wage, the right to form a union. At its best, the two ideas can combine in a “bread and roses” spirit. We all need enough sustenance for families to pay for food, housing, clothes, the basics. And we all need the joy associated with spring, recreation, parks, culture, camaraderie.

This May Day, of course, we don’t have enough of either bread or roses. Millions of workers have lost their jobs and can't pay the rent that’s due today. So many of the essential workers who are working -- caring for the sick, delivering food and supplies, stocking grocery shelves, manufacturing masks, collecting trash, cleaning our streets and subway cars and much more -- are braving workplaces with high exposure and substandard protection from the virus, many without any child care, some even without sick leave. And none of us will be able to celebrate spring with the little baseball games or outdoor concerts that we live for.

But May Day is grounded in the organizing of people to make change. And this year, we are seeing a lot of that. Workers at Amazon, Instacart, Target, Walmart and elsewhere are striking [[link removed]] to demand more protective equipment, paid leave, and hazard pay. Immigrant New Yorkers led by Make the Road NY led a car-caravan [[link removed]] to Governor Cuomo’s office demanding an excluded worker fund for those cruelly excluded from federal relief efforts. Tenants are organizing through Housing Justice For All to demand #CancelRent [[link removed]] legislation to make sure those who can’t pay don’t wind up homeless.

So today, on this International Workers Day, help us raise the volume on the campaign for rights and protections for essential workers. The City Council is holding a hearing next Tuesday on our Essential Workers Bill of Rights package, which includes expanding paid sick leave to gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers, Doordash and Seamless delivery workers, Handy cleaners, and more, adding pay premiums for hourly workers at large companies, and providing just cause protections against unfair firings, including for those who speak out about health and safety issues. We have already heard a lot from corporate lobbyists, and we really need to hear from New Yorkers. Share your support for the Essential Workers Bill of Rights:

Twitter [[link removed]'s%20thank%20them%20this%20%23MayDay%20by%20ensuring%20they%20get%20paid%20sick%20leave%2C%20protection%20from%20unfair%20firing%2C%20%26%20fair%20compensation.%20Sign%20to%20%23StandWithEssentialWorkers%2C%20via%20%40bradlander%3A:%20http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2Fnyc-essential-workers]

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Freelancers and gig-workers have been especially hard hit. Even before this crisis, as independent contractors, they lacked the employee rights and protections like healthcare, minimum wage, paid time off, and unemployment insurance that generations of workers fought and won for employees. And since many are in sectors like arts and culture, work has disappeared fast.

Earlier this month, we surveyed 200 freelancers about how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. 88% have lost over 50% of their income since this crisis started. More than 84% have or plan to apply for unemployment insurance. And 62% told us they were worried about making rent.

The “contingent work economy” is not working for its workers. We are going to need to make some serious changes.

Some of those changes can happen right now (the Essential Workers Bill of Rights package includes expanding sick leave to app-based workers, as well as a push for the state to take up the misclassification of these workers) and others will take longer (like portable benefits that follow the worker rather than the job for true independent contractors). If you’re a freelancer or independent contractor trying to navigate the unemployment system, we are organizing another webinar next week to help answer questions. Sign up here [[link removed]] .

Of course, none of us are going to have enough “roses” this May Day either, at least not shared in the ways we long for. We can’t be outside at baseball games, having picnics, or celebrating together.

I am grateful that Mayor de Blasio has finally agreed to start an “open streets” program, so people will have a little more room to exercise or take a walk, while still observing physical distancing (including a couple streets in our district, more info below). If we can really make this program work, it holds real potential. In some cities, from Wuhan to Atlanta, they’re letting restaurants take over street space [[link removed]] for safe outdoor dining.

To make anything like this work, we’ll need not only a comprehensive test/trace/quarantine program, but also strong collective compliance with physical distancing rules. So let’s do our part in helping make that happen. We’ve seen a lot of non-compliance in recent days, in many different communities.

This a very different May Day than how we’ve observed it in years past with a big rally in Foley Square, or a dance around the maypole. But it’s one that honors the spirit of organizing for “bread & roses,” which we need this year maybe more than ever.

In this email:
City and State Updates
Upcoming Calls
Three Ways to Take Action for Workers

City and State Updates

Latest impacts: New York City has officially lost 18,231 people to COVID-19 as of this afternoon, leaving so many families grieving under unprecedented circumstances. More than 164,505 cases have been positively identified, and more than 42,000 have been hospitalized. 

Wearing masks outside: It is going to be a beautiful weekend, and getting outside for air, play, and exercise is important for our health too, but please take care to follow physical distancing rules. Parks will have increased social distancing enforcement from City employees. And the City will be distributing 100,000 free face masks at parks around the city over this weekend. Times and dates for distribution vary by park, you can find more information here.

Testing: New York State is now conducting an average of 30,000 diagnostic tests for COVID-19 per day. We are still far short of where we will need to be to reopen many businesses, but are making progress. New testing sites opened this week at NYCHA sites at the Jonathan Williams Houses in Williamsburg,  Woodside Houses in Queens, and St. Nicholas Houses in Harlem. More sites will open this weekend.

Contact tracing: Governor Cuomo announced that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and John Hopkins University will begin a Contact Tracing Pilot program in the coming weeks, aiming to hire 6,400 to 17,000 tracers in coordination with New Jersey and Connecticut (and hopefully, oy, in coordination with NYC too, where Mayor de Blasio has announced plans to hire 1,000 contract tracers). For more information, click here.

Subway shutdowns: The New York City subway will shut down between 1 and 5 AM starting this Saturday to allow for additional cleaning. This shutdown, a dramatic shift for the city that never sleeps, comes along with increased police presence in the subways to force homeless New Yorkers, who have no safe place to go during this crisis, out of the subways.

Nursing homes: The City is increasing staffing and PPE for nursing homes, after the dire situation in our nursing homes became frontpage news. Thanks to many of you who donated to support workers at the Cobble Hill Health Center, who have been working really hard under impossible circumstances. If you haven’t yet and want to give, you can do so here through the Cobble Hill Association’s fund. 

Open Streets: NYC’s “Open Streets” program will begin on Monday, with 8 miles of streets in or near parks in the 5 boros closing from 8 am to 8 pm. In our area, the first streets to be opened will be Prospect Park West (from Montgomery Place to 4th Street), and Parkside Avenue (from Park Circle to Ocean Avenue). DOT is now accepting suggestions for locations and partners for the NYC Open Streets program through a new online form here. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns. The program is starting by relying on community partners to provide the volunteer capacity to enforce and monitor street closures, something that will be unrealistic for many neighborhoods that don't have the civic infrastructure to make that possible (many of which are those with less park access as it is). I’ve proposed deploying school crossing guards to help staff open streets, and will continue pushing to ensure this program creates access to open space in neighborhoods that did not have it previously. 

Paid Sick Leave: New Yorkers can call the City’s Call Center at 855-491-2667 or call 311 to get help claiming paid sick leave.

Upcoming calls 

Thursday, May 7 at 7 PM: Briefing on COVID-19 Relief Resources for Freelancers. Register here.  

Join us for an overview of COVID-19 relief resources available to freelancers, including updated information about applying for unemployment/PUA, rent, and more. Hosted by Councilmember Brad Lander and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, speakers will include attorney Nicole Salk of Legal Services, and Rob Piechota from the Small Business Administration, and an organizer from the Housing Justice for All Coalition.

Three Ways to Take Action for Workers

Support the call for the state to create an Excluded Workers Fund for immigrant workers and small business owners cut out of the federal relief packages.

Donate to One FairWage’s emergency fund for tipped and service workers.

Share a message of support for the Essential Workers Bill of Rights with the hashtag #StandWithEssentialWorkers. 

Lander for NYC
456 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor, Suite 2
Brooklyn, NY 11215
[email protected]

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