For immediate release: December 16, 2021
When: Thursday, December 16, 11AM
Where: in front of United Jewish Council, 500A Grand Street, NY, NY
New York – Contrary to United Jewish Council’s “stated mission to preserve and service the community”, UJC forces home care workers to work 24-hour work shifts for days on end, destroying the health and families of workers and depriving care recipients of proper care.
Home care workers of the United Jewish Council (UJC) are demanding an end to the 24-hour workday that has stolen away their health and lives. UJC forces their employees, majority women of color and immigrants, to work grueling and inhumane 24-hour work shifts, with only 13 hours of pay. Many of the workers have spoken to how the 24-hour shifts destroy their mental and physical health, and contribute to the breakdown of families and marriages. Workers say they are coerced into accepting 24-hour shifts and those who refuse face retaliation. This is despite the fact that these women do such important, critical work of caring for our elderly and our family members who require round the clock care. These women workers refuse to allow this racist and violent exploitation to continue.
“I am traumatized from working 24-hour shifts,” Epifania Hichez says, about her 11 years of working for the United Jewish Council. “Working 24 hours destroys your life. You lose everything, especially your health. You lose your family also. Years of 24-hour shifts killed my friend Ramona. That’s why I say we must end this racist violence of 24 hours. Our lives matter,” said Epifania Hichez, UJC worker.
“Ending the 24-hour shift does not require passing a law, it requires empathy and morality from managers who cosplay as champions for the working class, but operate capitalist workplaces that exploit low-wage workers. If these mega nonprofits are designed to cure societal ills, it is time to wonder if they are causing more harm than good. This space requires more scrutiny from everyone promulgating a myth that these organizations are altruistic, when in reality they are accelerating an untenable situation in the home care space. I am calling on UJC to lead with their values, end the 24-hour shift, have mercy on their workers, and stop delaying”, said Assemblymember Ron Kim.
“My mother was a home attendant for 20 years, and often could not come home to make sure we were okay and ready for school the next day. This is the harm, the trauma that UJC and other nonprofits are inflicting on home attendants who are mainly women of color or immigrants. 24-hour workdays have got to stop, and I urge all New Yorkers concerned about ending racism to rally around this call”, said City Council Member-elect Chris Marte.
“The position in which UJC has put these workers, who are so critical to the wellbeing of our elders, is entirely unconscionable. A de facto 24 hour workshift is a concept that should never have existed and paying these workers for only 13 hours after they sacrificed their health and well-being is beyond the pale. The facile excuse that there is not enough money to support paying them back is unacceptable. Jewish organizations can and should do better”, said Rabbi Dr. Tzemah Yoreh of the City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, New York.
“How could anyone be forbidden to sleep for 24 hours and paid the equivalent of $8/hr be alert enough to give good care? This was a danger to my parents as well as to the home attendant”, said Shirley Ranz, family member of care recipient and of National Organization for Women.
“Our Home Care workers are the ESSENTIAL workers in our society, not the millionaires and billionaires. Home Care workers are the ones who take care of our sick and elderly. Who else will do this job and offer comfort to our families because they are always there for us! They deserve to be paid well and not overworked so they can get the rest they need and we can get the best care for our loved ones”, said Howard Brandstein of Sixth Street Community Center.
Legal background:
In 2016, UJC home care workers organized to sue their agency for owed wages from 24-hour shifts. Their class-action lawsuit was filed in 2017 for owed wages, including 11 hours of 24-hour shifts, overtime pay, and spread of hours. Despite repeated attempts by UJC and 1199 SEIU to block the workers’ lawsuit and force the workers into arbitration, the NY State Court’s Appellate Division of the First Department in 2020, ruled that the case could proceed in court and that plaintiffs are not bound by the arbitration requirement. Rather than bringing an end to the inhumane 24-hour work shift, UJC filed a motion in 2021 asking the court to dismiss the workers’ lawsuit for owed wages, claiming that it is a non-profit organization that is exempt from having to pay minimum wage and overtime pay. As of September 15, 2021, the NYS Court of Appeals denied UJC’s request to appeal the previous decision that allowed the workers to move forward with their lawsuit.
Recently, smaller non-union home care agencies in NYC have started paying workers back stolen wages. Protesters demand that UJC do the same and immediately put an end to 24-hour work shifts and replace them with 12-hour split shifts, as well as immediately pay back the workers their unpaid wages.
For additional information contact: NMASS LES Workers Center (212) 358-0295
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