Editorial
Op-ed
‘Refuse hate’ in NYC
We pride ourselves as being a
city of diversity, a microcosm
of our small planet itself — a
place where all the peoples of the world are
represented, living together and striving to
make better lives for themselves and their
families.
And yet, the past weeks have demonstrated
that New York City is far from the
harmonious cultural epicenter it proclaims
to be.
The enraging spike in hate crimes targeting
Asian New Yorkers continues to persist
despite the public condemnation of these
horrendous, intolerant acts. They persist
even as the NYPD stepped up its efforts to
protect all New Yorkers and crack down on
bigots.
Over the weekend, some hateful thugs
trashed a number of synagogues in the
Bronx for no reason other than to spread
their own ignorance and ugliness. We must
not forget that before COVID-19 hit our
city, we witnessed a spike in anti-Semitism
that, like the recent attacks on the Asian
community, continued to happen even in the
face of public condemnation and outrage.
All of us should know better. All of us in
this city are descendants of immigrants, or
immigrants ourselves. In the past year, we
have literally taken to the streets demanding
an end to racial injustice — but we need to
understand that call isn’t only to stop police
brutality.
This must also be a call for all New Yorkers
to respect each other, too, and to reject
the evils of hatred. We are not born hateful;
bigotry is not an inherent trait.
Filmmaker Tyler Perry reminded the
world of that as he accepted an honorary
Academy Award at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony.
His words are a true clarion call for
all of us as a city, and a country.
“I refuse to hate someone because they
are Mexican or because they are Black or
white or LGBTQ,” Perry said. “I refuse
to hate someone because they are a police
offi cer. I refuse to hate someone because
they are Asian. I would hope that we would
refuse hate.”
We share the same hope.
Let us refuse hate in New York City. Let
no one denigrate, defame and attack another
New Yorker because of who they are.
Enough bigotry! Enough intolerance! Let
us refuse them as New Yorkers, and let’s
build a more perfect union in our city and
our country.
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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Wage theft is a crime —
it’s time to put an end to it
BY CHARLENE OBERNAUER
The most tragic part of every construction
death is that almost every
single time the accident is preventable.
Over the course of the past few years,
New York City has seen success in making
construction safety a foremost priority,
implementing robust safety and worksite
standards on private construction projects
across the fi ve boroughs.
Yet, every death on a construction site
remains a tragedy, and serves as an example
of another policy failure. Irresponsible contractors
lining their pockets at the ultimate
expense of imperiled workers.
In our work here at NYCOSH, we’ve
found that a tell-tale sign of unsafe working
conditions are whispers of wage theft
violations against workers on private
construction projects: the victimization
of workers – who are often non-union,
immigrant, and undocumented workers
– through unpaid wages, overtime, and
benefi ts. Dual exploitation.
Cases of wage theft are some of the
most grotesque violations of the dignity
of workers, undermining their livelihoods
and well-being. These cases induce stress,
anxiety, and fear on the worksite: an equation
ripe for causing otherwise avoidable
worksite accidents. On top of that, when we
hear about cases of wage theft, alarm bells
go off. Where there is wage theft there is
almost always unsafe working conditions.
We’ve found that nearly 80 percent of sites
OSHA inspected with a history of wage
theft also incurred safety violations.
Even worse, New York law isn’t on the
side of these workers; it instead falls on the
side of the irresponsible contractor.
Fortunately, critical legislation that has
PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
been passed by the State Assembly and is
now making its way through the State Senate
would fi nally put workers ahead of the interests
of private contractors. S2766/A3350
would force accountability onto general contractors,
making them jointly and severally
liable for wage theft violations committed by
subcontractors on construction sites.
Similar legislation has proven effective in
other states across the country in protecting
workers from wage theft, while also
cleaning up the industry of repeated bad
actors by encouraging general contractors
to properly vet the sub-contractors they
bring into their worksite.
Not only has this type of legislation
been effective in other states, but here in
New York, these same laws already exist
on public construction projects, which
are known to enforce more robust safety
standards that protect both the safety and
livelihoods of workers.
From our perspective, wage theft is a
crime – it’s a form of workplace abuse,
discrimination, and corruption. And, at
NYCOSH, we fi ght crime in the construction
industry. We’ve counted some $2 million
in stolen wages on construction sites
across the fi ve boroughs in just the past
two years. We’ve been fortunate to recover
about $160,000 of those wages for workers
we partner with.
The longer we allow cases of wage theft
to go unpunished, dangerous actors in the
construction industry will remain operating
on far too many of our worksites. It’s crucial
for the safety of all New York construction
workers that the Senate passes wage theft
protection legislation immediately.
Charlene Obernauer is the executive
director of the New York Committee for
Occupational Safety and Health.
8 April 29, 2021 Schneps Media
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