City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced Thursday her Democratic majority will vote to override Mayor Adams’ vetoes of bills they passed that would increase salaries for grocery delivery workers and decriminalize unlicensed street vending.
In a press conference at City Hall, the speaker said the mayor’s latest vetoes, issued in the past couple weeks, are “anti-working class” and play into the hands of President Trump, whose administration is engaged in an aggressive crackdown on immigrants in New York, many of whom work as street vendors.
“We look forward to overriding the mayor’s senseless, anti-worker vetoes in the coming weeks,” Speaker Adams told reporters, adding the Council’s “more than likely” to hold the override votes at its next full meeting on Sept. 10.
Spokespeople for the mayor didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
All bills in question passed the Council with veto-proof majorities, meaning it likely won’t be a hard lift for the speaker to pull off overrides.
The bill related to street vending would make it so hawking food or merchandise on the streets without a city license would be subject to civil penalties as opposed to criminal summonses, as is currently the case. Council Democrats have argued that would create a fairer system and help shield immigrant street vendors at a time Trump’s administration is targeting them for “mass deportations,” but the mayor vetoed the bill last Monday, contending it would pose a public safety issue.
On the other front, the Council passed bills last month that’d put grocery delivery workers on a path to a guaranteed minimum of wage of about $21. That salary level would put them on par with restaurant delivery workers, who got such a wage floor guarantee as part of a reform enacted by the Council this spring that the mayor supported.
But the mayor vetoed the grocery delivery-related measures Wednesday, arguing they would result in higher food costs for some New Yorkers at a time of heightened cost of living concerns.
The speaker said she was particularly perplexed by that veto, noting it’s delivery service corporations like Amazon and Instacart that’d face increased costs, not grocery stores. She also noted the mayor’s administration until recently supported the grocery delivery worker bills.
“It boggles the mind … The administration was for this legislation until they were not a few days ago, we don’t understand what happened,” she said.
Prior to his veto, Adams’ administration was heavily lobbied by Amazon and Instacart, which are opposed to the wage increases.
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