 Injury, give up, injury, if I see you here something's happening. Because always, always, I never thought in my life I'd be regurgitating the song I used to hear as a child, baby it is hot out, you know, it is hot outside. So, we're here to just really acknowledge this important decision that was made, and I want to really take my hat off to Commissioner Amoeuga and her entire team over at DCWP. And I want to thank 32BJ, Candace Tolliver, Kyle Bragg. And they're using government correctly, identifying a problem that's dealing with workers, bringing it to the attention of our commissioners, and then acting accordingly to what we discover after a thorough investigation. This is what Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer has stated as we build out our business communities and deal with workers' rights and workers' issues. You know, I wrote in the restaurant as a child, as a dishwasher. I know how challenging it is, as well as President, I fought on behalf of some of the laws that we're seeing now. Fight for 15 was a battle that I was proud to be part of. And so today, we obtained a $20 million in relief for our employees. And that's why the New York City Department of Consumer and Rokas Protection took actions against Chipotle Mexican Grill Company on behalf of our city, Rokas, sending the right message as we move forward. Under the New York City Fair Worker Week Law, fast food employees must, and I say must, provide Rokas with their schedules in advance or pay Rokas extras. Our investigation determined that that did not happen. Rokas must be able to plan their lives. The days of fast food, Rokas has been merely college students. That is just not a reality. Many are parents. Many are sole providers for their families. And that's why we fought for the right for 15. And that's why we will continue to ensure that they receive the benefits that they deserve. So many New Yorkers have spent time working in restaurants. We know that the restaurants play a vital role in our economy and the employees do just the same. We want businesses, and I want to be clear on this, we want businesses like Chipotle to open here and thrive here. That's crucial for us. But they cannot exist without the hard working people who are cooking, serving and delivering our food. It's part of that ecosystem that each part of the ecosystem must receive the necessary support and necessary benefits to thrive. And we want to ensure that our restaurant workers are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. And again, I cannot say enough about the Union 32BJ that brought this to our attention. This is a perfect partnership when government unions that represent Rokies and companies understand that we have to coexist. And that is what we're seeing. Today's settlement is a victory for Rokies and it's a victory for the customers. Because oftentimes the customers in these establishments are in fact Rokies. And when you have victories like this, it sends the right message that New York City stands with Rokie people. We are using the power of the law to ensure that we protect everyone under the law. And I want to thank my Chief Counsel, Brendan McGuire and his team for working with DCWP for making this happen. Commission, a great job. Let's continue to make sure that Rokies are protected in the city. I want to turn it over to our commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for being here today. I am Commissioner Vilda Beramayuga of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. We are really excited to be here and thank you, Mr. Mayor, for holding this press conference to announce this important win for New Yorkers. New York City is a nationwide leader in protecting the right to stable, predictable work schedule. Under city law, workers in fast food restaurants have the right to work at their scheduled time. And to receive extra premium pay for schedule changes. They also have the right to pick up more hours before new workers are hired. These rights are important. They are important because working people need scheduling stability. And the chance to pick up more hours to pay rent and put food on the table. And New York City's for Work Week law guarantees those rights for fast food workers. But in 2018, we started to receive complaints from workers at Chipotle that they were being denied these rights. So we launched an investigation and in 2021, after discovering violations, we expanded our case to additional locations in the city. Our investigation found that Chipotle did not give employees advance notice of their work schedules. Required employees to work extra time without their advance consent. Did not properly compensate workers for schedule changes. Did not offer available shifts to current employees before hiring new employees. And did not allow employees to use a crude safe and sick leave. Today, I am happy to announce we have reached a settlement that will put money back in the pockets of these workers. A settlement that is the largest fur work week settlement in the country. We're very excited. And again, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for leading our city. I'd like to share some words in Spanish now. Nuestra investigación encontró que Chipotle violó la Ley de Semana Laboral Justa de Nueva York en varias formas. Incluyendo, no brindar a sus empleados con antelación los horarios de trabajo. Requerir que los empleados trabajen tiempo extra sin consentimiento previo. No pagar adecuadamente a los trabajadores por los cambios de horario. No ofrecer turnos disponibles a los empleados actuales antes de contratar a nuevos empleados. Y no permitir que los empleados utilicen las licencias remuneradas por enfermedad y seguridad. Nuestra resolución con Chipotle representa el acuerdo jurídico más grande de la Ley de Semana Laboral Justa a nivel nacional. Nuestro acuerdo requiere que Chipotle pague hasta 20 millones de dólares a aproximadamente 13,000 trabajadores que experimentaron las violaciones. And now I'd like to also remind that if you want to learn, especially, you know, both restaurants that do fast food work and fast food employees about these specific laws, please, if you have questions or need to file a complaint, visit nyc.gov slash workers or call 311. Thank you. We ask any questions you may have. Each worker can expect to get out of the settlement and also does my understanding that the 2021 lawsuit was seeking 150 million in damages. You know, are you satisfied with the outcome in this case? We're very satisfied. It is the largest one in the country. We really are, you know, leading as the amazing city that we are. This is the fastest way to get the relief to the workers reaching this settlement. The workers can expect $50 for each week or part of a week that they work between November of 2017 and April of this year, 2022. These violations of Chipotle and other fast food companies have not stopped. And now we have Starbucks also engaging in similar activity. Can DCWP keep up a pace of the demand of these violations? We are actively investigating any complaints that come our way. We could continue to do our work and comply with that mandate. The city competition has stopped these violations. We believe approximately 13,000 workers may be eligible for these $20 million. And in terms of relief, you know, again, if there's any outstanding complaints, we're delighted. We're really happy and pleased that Chipotle came to the table to resolve this issue, this lawsuit in the way that they did. I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but we've received some complaints on paid savings sick leave. I'm sorry, on just cause, which is another component of the Fair Work Week law, and we're actively investigating those. Okay. We're going to pawn you, ladies. So Steve, you could respond to what took place at the hearing this morning on homeless shelters, asylum seekers. Speaker Adams seemed to insinuate that there's some scapegoating going on that the asylum seekers may not be the main reason that there's so much stress on our homeless shelter system. Can you respond to that and her ask for more clarity and accountability around how we're quantifying asylum seekers? No, I'm not quite understanding. What is her question? Her question is... The situation is that the Adams administration seems to be scapegoating these asylum seekers for the vast majority of issues that are happening in the shelter system, that those asylum seekers are not only to blame for the issues in the shelter system. No, I don't think that they are the blame. We should not be blaming people who are seeking to leave a place that is harmful to them. And that's why I was at the Port Authority, greeting the bus, unlike Governor of Texas who did what I believe is anti-American, I did just the opposite. And those asylum seekers were happy to hear that the mayor of the city of New York was standing there and stated, we're going to treat you with dignity. And that meant a lot. And that was what we wanted to accomplish. So I'm not quite sure what the speaker is saying. I'll reach out to her and I'm going to ask her to come with me in some of the homeless shelters that I'm visiting. And I continue to visit with my team and she can sort of point out what she believed was scapegoating. Of my understanding, she said that the eviction issue was causing some of the homelessness. Only 1% of those who are in shelter are there due to evictions. There are many other issues that are facing. And the number I received this morning was a little over 4,000 of asylum seekers that are now into our shelter system. 1,000. And so I am hoping that the city council would join us in calling on the federal government to help as well as getting help from the state. I just think it's unfair that New York City, we're saying we're going to do our part. We're taking on this awesome responsibility. The federal government and the state should assist in this as well because it's more than 1,000. Remember that. Education, food, translation services, healthcare, all of these issues, people are just looking at the beds. No. We're talking about additional resources for people who are in need. The city is looking to create a migrant specific facility to temporarily house these individuals. Why go that route and kind of segregate them from the rest of the population? We are continually going to pivot and shift based on the need and analysis. If we determine that we can give people better services a certain way, like we have all men shelters. We have shelters with all our children. We have shelters based on populations in need. And so we're looking at whatever we can do to make this a smooth transition for people who are coming here to seek the assistance that they need. I mean, it's unimaginable. Come to a country, your first visit here, someone is throwing you out as the governor of Texas is doing and then trying to navigate this complex country to deliver your services. And we're doing a good job in doing that. How are you? Good. I know the city. Yes. Okay. A couple of things. Schools are going to open on time with resources and services. We are not going to disrupt the school year. We need to be really clear on that. They're going to open on time. These children are going to be ready to learn the same way we did during the over the summer months. 110,000 students went to school over the summer. So we're opening on time and we're going to continue to provide education of our children need. There are many different voices in this conversation. And so it is going through the process. It's all part of the process. The judge did his ruling. We have the city has lawyers. Let them handle that. I need the chancellor must get that school open and I must do my job as the mayor of the city. And that's what I'm going to do. The lawyers are going to deal with the rest of the stuff. I did have a meeting yesterday with a president, President Clinton. I enjoyed hanging out with him last night. We did not speak with the White House yesterday. I think my team is doing it today or tomorrow. I know it will be done before the end of the week. We just need help. We need help. And we're going to have some specific items that we're going to go over with the president. But we want assistance. We believe FEMA should step in. The administration has not heated the city's calls? After you have experienced the New York City press not giving me all the credit I deserve, I don't get frustrated anymore. So good. The state says the governor has specifically said she's offering assistance to deal with the situation. What has the state offered and has it had anything going back to beds to do with housing perhaps outside the city for those who are coming in? We updated the congressional delegation yesterday and we're going to partner with our state lawmakers to receive assistance from them. And we're not leaving anything on the table. When it comes down to housing of those who are in the city and those who are coming to our city and seeking some form of housing. So we're open to good ideas and we're not leaving anything off the table in doing so. Do you plan to campaign for the Democrat or get involved in any way in that? I already called all of my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their vote. And I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old fashioned door knocking because we have to, for the good of America, we have to get them out of office. What are you discussing with them? Are they saying they're going to be a liaison for you and for the city? They were amazing. Our intergovernment two affairs committee briefed them and they said basically let's help. Let's know what you need. They're going to use their authority there to help us because this impacts their communities. And our congressional delegation has been amazing. They've been amazing during COVID, constantly bringing resources here. Several other initiatives that we had to fight. Every time we called on them, they responded at the level of expectation. And they would tell you the relationship we have developed has been an amazing relationship. They have been delivering for our city. The intake center in downtown Brooklyn. Yeah. We would love that. I need him to help us. Number one, to speak with his residents of the important of putting in place a shelter intake center, whatever we could do. He needs to be on the ground speaking with his residents to explain how we all have to share this responsibility. And already endorsed in the governor's race. I'm endorsing Kathy Huckle who has been a real partner. In the primary that's coming up. Yeah. There's a couple of endorsements that I'm going to make in the senate races because it's important that we have those senators that believe in public safety intervention and prevention. And I'm going to endorse in probably one of the congressional races. I haven't decided yet. We have some good candidates in the congressional race. And Jerry. And Jerry. Mayor, you've characterized what the governor of Texas is doing as a political stunt, haven't you? If it is. Yes, it is. If it is a political stunt, is it working? In which way? In highlighting or in moving people saying how much he dislikes New York? Like in which way? Is he accomplishing his objectives? No, I think he's irresponsible. I don't think he's accomplishing it. I think he, to America, there's a reason the Statue of Liberty is there. And all of us, we all came from somewhere. And for him to have people who just went through a devastating moment crossing the border, coming to this land of the free home of the brave, and then place them on buses. Even if they wanted to go to a different location, force them on a bus and ship them to New York to a 45-hour drive, a few stops under these inhumane conditions. I don't think he's accomplishing anything more than exposing the type of individual that he is. And so there's nothing successful about treating people with this lack of dignity. I'm sorry. Regarding the town professional district? Yes. Well, I could work with everyone. So, you know, whomever wins, you have to adjust and find a way to work with people. And I'm just at this place where we need to start leaning into places we agree and not places we disagree. Because, you know, even the person that's diametrically opposed to things that I do, we were to put a list together, eight out of those 10 things we're going to agree on. And we shouldn't be focusing all of our attention on the two things that we disagree on. We all believe in housing. We all believe in public safety. We all believe in giving young people opportunities, good education. We agree on all of these things. And so whomever wins, I'm going to sit down. I'm going to call them. I'm saying congratulations. And welcome to a city that's doing with monkeypox, COVID, crime, economy, education, housing. Welcome to the job. And there's a lot to go around. And I want those partnerships with them. Thank you very much.