Gennaro questions TWU on strategy for alternative reform bill

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yeah, I was really going to speak to Mr.

Kemp and Mr.

Donahue, but the last witness, I don't know your name yet, very, very compelling.

testimony, I wish to be associated with your good remarks, and I thank you for being a dedicated horsewoman who has found her niche in life and wants nothing more than to chart her own future

in this great industry.

Now I'm going to take it down.

You know, we've got to get in the weeds here with, you know, Mr.

Kemp and Mr.

Donahue.

As we saw,

And the Times, you know, yesterday, like the day before the hearing, the day before the hearing, speaker comes out and says,

I know what we're going to do.

We're going to do this with the workers.

We're going to do this with the horses.

We're going to do this with the stables.

I got it all figured out.

Like, this is done.

And so what this hearing is, unfortunately, is, I mean, is a pageant.

Right?

So the speaker's already decided, like, unilaterally, like, that this is happening.

And I'll, you know, and he's got the real estate money, all this other stuff, and I don't know what's going on.

I just don't like the policy, and I don't like, you know, like the way all this is playing out.

And so if this is a power game now, you know, this has to be up to...

You know, TWU, to use all of its muscle, to reach out to immigrant rights organizations.

I don't see them here.

You know, it must be that the carriage drivers are not

you know, are not their kinds of immigrants.

And that is a real shame.

Jim, do you have a question?

Yeah, and so I just want to ask TWU what mechanisms you're going to bring to bear to call for at least a

hearing on my bill so that we can have an alternative to shutting the whole thing down.

And because everything that's been discussed today as it turns to what's needed to make it better, I've already done in 2010.

This would be, you know, 2.0 of the reforms.

And it has a lot to do with hitching posts.

They can spend all kinds of money.

What can TWU bring to bear in terms of your own resources and your connections to the immigrant rights groups, to both Mr.

Kemp and Mr.

Donahue?

So I'll go first.

I think the best weapon to bring to this fight is the truth.

I think the facts.

Are overwhelming that this industry has not represented one that should be removed.

I think when we talk about the components that are established when they say that you cannot predict what a horse is going to do if it's spooked.

Well, a person riding the F train can't predict whether somebody's going to push them in front of a train.

A person walking down the street can't predict whether somebody's going to rob them.

A person who walks out of their house cannot guarantee they're going to leave or get back the same way they left.

If we're basing an industry on the unknown, well, then no industry would be able to survive.

I think the foundation of this argument is rooted in people being bullies who have an argument that they feel they can leverage, and that is a dead 18-year-old

that they are going to try to bully the union because in years past, the evidence and the facts.

have not been on their side and they feel like this is a golden bullet that they can shoot at the head of the union and the members of the union when all intents and purposes the industry actually does not represent what is being projected.

And I just want to say for what Curtis Sliwa has stated, if he's going to make a statement about Local 100, I think it's important for the record to establish this is a person

who said he was kidnapped and lied about it on the record.

And so his credibility is very limited as it comes when he reports on what Local 100 actually is.

Thank you.

All right, that's it.

Thank you.

I want to thank this panel.

Appreciate you coming.

I was asked a question.

Am I not allowed to answer?

Oh, you were?

I'm sorry.

Yeah, because I directed to both Camp and Donio.

I'm sorry.

I appreciate it.

I think there's an education process that's happened, and I think there are still some reasonable council members who are not going to be cowered by the threats in the social media

and see the importance of standing up for working immigrants and not just throw them under the bus with some vague language of possible job opportunities.

I think we need to get out there and get the immigrant organizations.

Who represent these groups, but also talk more about the bill that Councilman Gennaro introduced.

I mean, several people testified basically today, including the lawyer for the Romance family, that the city hasn't done anything.

And so there's a lot of room if the city has

concerns.

There's a lot of things, common sense things that can be done if the city has concerns that are short of throwing people under the bus, so to speak.

And Jim's, Councilman Gennaro's bill does that.

And we're still hoping and optimistic that New York City government isn't completely dysfunctional.

That there are council members who have some common sense and that they can realize that, you know, there is a middle ground here and that New York is the greatest city in the world.

And New York City, if it puts it, if it can throw a parade for 4 million people in three days to celebrate, God bless the Knicks, if it can have

every agency to send on a building that was possibly crumbling, that maybe it could actually pay some attention and celebrate this industry and support these drivers and do something other than just driving them into unemployment.

All right, thank you.

All right, thank you to this panel.

Thank you for your time.

I appreciate it.

All right, next panel is Brian Shapiro, Wayne Purcell, Bill Ketzer.

Mian Asumi.

Kathleen Schatzman and Dr.

Joanna Grossman.

Please keep your, I want to remind people, please keep your testimony to two minutes.

Once the bell rings, just wrap it up and then submit your testimony to us, please.

It's really important, otherwise we're going to be here until midnight and we can't do that.

We're not going to be able to accommodate everybody that wants to testify.

So who's going first?

Okay, go ahead.