Home care workers in New York City suffer irreparable damage to their health and family life from working years of 24-hour shifts, as well as being cheated of 11 hours of pay per shift. In 2022, SEIU 1199 estimated that $6 billion in stolen wages was owed to its home care workers alone, yet it arbitrated an agreement with the agencies settling for $34 million — just 0.56% of what it believed workers were owed. This arbitration encouraged agencies to continue the practice of assigning 24-hour shifts. In 2023, hundreds of workers protested for three days in front of SEIU 1199’s union office, and later testified in 9 hours of public hearings in City Council to demand an end to the 24-hour workday and state-sponsored wage theft. In 2024, workers conducted a six-day hunger strike outside City Hall with hundreds of supporters, went in busloads to Albany to protest outside of the NY State Court of Appeals, and demonstrated outside the NYS Department of Labor. In 2025, hundreds of workers mobilized for multiple demonstrations at Governor Hochul’s office and the NYS Department of Labor.

The home care workers’ organizing is succeeding. Support for the NYC NoMore24 bill is now a precondition for political candidates, and a priority for City Council. Workers are pressuring Governor Hochul to enforce the labor law and direct her NYS Department of Labor to adjudicate their cases, and agencies are agreeing to provide 24-hour care in split 12-hour shifts. Non-unionized workers are winning back years of wages owed, and workers across the industry are getting the control over their time that they need in order to care for their patients.

NMASS is a proud member of the Ain’t I a Woman?! (AIW) campaign

Recent Testimonials

“I couldn’t sleep when I worked 24 hours – maybe only 2 hours – because I had to give them medicine, or cook at midnight for the patient, or because I had to watch my patient all night because she would try to run away. I have an abdominal hernia due to the effort of moving my patient. I have high blood pressure from stress, and I can’t sleep.”
– Luz Estrella, organizer and home-care attendant

“I have worked more than 20 years as a home attendant, always with SEIU 1199 agencies. I worked 15 years of 24-hour shifts, 4 and 5 days a week. One gets sick. I told my agency that I didn’t want to work anymore 24-hour shifts. The agency told me to resign.  Many of my co-workers feel pressured to agree to 24 hours to save their union health insurance. I organized with my fellow First Chinese Presbyterian home attendants to reclaim our years of stolen pay.”
– Alvaro Ramirez, organizer, Board member and home attendant

“There is no kind of rest. I’m not working 24-hour shifts anymore. They wanted me but I said no. It’s such hard work. Patients are in danger.”
– Rafaela Urena, organizer and home attendant