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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Christopher Leon Johnson on Funding for Worker Justice Project and Street Vendor Project
2:54:51
ยท
122 sec
Christopher Leon Johnson advocates for funding two nonprofit organizations, the Worker Justice Project and Street Vendor Project, in the FY '26 budget. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing food delivery workers and street vendors as small business owners and calls for the City Council to allocate over $1 million to each of these nonprofits.
- Argues for benefits and protections for food delivery workers and street vendors, highlighting their status as independent contractors and small business owners
- Urges the City Council to be proactive in protecting these workers, especially in light of potential political backlash
- Emphasizes that despite negative stereotypes, most migrant workers are honest people trying to make a living and pay taxes
Christopher Leon Johnson
2:54:51
Yeah.
2:54:51
Hey.
2:54:51
My name is Cooper Leon Johnson.
2:54:53
I'm currently at the work inside the church, set up for a event for CSW sixty nine.
2:54:58
I'm on I gotta get back inside the thing, like, three minutes before I be in trouble.
2:55:01
But let me make this clear.
2:55:02
I'd like to give me thanks for giving me time, mister for for for for for for for second tier right now.
2:55:07
I wanna make this clear that the the two projects two the two nonprofit will be funded for FY '26 is the worker trust project, which is under third sector of is it under the urban trust center?
2:55:21
They serve the little roosters, and they serve street vendors, people that sell mango, the people that deliver our food.
2:55:29
Remember, they're small business owners too because all of them are independent contractors, so they pay taxes and everything come out of their pocket.
2:55:36
They have no benefits.
2:55:37
The city council needs to start pushing for benefits for these guys and gals and recognize the deliberistas on the worker justice project and all these other organizations and the street vendors that sell mangoes on our street, like on 40 Second Street, as small business owners.
2:55:53
And once that happens, they're able to these two nonprofits, the Worker Justice Project and Street Minute Project, is unable to they are able to unlock funding from the city council for SBS services, especially when it comes to protect protecting their workers, especially under the the the height of Donald Trump as our president.
2:56:11
The city council may be more proactive in protecting these deliveries to the street vendors because they get a lot of lot of backlash from the GOP.
2:56:19
And just because there's a small constituency of migrants that commit a lot of crimes, doesn't mean that all migrants are bad.
2:56:26
People that deliver our food, people that deliver our sell our stuff on the street, they're not bad people.
2:56:30
They just wanna make a living too.
2:56:31
Let's keep that clear.
2:56:33
They just they they pay taxes, all that type of stuff.
2:56:35
So the city council needs to allocate money to these nonprofits, and then he makes sure that these two nonprofits, the worker justice project and the project gets over $1,000,000 in funding.
2:56:45
The worker justice project
Barry Pinckney
2:56:46
Your time's expired.
Christopher Leon Johnson
2:56:47
Gets over $1,000,000 in funding We need a small I gotta get back.
2:56:50
Thank you.
2:56:50
I get I'm probably in trouble.
2:56:51
Thank you so much.
2:56:51
Thank you, Adwole.
2:56:52
Thank you.
Oswald Feliz
2:56:52
Thank And actually a quick quick question.