“They Won’t Stop Sucking Workers’ Blood”: New York Home Care Workers Demand End to 24-Hour Shifts
- Zhenjia Zhang
- Jul 11
- 6 min read
Every Wednesday at 10 a.m., a group of home care workers gather outside the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) building in Manhattan, holding big red signs saying “STOP THE 24 HR WORKDAY NOW.”
For the past six decades, CPC has served Asian Americans, immigrants, and low-income communities in the United States through various programs such as after-school classes, family support, and economic empowerment programs.
CPC’s Home Attendant Program is one of the largest not-for-profit home care service agencies in New York City, employing 4,500 home care workers and providing services to 2,500 patients. Licensed in 1998 by the New York State Department of Health as a home care service agency, it is part of New York State’s Medicaid program.
Despite CPC’s mission to “promote the social and economic empowerment” of Asian American communities, they have played a role in enforcing 24-hour workdays for home care workers with only 13 hours of pay. Protestors complain that the “stolen” wages of 11 hours a day, now amounting to over $90 million in lost wages, have been used to build the 30-storey luxury tower in Manhattan that they now hold signs in front of.
“This building was built with our blood and sweat,” said Liyi Chen, who worked as a home care worker for 22 years before retiring.
Currently, 80 workers are assigned to 39 cases that require 24-hour shifts, while 152 workers are assigned to 38 cases that require 12-hour split shifts, according to a statement made by CPC on Mar. 5, in response to a protest outside the CPC’s 60th Anniversary Gala event that took place on Wall Street.
According to the New York State Department of Labor, 24-hour shifts require compensation for only 13 hours of work, provided the aide is afforded 8 hours for sleep (with at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep) and 3 hours for meal breaks. However, in practice, home care workers say they don’t get any time of uninterrupted rest.
“I had to get up every hour at night, they get up frequently to go to the bathroom or drink water, so I couldn't sleep at all,” said Yali Le, a retired home care worker. “There was even a bell installed next to my bed, and I jumped up when the bell rang, which made me neurasthenic; my body couldn't take it anymore.”
“This has truly destroyed our lives,” Le said. She now suffers from chronic pain from the lack of afforded rest during her home care days. “The pain is indescribable.”
Several home care workers share similar stories of chronic illnesses as a result of the long hours at work.
“I have long-term headaches and insomnia, and I would suddenly wake up when I was sleeping at my own home, wondering if it was my patient calling me,” Chen said.
In its March 2025 statement, CPC declared that while they fully support home care workers in their efforts to stop the 24-hour workday, those shifts are mandated by state law and determined by insurance companies. Therefore, “CPC does not have the power to split 24-hour shifts on our own and has been advocating for State reform for years, alongside our advocacy for Fair Pay for Home Care.”
“On the one hand, they use that money to build a luxury building, and on the other hand, there’s nothing they can do,” said Zishun Ning, an advocate affiliated with Ain’t I a Woman?!, a coalition that started the movement to end the 24-hour workday. “But they won't stop sucking workers' blood.”
Until state laws are changed, there are not too many choices for workers but to work 24-hour shifts.
"If we don’t, they say there’s no work for us,” said Yuying Lin, who has been a home care worker for more than 10 years. “We rely on this job to make a living."
Home care workers also face consequences if they refuse to work 24-hour shifts. “They punish you, they’ll assign you to a patient who lives far away, it takes three hours just to get there,” said Yolanda Zhang, an advocate affiliated with Ain’t I a Woman?!
Home care workers’ allegations against CPC go back years. In 2021, an explosive 103-page report released by David Lee, legislative director of New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim, alleged that the CPC was engaging in rampant wage theft and abusing Chinese immigrant home care workers using a prolonged forced-arbitration scheme, which the home care workers were asked to sign away their right to sue without told how much they will be paid, blocking them from getting justice in court.
According to the report, the CPC works with 1199SEIU, one of the largest labor unions in New York, to block workers’ access to courts, diminishing their chances of winning back wages.
“CPC and the 1199SEIU colluded to trick the workers into signing an unequal arbitration agreement, and asked the union to modify the union contract to protect its interests,” said Zhang. “90 million is just a conservative number and calculated based on the average working hours of 24-hour workers in the past 6 years.”
While the Department of Labor enforces wage laws, the Department of Health manages reimbursements for the agencies that employ home care workers. Without simultaneous reform of both systems, workers will not be able to get an increase in wages.
New York City Council member Christopher Marte has introduced a bill to ban 24-hour shifts entirely and instead require 12-hour split-shifts. However, City Council speaker Adrienne Adams, who finished fourth in June's New York City Democratic Mayoral primary election, has refused to support the bill, saying that the law can only be changed at the state level.
A survey conducted by the United Coalition of Downtown Democratic Clubs shows that New York City’s mayoral candidates resoundingly support the “No More 24” Act; yet, as the 2025 NYC mayoral race heats up, this issue remains noticeably absent from the public conversation. None of the candidates mentioned it during the final Democratic debate in the primary for mayor of New York City on June 12th.
When The Xylom reached out to CPC for comment, their communications director, Alice Du, emphasized that the organization wants to split 24-hour shifts, but current state regulations and insurance reimbursement rules limit their ability to change the rule independently.
“If CPC’s Home Attendant Program could split 24-hour cases on our own, why wouldn’t we?” said Du, “It would be better for the organization, workers, and clients.”
Du says that CPC currently has only 39 cases of 24-hour shifts out of nearly 2,500 shifts in total, and has spent nearly $6 million on overtime, bonuses, and worker reimbursements in the past year, paying their home care workers $19.50 per hour, which is more than the State’s hourly wage for home care workers.
However, home care workers don’t think this is enough. “They act like they’re being generous to them, to me, they look down on women,” Ning said. ”They say Chinese people just want to be slaves, that we’re willing to work 24 hours straight.”
Several immigrant communities across New York City are suffering due to the 24-hour shifts.
“It’s not just a Chinese issue, a white issue, a black issue, a brown issue,” said Tej Budhram, who works at the Flushing Workers Center, an organization that fights for better conditions for workers. “It’s truly affecting all workers, but specifically women of color.”
As Trump's return puts Medicaid on the chopping block, the amount of funds states like New York will receive for home care programs is now under threat.
But these workers do not plan to stop the protests until they get the justice and the change they deserve.
Liyi Chen, a retired home care worker with 22 years of experience, protests outside the Chinese-American Planning Council building in Manhattan, New York City, on June 18th, 2025. (Zhenjia Zhang/The Xylom)
“We come together every Wednesday to protest,” Chen said. “To release the pain of 24-hour work, to find strength in unity, and to demand justice.”
