Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks and Signs Intro 339-B

August 25, 2021

Commissioner Carmelyn P. Malalis, New York City Commission on Human Rights: Thank you to everyone for being here this afternoon. My name is Carmelyn P. Malalis. I am the Chair and Commissioner for the New York City Commission on Human Rights. And I am privileged to be here today for this important expansion of the New York City Human Rights Law codifying employment protections for domestic workers.  

[Applause]  

Many of these protections are basic workplace rights protections that have eluded domestic workers for far too long. The signing of Intro 339-B is a crucial step in recognizing the human rights of domestic workers and valuing the work they perform and ensuring that all workers are free from discrimination in their workplaces.  

[Applause]  

The Fiscal Policy Institute estimates there to be more than 200,000 domestic workers in New York City. A majority of which provides some form of caregiving to our children and adults. Labor estimates indicate that this sector will only continue to grow at a rate three times as fast as other occupations. So, the time is definitely now to secure protections for domestic workers, an important population of our workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a bright light on the cracks in our social safety net. Essential workers, the engine of our economy and of our city have faced devastating impacts. And this is particularly true for our domestic workers. Many New Yorkers could not thrive or participate in the workforce or even economically survive without the support of home health aides, house cleaners, and the childcare that these workers provide.   

And yet protections for our city's domestic workers have remained thin. Even before the pandemic domestic workers were uniquely vulnerable to abuse and discrimination with little to no recourse when they were mistreated or abused or fired. Domestic workers have been historically marginalized excluded from many national and state level laws, including anti-discrimination laws. Today, we say not in New York City.  

[Applause]  

In 2018, I was overjoyed to watch Mayor de Blasio sign legislation and ensuring that domestic workers were protected from gender-based harassment, including sexual harassment under the Stop Sexual Harassment Act in New York City. And today I am privileged to see him sign Intro 339B into law, which extends other important protections from our Human Rights Law to domestic workers, regardless of employer size. So that no employee minimum can stand as a barrier for domestic workers to seek redress for discrimination and all forms of harassment under the City Human Rights Law. I am grateful to all of these workers and advocates.  

[Applause]  

Through their dedication to this issue, it has brought us here today. And my thanks to Council Member Debi Rose, of course, and the rest of the City Council for passing this bill.  

[Applause]  

And now it is my great pleasure to introduce you to one of New York's fiercest advocates for this bill and for domestic workers, Marissa Senteno the Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance here in New York.   

[…]  

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Everybody, is it time for change?  

Applause: Yes!  

Mayor: Is it time to treat domestic workers like they matter, like you matter?  

Audience: Yes!  

Mayor: Is it time to recognize your hard work?   

Audience: Yes!  

Mayor: Is it time to honor and respect your rights?  

Audience: Yes!  

Mayor: In this city and this country, working people don't get the respect they deserve. We know that across the board. But we also know that some working people have been ignored for too long, particularly ignored and devalued, even though your work is absolutely positively essential.   

[Applause]  

Thank you, Kieran, for your leadership. Thank you to everyone who stood up because it makes a difference, because you are not invisible anymore. We saw in the last year and a half, just how much this city depended on essential workers. No one's more central than all of you.   

[Applause]  

I want to thank everyone who fought long and hard. You know what? I understand why people get discouraged. I understand why people sometimes think no matter how right you are, your voice can't be heard, but I always tell people never ever give up.  

[Applause]  

Because days like today do happen.  

[Applause]  

Because you fought and you were heard. I want to thank our Chair of the Human Rights Commission, Carmelyn Malalis for great leadership and believing in you. Thank you, Carmelyn. I want to thank everyone at the City Council. You're going to hear from Debi Rose, but thank you to Speaker Corey Johnson, everyone at the City Council who believed in you.  

[Applause]  

In a minute when we sign Intro 339-B, we're changing New York City, we're establishing strong, clear legal protections under the strongest human rights law in the United States of America.  

[Applause]  

And let's be clear what that means. It means it will be illegal. I'm going to go over that again, slowly – illegal for employers to discriminate against domestic workers based on gender, age, race, religion. And I want you to know that everyone who stood up and fought, everyone who made their voice heard mattered. I especially want to thank a small group of women who came up to Chirlane and I one day last year, we were walking in Sunset Park, in the park in Sunset Park. Are you one of them? Or who? Where? You? No? There you are. Thank you. Right there, thank you. And these women spoke with passion and eloquence. Now to be clear Chirlane and I were just taking a walk, okay? We were not on duty. But when righteous people come up to you and say, we need you to hear something. We stopped and listened. We listened with a whole heart. And what we heard was women who had worked so hard to do the right thing and did not feel protected. And they said, we need this legislation. And honestly, I had not heard a lot about it before then. They educated me. So, I want to give special credit to them, special thank you.  

[Applause]  

And when people stand up and they make their voice heard, good people listen. The good people in the City Council listened. We all listened because we could hear the voice of justice. So, everyone, this is a day to celebrate when working people raise their voices, working people win, period. And with that, I want to bring up someone who took up your cause with passion and she believed, and she worked it in the City Council. She made clear to her colleagues how important it was. And today is a victory for her as well. And we are here in Staten Island week to celebrate with Staten Island's own Council Member Debi Rose.  

[...]  

Mayor: Okay. Let’s do a little Español – 

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish] 

Let’s go sign this legislation, everyone. 

[Applause] 

[Mayor de Blasio signs Intro 339-B] 

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