One Fair Wage calls on Governor Cuomo
to act as pandemic worsens
BY MARK HALLUM
Tipped wage earners and even some
employers support the call for a
minimum wage increase in the bar
and restaurant industry as the worsening
pandemic sees more hardship on the hospitality
front.
One Fair Wage organizers said Monday
that earning a sub-minimum wage has
gotten tougher with business hours being
cut by the state as a COVID-19 mitigation
effort and abuses in the industry persist.
Breanne Delgado, a chef and organizer
with One Fair Wage handed out cans of
soup in Union Square on Monday and
spoke about what the government can do
to act on behalf of restaurant workers who
are dealing with pre-COVID-19 problems
in a post-COVID world where the responsibilities
only accumulate.
“We’re fi nding that women in the service
industry, bartenders, servers, hostesses,
nail and hair salon workers are being sexually
harassed at work right now and are
still being asked to show up, to sanitize
between customers and enforce rules of
wearing masks,” Degado said. “Governor
Breanne Delgado, a local chef and One Fair Wage organizer, said on Nov. 16
that Governor Andrew Cuomo act to resolve the hardships experienced by subminimum
wage earners in the pandemic.
Cuomo, if you care about the health and
safety of one of the largest workforces in
this state, in this city, you will eliminate the
sub-minimum wage for tipped workers.”
Ricky Dolinsky, an executive chef and coowner
of Tzarevna, along Orchard Street
on the Lower East Side, told amNewYork
Metro that much of the trepidation he sees
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
from other business owners to push for
a change to the tipped wage system is a
simple fear of the unknown.
But having been passed in several other
states and countries such as Canada, a
simple surcharge would help support employees,
he said.
“I think people are scared of One Fair
Wage because they’re not used to it, the
system has been in place for so long. In
many other countries, such as Canada,
there are automatic charges for diners… A
surcharge, not unlike the one that Mayor de
Blasio passed not long ago, except that one
is expiring. We want one that doesn’t expire
and we want one that will be used toward
One Fair Wage,” Dolinsky said. “Right
now, we’re seeing the true cost of dining
out and re-analyzing the health and safety
of everything around us. Now is the time
to give the industry a facelift and fi nally fi x
this racial and wage disparity.”
In September, the City Council and
Mayor Bill de Blasio passed a restaurant
surcharge to help restaurants recoup some
of the losses seen during the fi rst wave of
the COVID-19 pandemic which saw several
months of lockdown orders that put many
businesses in uncertain circumstances
fi nancially.
Amid concerns that the 10% surcharge
would cut into the tips of workers, Council
Speaker Corey Johnson committed to future
changes that would ensure employees
saw a piece of the action in a permanent
surcharge.
BY MARK HALLUM
City Comptroller Scott Stringer is
endorsing a plan to resolve some
of the crushing debt experienced
by taxi drivers who purchased medallions
and incurred fi nancial hardships so severe
that it drove some of them to suicide.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance’s
proposal would give medallion holders
refi nancing at $125,000 with restructured
fi nancing over 20 years and 4% interest
meaning a monthly mortgage of about
$157.
According to Stringer, this would only
cost the city $75 million over 20 years — a
drop in the bucket when compared to the
$90 billion budget.
Cab drivers turned out in force blocking
two of the free lanes on Broadway and
Murray Street next to City Hall and led
by NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi
Desai.
“It is the only way that drivers are going
to survive. It’s the only way the yellow cab
industry is going to survive,” Desai said.
“That is a small amount for a city with a
budget of $90 billion and especially when
there is an industry-specifi c fund with a
surplus of over $40 million. We can get
started, we cannot wait.”
According to Stringer, it may be worth
it for the city to give in to the demands
Stringer backs bailout plan for New
York taxi drivers inundated in debt
NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai at the head of several rows cabs on
Broadway next to City Hall on Nov. 12.
of cab drivers in offering help restructuring
loans as it will save the municipality
money in the long term by avoiding pricy
lawsuits.
“Part of what I’m assessing here is that
$75 million may end up being good for
the city as well because it will limit our
exposure to many lawsuits,” Stringer said.
“Equally important, we’d be restructuring
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
these loans so that the people who drive
cabs and are making the payment can actually
make payments.”
The proposal, fi rst introduced in August,
was not something Mayor Bill de
Blasio voiced any objection to. In a press
conference, he said whether or not the
city adopted the plan would be contingent
on the November presidential elections
and the possibility of a new White House
administration.
Some additional relief came in October
when City Council passed a bill to create
an Offi ce of Financial Stability within the
TLC which will evaluate the industry and
provide oversight of income and expenses
for medallion owners, medallion loan terms
and market manipulation.
This was signed into law by the mayor,
along with a number of other taxi-related
bills, after being approved by City
Council.
This was after State Attorney General
Letitia James took action by fi ling an allegation
of fraud against the city for the infl ated
medallion rate from 2004 to 2017, which
comes to about $810 million.
In May 2018, as one of many taxi driver
suicides, Yu Mein Chow, 56, of Flushing
took his own life which his family attributed
to owing $700,000 on a medallion
loan that quickly plummeted in value to
around $200,000. His vehicle was found
near Carl Schurz Park.
At the height of their value in 2014, taxi
medallions were worth up to $1.3 million.
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