Delivery Workers Cheer Restroom Access and Tip Transparency Alongside AOC and Chuck Schumer
Gabriel Lopez, who has been making a living as a food delivery worker for over 18 months, braved the elements in Midtown, Jan. 21, 2022. Hiram Alejandro Durán/ THE CITY
Starting Sept. 24, New York City’s app-based food delivery workers are entitled to increased clarity on their daily earnings and tips, and the right to use most restaurant bathrooms, as new laws begin their rollout.
The Deliveristas celebrated the new protections Sunday afternoon with a rally in Times Square, flanked by allies including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-The Bronx/Queens) and Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has advocated for federal funds to create rest stops for the workers and other supports.
Also joining were city Comptroller Brad Lander and Councilmembers Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan) and Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), among the lawmakers who introduced the Council bills.
The rally drew dozens of Deliveristas, many of whom hail from Indigenous communities from Mexico and Guatemala. Workers from Bangladesh and Mali also participated.
“We’re going to see big, big changes with these laws,” upper Manhattan delivery worker Manny Ramírez, 34, told THE CITY on Friday. “The discrepancy between what the client thinks we get paid and what the apps actually pay was immense — but now there is more awareness, and we felt like we’d won with that alone.”
“We feel like winners,” said Ernesta Galvez, 40, who works for the Relay app and is one of the few women among the Deliveristas. “It’s emotional to think about how far we’ve come.”
Ocasio-Cortez said in a phone interview on Sunday that the local gains for delivery workers send important signals nationally.
“What we’re seeing with the Deliveristas and the working class in New York, particularly tech workers, is such a strong counterpoint to what we’ve seen in California,” she said, noting that state’s ban on gig workers being recognized as full time employees.
Queens Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas (D-34) celebrated the passing of the New York State budget for the 2025 fiscal year, highlighting its inclusion of investments in numerous Queens neighborhoods.
Police from two western Queens police precincts are looking for a pair of armed robbers who targeted several people miles apart in just over an hour last week.
As Pro-Palestinian encampments emerged at over a dozen college campuses across the country following in the footsteps of Columbia University, local elected officials pushed out statements in response.
New York City has launched a housing lottery for 134 units in the 17-story mixed-use building The Peninsula A1, also known as Edgemere Commons Apartments, at 51-23 Beach Channel Dr. in Far Rockaway.
Just days after the New York City Sheriff’s office shut down the illegal smoke shop “Haze Land” in Jackson Heights Thursday, the store ended up reopening, much to the chagrin of local leaders.
Police from the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills and Transit District 20 are looking for a man, who is built like an NFL player, for allegedly groping a 50-year-old woman as she waited for the subway near the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst on Monday morning.
The victim was standing on the southbound M/R platform at the 59th Avenue subway station on the Queens Boulevard line when a stranger approached her and touched her left buttocks, police said. The brute fled the scene on foot in an unknown direction. The woman was not injured during the incident.