Street Vendors Unite & Win!
Street vendors do the work through rain and shine
So yesterday, we honored and celebrated a major victory by street vendors against abuse by city agencies in a press conference despite the rain
Street vendors won a major lawsuit, led by Street Vendor Project, against the city for trashing the carts, materials, supplies, and food of street vendors, when it is the city itself that has refused to issue permits to thousands of street vendors.
Street vendors in Queens will see reparations for fines and destruction of property by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) after two years of litigation and a settlement with activists.
Up to 300 vendors will get paid out from $188,000 from the city after a class action lawsuit claimed the agency had confiscated and destroyed the carts and stalls of immigrants who had been issued violations while selling goods on the street.
DRUM member, and community icon, Sanwar Ahmed a.k.a. Baul Dada, was a lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. Sanwar Ahmed was only trying to make his “bread and butter” when a nearby brick-and-mortar business owner called the police on him resulting in a violation.
But it went a step further when the DOHMH confiscated the cart which Ahmed built with his own hands and disposed of it.
Ahmed was now left without a means of income, he said at a rally in Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights on Monday. But with the settlement, himself and others in his situation will now get at least $585 from the city.
#StreetVendorsMakeNYCrun
#OurPeopleArePriceless