#los-deliveristas-unidos

#los-deliveristas-unidos

Under a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, federal authorities had detained Serigne, a Senegalese asylum seeker and the brother of dishwasher Abdoul Mbengue. 'I didn't know what to do at first, but we had this community, and I told them this news,' Mbengue says through a coworker who is translating his French.

"We've partnered with Relay Delivery, a third-party delivery as a service company, in New York City to outsource some of our fulfillment responsibilities to them. This partnership arises primarily to stem elevated driver pay costs in NYC, which have more than doubled since the new driver pay law was introduced."

New Yorkers filed 1,269 suits under the Federal Labor Standards Act against employers for violations such as underpayment and unpaid overtime, significantly outpacing other states.

FreshDirect's drivers, runners and loaders are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 2013, which has a bargaining unit of about 670 employees. The current contract, which expired at the end of 2025 and was extended until Feb. 6, allows 14% of deliveries to be handled by third parties. In negotiations, FreshDirect is now proposing to increase that number to 40% this year,

Mohammed Riyaj, a 26-year-old delivery worker in Brooklyn, had high hopes for a new city law intended to increase tips for him and thousands of other delivery workers who ply New York City's streets daily. Nearly two weeks into the initiative, however, his expectations have been diminished. Despite assurances that the law would make tipping more straightforward for customers and result in a pay bump for him and other delivery workers, Riyaj said the increased tips simply haven't materialized so far, leaving him frustrated.

The Council had passed on Dec. 18, 2025, a measure Intro. 0276, which would protect high-volume for-hire vehicle drivers, like Uber and Lyft drivers, against unfair deactivations by a 40-7 vote with one abstention, and at the same time approved legislation that would safeguard food delivery workers, Intro. 1332, by 40 to 8 votes. Adams struck down Intro. 0276, but not Intro. 1332, on his last day in office. By law, the Council had to reintroduce Intro. 0276 when the new session convened in January.