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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rachel Lyons, Legislative Director of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union on Food Systems and Labor Standards
1:54:22
ยท
3 min
Rachel Lyons, representing the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, emphasized the importance of including provisions that support good jobs in New York City's food system. She stressed that worker-friendly food policies are crucial for the resilience of the city's food system and benefit everyone involved.
- Advocated for labor standards to be incorporated into food policies, including the FRESH program
- Highlighted concerns about food safety in delivery services, particularly from store to consumer
- Called for strong labor standards, fair wages, and good food protections in all food-related policies
Rachel Lyons
1:54:22
Hey, everybody.
1:54:23
Hi there.
1:54:24
My name is Rachel Lyons.
1:54:25
I'm the legislative director for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
1:54:30
We represent 1,200,000 members in North America and 65,000 members here in the state of New York.
1:54:37
And we work across all kinds of food retail, from retail to meat packing, food processing, grocery as well as in health care and cannabis.
1:54:47
And thank you so much for the opportunity to join the conversation today.
1:54:51
Thank you, chair Brewer and chair Faiz.
1:54:54
The conversation about a successful food system and what it takes to make it successful is fundamentally important to our members.
1:55:02
And we are here to say that every part of this should include provisions that support good jobs in New York City for the nearly 1,000 grocery stores, including food safety and delivery in your recommendations.
1:55:16
The resilience of New York City's food system is intimately connected to the success of the food workers.
1:55:22
And worker friendly food policies ensure revenue for the city, customers for city businesses, groceries for low income union workers.
1:55:32
So two key points I'm going to drive home.
1:55:34
Good jobs and grocery are good for everyone.
1:55:39
We ensure that our shelves are stocked.
1:55:41
We administer SNAP at the grocery store and are part of the food safety system.
1:55:47
And we really want everything to support all these economic development policies to include labor standards that support food workers.
1:55:56
For example, in the fresh program that we've been talking about today, we want to ensure that stores that in the application process, stores operating with a collective bargaining agreement are part of the application process as well as taking into account proximity to another Union brick and mortar store.
1:56:17
We know that we were talking about the geographic the good job that it's done, including creating new grocery stores, but some of those pop up right next
Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
1:56:27
to
Rachel Lyons
1:56:28
union grocery store that's been providing good jobs for the workers and members of that neighborhood.
1:56:35
And then a quick switch to another topic.
1:56:37
Let's talk a little bit about delivery and food safety.
1:56:41
The pandemic accelerated consumer habits of ordering food for homes and has done so faster than anybody could have predicted.
1:56:50
But there's a lack of food safety protection that applied to the delivery
Karen Karp
1:56:55
groceries from store
Rachel Lyons
1:56:56
to consume.
Gale A. Brewer
1:56:57
To summarize.
Rachel Lyons
1:56:57
Provisions out at meat processing plants.
1:57:00
We already have city provisions for in store, but that crucial moment from store to consumer is without a ton of protections.
1:57:09
We wanna ensure that food originating from grocery stores is safely delivered to the front doors, consumers everywhere, and ensure that that whatever we do require is the burden and the funding comes from the employer to provide food safety training and proper equipment to the drivers who deliver from store to home.
Gale A. Brewer
1:57:30
Rachel, can you summarize up?
1:57:32
Can you sum up?
Rachel Lyons
1:57:33
Yep.
1:57:34
In conclusion, New York City members urge this committee and the council to incorporate strong labor standards in these food policies as well as fair wages and good food protections.
1:57:44
Thank you.
1:57:45
And thank you so much for your time.
Gale A. Brewer
1:57:46
Thank you very much.