Gateway chugs along
Tunnel gets good enough rating from feds to keep going
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The federal government
deemed the Gateway
Tunnel project between
New York and New Jersey
worthy to move through
the process of getting cash
from Washington, offi cials
announced last week.
The $11 billion scheme to
build two new rail tunnels
beneath the Hudson while repairing
century-old existing
tubes got a “medium-high”
rating from the Federal Transit
Administration, the secondhighest
designation.
“The Gateway Tunnel project
has just secured a positive
rating at the FTA, and it is just
huge because it means the billions
we secured for this project
are that much closer to being
put to work,” said Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer in a
statement on Jan. 20.
The tunnels will expand train
LOCAL NEWS
The old rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River.
capacity between New York’s
Penn Station and Secaucus in
the Garden State on Amtrak and
NJ Transit lines, and the current
112-year-old structures they
were inundated by Superstorm
Sandy in 2012.
The Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey project still
needs to complete more steps
CHRISTOPHER LEHMAN/DOT
before moving into the penultimate
phase of the FTA’s Capital
Investment Grants program,
known as Engineering.
CIG money funds the
construction or expansion
of transit projects around
the country.
The MTA’s Second Avenue
Subway extension to East Harlem
rolled into Engineering on
Jan. 6 and Washington told New
York transit offi cials they plan to
pay $3.4 billion out of that project’s
$6.3 billion bill, the Daily
News reported.
Half of the cost of Gateway
will be carried by the two states,
while offi cials are hoping to
get money from President Joe
Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure
package, which includes
$23 billion over fi ve years for
transit expansions.
The ratings are based on
factors like population density
around stations, the number of
daily trips, current capacity.
CIG applicants must maintain
at least a “medium” rating or
better to get funding.
Transportation Secretary
Pete Buttigieg, who promoted
Gateway with Schumer at Penn
Station last June, called out the
project in a news release.
“The Hudson Tunnel Project
will enable a safe, comfortable
commute for hundreds of thousands
of Americans currently
traveling through a tunnel that
was built more than 110 years
ago,” he said.
Delivery workers celebrate new
labor rights in Times Square
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
New labor protections for
the city’s tens of thousands
of delivery workers
took effect Monday, Jan.
24, and advocates and politicians
rallied in Times Square
the day before to promote the
incoming laws.
The delivery worker collective
Los Deliveristas Unidos
and the immigrant worker advocacy
group Workers Justice
Project organized the event
that was a mix of celebration
and a know-your-rights campaign,
praising the new regulations
as a move toward fairer
conditions in the gig economy.
“We have demonstrated
that it is possible to rewrite the
rules of the delivery app industry
and it is possible to guarantee
labor protections throughout
delivery workers,” said Ligia
Guallpa, executive director at
the Workers Justice Project.
“We will continue to organize
and transform this industry.”
The fi rst set of new laws,
passed by the City Council in
September, provide protections
for delivery workers in
New York City transporting
food for companies like Grub-
Hub, DoorDash, and Relay.
Los Deliveristas Unidos organized
for better conditions
on behalf of some 65,000
workers, many of them immigrants
from Central America,
and Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer said their
movement could be a model
for future organizing.
“Hard-working people, who
just want a better life for themselves
and who organized,
they are a model for the whole
city,” Schumer said. “We want
to educate the public about
Los Deliveristas, about what
is needed, how they can back
them up, and how we can support
other worker organizations
to make our city a fairer
and more equitable place.”
Apps must tell the workers
how much a customer tips and
detail their total pay and gratuities
they got for the previous
day, according to the Department
of of Consumer and
Worker Protection.
The new rules also give better
bathroom access to workers
at restaurants for which
they deliver.
More protections are set to
roll out this spring and at the
beginning of next year.
The Council in September
passed a package of six
pieces of legislation to improve
working conditions for
delivery workers who worked
through the darkest days of
the pandemic bringing food to
people’s doorsteps and helped
keep restaurants afl oat.
A rally-goer holds a Los Deliveristas Unidos fl ag.
Starting on April 22, more
law changes will give workers
better control over their
routes, provide greater pay
protections and transparency,
and require apps to give a
PHOTO BY ADRIAN CHILDRESS
free insulated food bag after
six deliveries.
The city must also study a
new minimum pay rate set to
be released at the beginning of
next year.
6 January 27, 2022 Schneps Media