Home-care workers persevere in fight with nonprofit to end 24-hour shifts

“Rain or shine, we persist,” said Lai Yee Chan.

Lai Yee Chan is a former home-care worker with the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), one of the largest social services organizations in New York focusing on Chinese American, immigrant and low-income communities. The CPC has been one of the biggest facilitators of the 24-hour workday, a labor practice where home-care workers are assigned to the home of a patient who needs around-the-clock care, but who are only paid for 13 hours. .

The 11 remaining hours, ostensibly catalogued as time for sleep and meals, are unpaid. Over the years, these unpaid hours have amounted to $90 million in stolen wages, according to advocates.

For months, Chan and her colleagues have demonstrated outside the luxury tower that houses CPC's Suffolk Street headquarters in Manhattan’s Chinatown. “One full year has passed since we’ve been picketing every week. Most women here are in their 70s, but we continue,” she said. 

CPC workers have also been fighting the courts and unions on the 24-hour workday for almost a decade. As a part of that struggle, they launched the No More 24 Campaign, working alongside Ain’t I A Woman, a coalition of women workers fighting unfair labor practices in sweatshops, home-care work, and offices. 

“I worked for 24 hours a day for eight years,” said Chan. “It’s very difficult work. The patients couldn’t get out of bed themselves, they lost their memories, they would have strokes. I had to get groceries for them, cook for them, and take them to the doctor. If there were serious issues, I would be responsible for calling 911 and accompanying them to the hospital. And in the end, I would only get paid 12 or 13 hours for every 24-hour day I worked. They stole 11 hours from me.”

In response to her demands, the CPC sent $200 to Lai Yee Chan in 2014 for around 6,000 overtime hours. Feeling disrespected by the meager settlement, Lai Yee Chan became a key leader in the fight against the 24-hour work day and the CPC.

The decade-long campaign has involved complaints against the New York State Department of Labor (DOL) and bargaining agreements with 1199 of the Service Employees International. Over the years, the CPC has said it supports the workers’ fight against the 24-hour work day, arguing that it is health insurance companies — and not the CPC — that ultimately sign off on labor practices. 

CPC critics say those statements are a smokescreen. “The Chinese-American Planning Council is singularly critical in promoting the 24-hour work day,” said Sarah Ahn, an organizer with Ain’t I A Woman. “They are a very politically connected organization. They would say ‘Chinese women, they love to do 24,’ then they would help other agencies also practice 24. Even after the workers spoke out, the CPC blocked them legally, using every avenue to prevent them from getting their stolen wages.”

CPC officials did not respond to calls for comment on the workers' claims. 

Dozens of former Chinese-American Planning Council home care workers stood in the sweltering summer heat outside the Chinese-American Planning Council on Manhattan's Suffolk Street last week in their continuing protest against 24-hour workdays and stolen wages.

Camille Luong/The Chief

Mamdani support

In the past year or so, workers have escalated their protests, engaging in a hunger strike in March 2024 then launching the weekly picket in June 2024. And in February, workers organized a protest outside the CPC’s opulent 60th anniversary gala on Wall Street that resulted in the arrests of 14 of them on disorderly conduct charges. 

“That was a learning experience for all of us. It showed how low the CPC will go, thinking it would scare the workers, who are older immigrant women,” said Zishun Ning, another organizer with Ain’t I A Woman. “But it was a huge mistake on their part. The charges were not only dropped, but the incident blew back in their face. There was a huge outpouring of public support and it made people even more determined to fight until the end.”

Indeed, five months later on a hot July morning, workers brought sun umbrellas and folding chairs to continue their weekly picketing. They carried signs stating “Stop the 24 Hour Work Day Now,” “Stop Racist Violence” and “CPC = Wage Thieves.” In both English and Mandarin Chinese, workers chanted “CPC, pay back what you owe!” and “CPC, shame on you!”

Recently, the No More 24 campaign has seen material wins against other home-care organizations. According to Sarah Ahn, Home Family Care, Inc. paid $22 million in a class action settlement for workers. 

“If you can imagine one agency is able to do that, it’s only a matter of time before the CPC gives into our demands too,” said Ahn.

The recent City Council and mayoral elections could have a bearing on the demands by the No More 24 campaign. In a political upset, democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has publicly supported No More 24, won the mayoral democratic primary, building on political momentum for the movement. 

“Zohran Mamdani stood with us at the picket line in front of the DOL,” Lai Yee Chan said. “We thought we’d have to defeat Andrew Cuomo in the election, but in reality he got very few votes.”

“It goes to show that those who support the CPC lose, and those who support us will win,” she added.

“These women built up this entire fight and movement, and politicians know they have to be on their side in order to win,” said Zishun Ning. “Cuomo was a huge proponent of 24. He tried to legalize 24 starting at the governor’s level, and the workers and the people know this.” 

“We’re already seniors, but we’re still out here,” said Chan. In the background, a chorus of workers continued chanting and waving signs, determined to keep fighting. “We don’t want the next generation to continue to be oppressed.”