Excluded Workers Rally In Ossining For Unemployment Help

OSSINING, NY — Excluded workers and allies held a rally in Ossining at 11 a.m. Friday and called on New York lawmakers to support their needs in the state budget.

The rally was part of the Tour 4 Justice, a bus tour around the state led by excluded workers and supporters to call attention to the continued struggles excluded workers face and to demand more help from the state.

A coalition of more than 100 organizations is calling on the state to #FundExcludedWorkers, or those who have been excluded from coronavirus relief because of their status as formerly incarcerated, self-employed or undocumented.

Only 5 percent of households in immigrant, Black and brown communities received unemployment insurance despite nine in 10 of those surveyed losing their job or income, according to a study by one of the organizations, Make the Road New York.

The workers include taxi drivers, salon and restaurant staff, street vendors, and countless others who have been on the frontlines during the coronavirus crisis.

Many cannot get access to assistance if they lose work, an issue exacerbated during the pandemic, when hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were left to fend for themselves after being shut out of stimulus checks and unemployment support.

The protesters called for an additional $3 billion for the Excluded Workers Fund and for legislation (A9037 / S8165) to establish a permanent program that would give excluded workers access to compensation on par with unemployment insurance when they lose a job or income. The state created the fund in 2021 with $2.1 billion. It ran out of money, according to officials.

The two demands have been a central issue in budget negotiations.

Excluded workers are currently marching from New York City to Albany in an 11th-hour effort to win support for additional funding, and have been holding demonstrations at the offices of key Albany decisionmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Members Michael Benedetto, Amy Paulin, and Tom Abinanti.

Two weeks ago, workers stopped traffic on two New York City bridges to raise the pressure for their demands. SEE: Manhattan, BK Bridges Shut Down By Protest

"The pandemic laid bare the holes in our social safety net, which left hundreds of thousands of Black and brown low-wage workers to fall through," said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, who marched on the bridge. "People who deliver meals, sanitize our subway stations, take care of our homebound elders, harvest our crops, and so many other essential tasks to keep our society going deserve the same social support when hard times cause them to lose work."

Editor's Note: Last year, the group called for a billionaire wealth tax, but this year is not calling for additional taxes. The flat-rate monthly payments are also meant to be for future, not retroactive - this is for a new program akin to unemployment insurance that would let workers access compensation when they lose a job or income. The retroactive payments were a lump sum, one-time payment for workers who qualified for the Excluded Workers Fund. Information about the wealth tax and the retroactive payments were incorrect in the original version of this report.

Patch Editor Anna Quinn contributed to this report.