Good morning, Chair Epstein and members of the committee and thank you for holding this hearing today. I am representing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who is working alongside advocates and labor partners to call for regulation of last-mile facilities.
As a co-sponsor of both the Indirect Source Rule and the Last-Mile Zoning Text Amendment, the Borough President’s advocacy has previously focused on the significant environmental and quality-of-life impacts these facilities have on the borough’s environmental justice communities. Diesel-powered delivery trucks emit higher levels of toxic pollutants than gasoline-powered trucks, and recent studies have shown that these facilities are bringing hundreds of trucks per hour to communities such as Red Hook, home to the largest public housing development in Brooklyn. A report from the Comptroller late last year also found that traffic crashes and injuries, especially truck-related, have increased dramatically near new last-mile warehouses. What’s more, these facilities take up sought-after space in our city’s shrinking manufacturing zones, pushing out the industrial businesses on which our city relies.
But this fight has never been just about the environment, safe streets, or even space. Regulating last-mile facilities is also about the workers. The Comptroller’s Employer Violations Dashboard identifies Amazon as the company with the highest number of open Unfair Labor Practice violations in New York City. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York is investigating workplace safety issues at Amazon’s warehouses. And surely you will hear countless stories today of worker mistreatment in the last-mile industry. Intro 518 aims to address such issues by creating a licensing structure that gives the City oversight on safety, training, and employment practices to protect workers.
This is not the first time that a coalition of advocates and labor has taken on a dangerous industry to improve both environmental and working conditions. Many of the same organizations and unions in this room took on the corrupt and exploitative commercial waste industry and created an oversight regime called commercial waste zones in 2019. While the program is still being implemented, the initial rollout has led to improved conditions for private sanitation workers, more agency enforcement against unsafe driving practices, and a reduction in vehicle miles traveled in the implemented zones. Importantly, the sky hasn’t fallen. It is possible to regulate anindustry, protect workers, and protect the environment, while allowing the industry to continue serving its customers.
Thank you again for holding this hearing today. Borough President Reynoso thanks the administration for its support of this important legislation, as well as for the Indirect Source Rule and the Last-Mile Zoning Text Amendment, and will continue to partner on implementing these important policies.
