Gathering at the edge of the Amazon property line in Maspeth, Queens, Teamsters and community members rallied on September 8th to demand justice after 105 unionized drivers were fired. The union is also pressuring Amazon to negotiate a contract that would include higher wages and workplace safety protections. 

“At night, we came to drop off the truck, and they told us, do not come. No reason for why Amazon cut the contract. No nothing. Just go home,” said Kalid, who declined to give his last name, a terminated driver who had been with Amazon since December. “They do not even wish us luck.” 

Amazon maintains that because the drivers had been subcontracted under the Delivery Service Provider (DSP) Cornucopia, they were not officially employed by Amazon and therefore were not fired by the megacorporation when the contract was abruptly cut – a “scam” tactic that the Teamsters say Amazon employs to deny culpability for the firings. 

In 2024, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Amazon is a joint employer of DSP drivers, and has a legal obligation to recognize and bargain with the union. An Amazon spokesperson refuted the claims in a statement to Mashable, saying that the Teamsters were using misinformation to spread their agenda and that the NLRB had never told them they must bargain with the union. In an attempt to block a case alleging the company unfairly retaliated against workers who voted to unionize, Amazon has claimed that NLRB proceedings deny the company a trial by jury, violating its Fifth Amendment rights to due process. Amazon asked for a temporary restraining order until its claims could be reviewed, which was denied. 

After President Trump took office in January 2025, he fired NLRB Board Chair Gwynne Wilcox, leaving the board without the three-member quorum needed to make rulings on cases regarding unlawful labor practices or union representation. “Unless an employer is willing to go along with what the board says, the employer can stall a case indefinitely right now,” Lauren McFerran, who served as chair of the board during the Biden administration, told The Guardian. 

In 2024, workers at the Maspeth facility voted to join  the Teamsters union, which represents almost 10,000 Amazon employees across the country. The union gave Amazon a deadline of December 15, 2024, to begin the collective bargaining process nationwide. Amazon failed to do so, triggering strikes at multiple facilities across the country, including Maspeth. Amazon still refuses to come to the bargaining table, instead using scare tactics and misinformation to dissuade workers from joining the union, according to warehouse employee Tristan Martinez. 

“For seven years, all I’ve seen is Amazon care less and less and get away with more, and more and more. There is no reason somebody working 40 hours a week should not be able to make their rent. There is no reason why 105 people should be fired, and then people should say, oh, you don’t want to work,” said Martinez. He added that while the terminated drivers would be happy to have their jobs back, they would “not work for scraps. We will not work for the bare minimum. We will not work for a company that will step right over us if we fall.” 

While passing drivers honked in solidarity, several politicians stood to support the Teamsters and their struggle for labor rights amidst the Trump administration’s continued attacks on workers. We must “remind the corporations and the billionaires that they did not get there alone. That they became rich off the blood, sweat, and tears of your neighbors,” said Brooklyn Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes. “And while the 1% feels emboldened with this administration, we’re here to say we are standing with our union brothers and sisters and remind you that we are the 99%.” Other politicians present included Queens Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas and City Council Members Sandy Nurse and Amanda Farías. 

The Teamsters’ demands have yet to be recognized. But union leaders assured members that the fight was not over, chanting, “Because when we fight – WE WIN!” 

Home care workers in New York, like so many essential workers, have been a driving force throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to low wages thousands of workers have left this field for other jobs offering better pay.

In 2020, 76% of home care agencies were forced to delay or reject families who wanted to hire a home health care aide because of the worker shortage. Because of that both older and disabled New Yorkers did not get the care that they needed. As a matter of fact, 17% of home care positions are left unfilled due to staff shortages.

In Dec., Governor New York Kathy Hochul stated that health care workers should be paid more.

“This is going to be one of our highest priorities in my State of the State,” she said. She acknowledged that because of the low wages, many home health care aides have decided to look elsewhere for employment or even gave up on the health care field.

In NY 90% of home care workers are women and 60% immigrants. There are about 60,000 home care workers that are represented by 1199SEIU, the health care union.

“Unfortunately, this is a job that’s just been historically undervalued and underpaid,” said Madeline Sterling, MD, MPH. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and is a health services researcher. “And I think that it really needs to change.”

According to LaborPress.org, the average salary of a home care worker in New York City is $15 an hour. “So despite providing day to day care to patients and providing critically essential care many are really struggling to make ends meet earning really low wages,” said Dr. Sterling.

Yoselyn Fernandez is a home care worker at the New York Foundation and has been in this field for 20 years. “Honestly, I don’t think it is sufficient [wages] because we get asked to do basically what a nurse does,” she said in Spanish as her daughter Gloria translated for her.

“We cook, clean, and bathe them,” said Gladys Medina in Spanish as her daughter Ximena translated for her. She too is a home care worker and has been employed at Signature Care for 12 years. ”We even assist them to use the bathroom and that sometimes requires us to help them out of their wheelchairs or change their diapers.”

They are also responsible for giving them medicine and bringing them to appointments.

On Mar. 16, the Fair Pay for Home Care Act was introduced at the state level in New York. The mandate would raise home care wages to 150% of the minimum wage. That would make home health care agents wages between $19.80 and $22.50 an hour.

Rachel May, a Democratic Senator from Syracuse and chair of the Committee on Aging, is sponsoring the S5374A bill. “With New York State’s population growing older and demanding the choice of long-term care at home, I am hopeful to get a substantial investment in our home care workforce this budget” she said. “By including Fair Pay for Home care in the budget, we can provide a dignified, living wage to thousands of workers while keeping seniors in their homes home, where they want to be.”

As the deadline is approaching, more than 100 home care workers rallied at the 1199SEIU headquarters in Manhattan with Rev. Al Sharpton and Public Advocate Juamaane Williams on Tues., Mar. 22. They wanted to send a message to Gov. Hochul and that is to include a permanent raise for home care workers in the state budget.

“As the state budget deadline approaches, Albany must include Fair Pay for Home Care so that workers can receive fair wages, providers can ensure the best possible care, and more future home care workers join the industry,” said Williams as per the press release from 1199SEIU. “The pandemic has shown how critical it is to be able to receive high-quality care in our homes and laid bare the state’s failure to support the people doing that work-as we recover from the pandemic, we can’t allow this crisis to continue.”

At the rally, Rev. Sharpton said even in the depths of the pandemic when even Times Square was deserted, “the only people who showed up in the Twilight Zone were home-care workers. You can’t Zoom home care. You can’t do home care remote.”

Many of these home care workers have risked their families and their own health in order to take care of their clients.

“When you do this kind of job, you have to be loving and compassionate,” Delisa Sewell-Henry, an 1199 home-care delegate, told the crowd. “It’s not an easy job.” During the worst of the pandemic, she added, home-care workers took care of people when “their own children wouldn’t come visit them.”

Now it is time to take care of them. The bill passed both the Assembly and the Senate and is on the way to Gov. Hochul’s desk.

Nearly 100 immigrant workers and their supports rallied outside the Terminal Warehouse in New York City in the freezing weather to protest on Feb. 24 to protest their lack of any sort of healthcare as undocumented construction workers.

This was the second rally held by these workers held as they called for a union to protect them at construction sites that treat them as expendables.

“I’m here to support the rally and I will not let go.” Diego Peña, one of the construction workers present at the rally who was recently fired said in Spanish. “When they talked to the boss, they said there was no work and the person here charging for the labor also said there’s no work for them.”

Peña, along with other protestors present at the rally, said they were fired for standing up to the exploitation they have been faced. They were told by their bosses that the is no work and they are not needed for the job.

“The workers who bravely stood forward to call out those conditions have now lost their jobs. Shame on PIMCO! Shame on PIMCO!” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said.

PIMCO is the target for these rallies and PIMCO is one of the world’s largest bond fund organizations with their priorities on funding construction projects that are supposed to help laborers, carpenters, ironworkers, and other trades. Protesters say that the money is not reaching construction workers.

One of the organizations there to support this group of protestors support is the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE). NICE’s goal is to serve safer alternatives for workers who now get jobs as day laborers by lining up on street corners, are exploited by fraudulent employment agencies, and who have little access to workforce development services

“I’m here today to stand with union workers and to stand with me as one single voice.”  Roberto Perez, one of the current members of the NICE said in Spanish, “I’m standing with zero tolerance against employers, and contractors who are exploiting construction workers.”

Perez having experience as an immigrant worker has worked in the past with construction companies who subject him and many of his coworkers to work for 60-70 hours a week while only being paid for half of their time, with other workers completing a full day of labor and not being paid at all.

“What do we want? Union! When do we want it? Now!” the group of protestors chanted as they rallied outside Terminal Warehouse

New York City is home to roughly 3.1 million immigrants according to the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. With 38% of the city’s population being made up entirely of immigrants across all five boroughs and 45% of New York City’s workforce being done by immigrant workers.

“We all know how dangerous construction work is. We cannot afford to ruin our family because the rich want to cut corners on safety, because they want to steal wages, because they see black and brown workers as disposable,” New York State Senator Jessica Ramos said.

New York City faith leaders and homecare workers gathered to support the fight for a wage increase for people who care for the elderly and disabled this Thursday, at the 1199SEIU headquarters in Manhattan.

Anna Couch, a home care worker for 19 years, wants home health aides to be paid what they are worth. As she said in Spanish, “We deserve a permanent salary. We have been working on this for years, and they don’t pay us as they should.” She went on to say, “We have to pay rent, medicines, transportation, and food, and what they are paying us is not enough.”

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. government increased unemployment and gave taxpayers stimulus checks; some companies gave bonuses to their workers to thank them for their work during the challenging time.

Although this money prevented much hardship, Couch demands something more. “We want to be included in this year’s budget. So, we are asking for $20 or more per hour so that we can be calmer about paying for a roof,” said Couch, who at the moment makes $15 per hour, the minimum wage in New York City.

In every religion caring for one another is one of the strongest pillars. NYC clergy members showed their support through prayers and blessings. “I’m here to support you financially and spiritually,” were the words of community activist and Imam Shahbaz Ahmad Chishti, an Islamic prayer leader. 

Executive Director at New York State Council of Churches, the Reverend Peter Cook, said that his parents were at an age where they needed assistive care. “They want to stay in their homes. But when the very people who can make this path possible are not paid a living wage, it’s an injustice to our parents and to the people who care for them,” said Rev. Cook.

Rabbi Guy Austrian addressed an emotional prayer to the workers. “We ask your blessing on those in need of care and on those who give care,” Austrian said as he finished his prayer.

These community activists and workers also addressed words to New York State’s first female governor, Kathy Hochul. “We are all women here, mostly women of color. So how could you stand up to be proud to be the first governor of New York who is a woman and not fund fair pay for homeworkers?” said Bobbie Sackman, campaign leader at N.Y. Caring Majority.

“One of these days, it will be her turn, and she’ll need us. So, I hope she thinks this through and keeps it in the back of her mind,” said Couch.