On Jan. 29, the bill Intro 303 was proposed and sponsored by NYC Council Member Christopher Marte. Intro 303, also called the No More 24 Act, would make it illegal for home care employers to assign employees shifts longer than 12 hours, assign multiple 12-hour shifts within a 24-hour period, or assign shifts that would add up to more than 12 hours within a 24-hour period. It would also make it illegal for these employers to assign shifts totaling more than 56 hours a week to their employees, unless they provided written consent to opt in to being assigned shifts totaling more than 56 hours a week. This new law would take effect on April 1, 2027, and would only be applicable to unionized homecare workers.
On July 28, female homecare workers began a weeklong hunger strike outside of City Hall in Lower Manhattan in an attempt to pressure City Council Speaker Julie Menin. The strike ended on Aug. 4, according to the No More 24 website, which also provides supporters with a script to call or email Speaker Menin, urging her to “keep her promise” and submit the original bill — Intro 303 — for a council-wide vote. The website also cites the United Nations’ denouncement of a 24-hour work day, calling it a “form of torture and extreme devaluation,” as many homecare workers who had experienced these extensive shifts were only paid for 13 hours of work.
This July hunger strike was a continuation of one that began in April where workers, protesters, and supporters went eight days without food in front of City Hall. According to The Chief, a newspaper dedicated to covering the stories of any and all working New Yorkers, the April strike ended after Menin had verbally agreed to call for a council vote on the bill. Menin, however, did not fulfill that promise, subsequently creating the need for the additional strike in July.
Ain’t I A Woman?! is the coalition organizing and leading these strikes and this movement away from the mistreatment of working women of color. The coalition began in 1991 with the Campaign Against Nonpayment of Wages, a rally held in Chinatown that demanded contractors like Judy’s Place, Affirmed Fashions, and Luo Bo all pay back workers the proper wages for the hours they had worked. Since then, Ain’t I A Woman?! has organized and successfully rallied for change and improvement for an underrepresented workforce, and is committed to winning this long-fought battle alongside NYC homecare workers.
Cai Qiong Liu, a homecare worker who participated in both strikes, told The Chief and a translator that these 24-hour work days “destroys our health, and destroys our families,” as many of these working women of color are also mothers and caregivers at their own homes.
On July 29 at City Hall, an open-mic “hearing” was held, allowing workers to share their stories as a way to strengthen the urgency of this strike and the importance of Intro 303.
Xiu Lan Zhu, another participant of the strike, questioned why Menin and New York Governor Kathy Hochul would oppose a bill that protected the well-being of both the workers and their patients: “Is it because we are women of color that we are easier to step on?”
Helena Zeleke — a medical student and member of NYC Against Segregated Healthcare — emphasized the burden that healthcare workers and caretakers face within the American healthcare system: “They are on the front lines of patient safety … Why are we accepting a system that creates even more suffering?”
The opposition to this movement argues that Intro 303 would do more harm for the patients than it would do good for the workers themselves. The Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, the New York Association on Independent Living, The Legal Aid Society, and many other healthcare or homecare groups that would be affected by Intro 303 agree that the bill would “create a home care crisis that would leave thousands of New Yorkers without the services they need,” as stated in a letter addressed to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Speaker Menin, and other New York City Council Members, sent March 31. While they recognize the abuse of these workers and provide an outline of solutions and demands which homecare employers would need to meet, the opposition’s focal point is protecting those who need these homecare workers to ensure a quality of life.
As of Aug. 12, 2026, no additional action has been taken by either side of this fight, nor by the politicians who hold the power to determine its outcome.