Amazon, Essential Workers In LIC Demand Cuomo Sign Hero Act

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Dozens of essential workers gathered in front of Amazon’s Long Island City delivery station at 38-50 21st Street on Thursday, demanding that Governor Andrew Cumo sign the recently passed New York Health and Essential Rights Act into law in order to protect Amazon’s New York workers.

The NY Essential Workers Coalition, a statewide group of over 75 unions, activists, and community organizations who are behind the bill — dubbed the NY Hero Act — led Thursday’s rally and released an accompanying report by ALIGN, highlighting how Long Island City’s Amazon workers, and workers employed by the e-commerce giant statewide, stand to have the most to gain, or loose, by the bills passage.

“Enforceable workplace standards can mean the difference between life and death,” wrote Maritza Silva-Farrell, Executive Director of ALIGN, pointing out that tens-of-thousands of Amazon workers nationally have contracted COVID at work, and at least ten have died from the disease, including a worker on Staten Island, according to the report.

“If implemented quickly and aggressively, the NY HERO Act will protect the growing number of New Yorkers employed by Amazon,” she wrote, imploring Governor Cuomo “to sign and implement the NY Hero Act immediately.”

In order to protect Amazon workers and other frontline essential workers against COVID-19 and other infection airborne diseases, the NY Hero Act would financially penalize businesses that don’t adhere to the bill’s safety standards — including lasting and standardized PPE, social distancing, disinfection, and quarantine protocols.

It would also require businesses with more than 10 people on staff to set up safety committees where workers could voice their feelings on workplace safety protocols, and have a say on the enforcement of those standards.

The NY Hero Act has faced significant pushback from New York’s business community, including a group of more than 25 business organizations who penned a letter in opposition to the bill, citing concerns that its “burdensome regulatory framework” would cause costly “predatory lawsuits.”

“These burdens will cause significant new costs during a period of unprecedented economic distress,” the groups worte in their letter, also citing a concern that the bill “makes no distinction between large corporate entities and the small, local businesses that have suffered specific duress during the pandemic."

Advocates of the bill at today’s rally were clear that when it comes to Amazon, which has made $21.3 billion in net profits and $386 billion in net sales in 2020 according to the new report, the cost of protecting workers should not be a concern.

“We cannot allow Amazon to prioritize profits over the safety and health of its workers any longer,” Assemblymember Karines Reynes, who co-sponsored the bill alongside State Senator Michael Gianaris of Queens, wrote in a news release, adding that passing the NY Hero Act will “keep employees safe.”

State Senator Gianaris, who represents District 12 including Astoria and Long Island City where the Amazon delivery station is located, added that he and “my colleagues in both houses and so many organizations throughout New York and I know we are all urging the Governor to sign this bill.”

“Too many workers have already sacrificed their health for our community’s benefit. The New York Hero Act will honor their efforts by giving workers the tools to protect themselves while on the job,” he wrote.

This protest is not the first to take place in New York City since the NY Hero Act passed the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate last Wednesday, April 21, and advocates continue to wait for Governor Cuomo's response.