The City Council voted on Wednesday to overturn Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes of two worker-protection bills, one lessening penalties for unauthorized or improper street vending and the other boosting wages for grocery delivery workers.
One measure, Int. 47, will eliminate misdemeanor charges and jail time for street vending violations. The other measure, Int. 1135, will require third-party app companies, such as Instacart, to pay grocery delivery workers a minimum wage of $21.44 per hour, extending a similar existing wage mandate for restaurant delivery workers.
“The mayor's vetoes demonstrate that he prioritizes taking action to fuel greater corporate profits at the expense of workers in our city, who continue to be exploited,” Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a rally on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday morning.
Speaker Adrienne Adams, center, flanked by Councilmembers Sandy Nurse and Shekar Krishnan, at a rally Wednesday in support of two worker-protection bills.
Both override votes passed easily, reflecting the wide policy gulf between the Democratic-run Council and the mayor, who is seeking re-election as an independent. City Hall officials and spokespeople said the mayor's decision to veto the bills was the right call.
First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said in a statement that the street-vending legislation “effectively legalizes” vending without the appropriate license or permit "by leaving no real penalty for illegal vending.” Under the new law, street vendors may only receive civil — instead of criminal — penalties, including fines of up to $1,000 depending on the offense.
Mastro said “illegal vending” jeopardizes public safety and public health, and that the new law is unfair to “legal businesses.” On the delivery workers bill, mayor’s office spokesperson Zachary Nosanchuk said in a statement, “Let’s be honest – grocery prices are already too high, and now is not the right time to do anything that would drive these prices even higher."
In his veto message for the street-vending bill, Adams said criminal misdemeanor penalties are an "important enforcement tool" to enforce street-vending laws and regulations. In a separate veto message, Adams said the delivery workers bill would increase the cost of groceries for residents who rely on delivery services, like seniors, people with disabilities, and families who don’t live near quality grocery stores.
A spokesperson for Instacart said the company will sue to block the grocery-delivery bill.
"The City Council has now twice ignored the voices of New Yorkers, instead doubling down on harmful legislation that could significantly increase New Yorkers’ grocery delivery bills and eliminate access to work for thousands of grocery delivery workers," Thomas McNeil, Instacart's senior manager of policy and government affairs, said in a statement.
McNeil said the company supports a minimum wage for grocery delivery workers, the Council-backed measure would reduce flexibility, forcing workers to take on longer shifts.
New York City was the first in the country to mandate minimum pay for app-based delivery workers when the Council passed a sweeping reform package in 2021. But the measures were targeted at restaurant delivery workers using apps like GrubHub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats and largely excluded grocery delivery workers on apps like Instacart.
Instacart also lobbied extensively against the bill, urging users to oppose the measure, claiming it would increase the cost of grocery deliveries by $10 or more per order. The bill doesn’t require that companies increase grocery delivery prices, and it remains to be seen if affected companies will pass the added costs on to consumers.
There are an estimated 30,000 grocery delivery app workers in New York City, in addition to 78,000 restaurant delivery app workers, according to the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
Proponents of the street-vendor measure say it is an important step to remedy the city’s broken vending system — and to protect the city’s largely immigrant vendor workforce as immigration arrests surge under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Criminal convictions can lead to immigration detention or deportation. When someone is arrested and fingerprinted by the NYPD and other local police, their fingerprints are sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under local sanctuary laws, city jails will only hold arrestees for ICE pickup if they’ve been convicted of certain serious crimes, not including vending offenses.
“Nobody should face jail time and the immigration consequences that could come with that simply to sell food to support their families,” Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, a Queens Democrat and the sponsor of the street vendor bill, said at the morning rally.
Only a few thousand permits and licenses are authorized in the city, when an estimated 23,000 street vendors are doing business across the five boroughs. The vast majority of vendors are operating unlawfully, without proper documentation.
Vendors operating without a required license or permit now face a misdemeanor charge, a criminal fine between $150 and $1,000, and up to three months of jail time. Under the new law, those vendors can only be charged with a violation, a lesser noncriminal offense, and receive a fine of up to $1,000. The bill takes effect 180 days after it becomes law.
Vendors can currently receive a misdemeanor charge, a fine of up to $500, and up to 30 days of jail time for violating various time, place and manner violations, such as operating too far from the curb or using cardboard boxes to display merchandise. Under the overturned bill, vendors will only receive civil penalties of up to $250 for these violations.
“Mayor Adams, you have picked a fight that you will not win,” Krishnan said ahead of the override votes.
The Council’s action marked another in a series of policy rifts between the 51-person legislative body and Mayor Adams. Earlier this month, the Council called on the city Board of Elections to overturn housing-related ballot measures proposed by a mayor-appointed panel, arguing the questions were misleading and would undermine the Council’s power to reject new developments.
The Council also sued the mayor for his attempt to reopen a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Rikers Island. On Monday, a state Supreme Court judge sided with the Council, nullifying the Adams administration's executive order allowing ICE to operate on Rikers.
Other bills changing the city’s street vending system are pending in the Council, including a measure that would lift the cap on the number of street vending permits and licenses.
