CITY HALL — On Thursday, Council Member Francisco Moya, Assemblymembers Marcos Crespo and Carmen de la Rosa, Building Trades Council President Gary LaBarbera and labor leaders, rallied on the steps of City Hall to demand justice for hard hats and the immediate passage of Carlos’ Law.

“They tell us this city was built on the blood, sweat and tears of working-class New Yorkers, immigrants and laborers,” Council Member Francisco Moya said. “It’s time to retire that trope and stop with the bravado. We cannot continue romanticizing the cruel sacrifices that construction workers are asked or forced to make. Our skyline should not be built with the blood of workers or symbolize the tears of their families. State lawmakers must immediately pass Carlos’ Law to protect the workers who put their lives at risk on a daily basis in the name of progress. We owe the dead a better future — the future that they deserved. The spate of deaths last week requires no less.”

Then-Assemblyman Moya wrote Carlos’ law after 22-year-old Carlos Moncayo was buried alive on a construction site in 2015. The construction company responsible for the tragedy was later convicted of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide but only had to pay a fine of $10,000. Carlos’ Law would create class D and E felonies for developers whose negligence causes the death of a worker and increase fines up to $500,000.

Currently, contractors found criminally liable for the death of a worker face a maximum penalty of just $10,000.

The recent deaths of Nelson Salinas, Erik Mendoza and Gregory Echevarria in the span of one week highlighted the need to finally pass this bill.

Assemblyman Marcos Crespo is now carrying the Carlos’ Law (A.4508) in Albany.

“Too many lives have been lost due to inadequate protections and lack of real penalties for employers who subject workers to dangerous conditions,” said Assemblyman Marcos A. Crespo. “Furthermore, it cannot be a coincidence that Latino and immigrant workers perish at higher rates than others. Every life lost is an unnecessary tragedy that destroys entire families and communities. The New York State Assembly will once again pass Carlos’s Law and we are thrilled that we now have partners in the Senate that will do the same. The State of New York must hold unscrupulous employers accountable and ensure that safety is paramount at every working site.”

“We must ensure that the developers who want to turn our communities into construction sites understand that the lives of workers are more valuable than their profits,” said Assemblywoman Carmen de la Rosa, who is co-sponsoring the bill. “I am proud to stand with my colleagues Council Member Moya and Assemblyman Crespo to defend laborers, immigrants and working-class New Yorkers.”

“My Office will continue to aggressively prosecute employers who recklessly expose workers to injury and death, but we need the right tools to ensure that the penalty for dangerous practices is significant enough to deter them,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “A modest fine for a preventable construction accident can be seen as the price of doing business, which is why I support the goal of changing that calculus by strengthening our laws. I stand ready to work with legislators to make this bill as effective as possible.”

“The recent string of fatalities on non-union construction sites across New York City is intolerable and has demonstrated an urgent need for elected officials to take action,” said Gary LaBarbera, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. “Too many lives have been lost and too many families have been broken, which is why I am calling on the state legislature to take immediate action to pass Carlos’ Law, so that we can protect the lives of our fellow brothers and sisters in the construction industry and bring more accountability to worksites in New York.”

“New York needs to proactively protect construction workers, particularly immigrant workers, who are most likely to be injured or killed,” said Charlie Uruchima, Program Coordinator for NYCOSH. “Carlos’ Law, named in memory of construction worker Carlos Moncayo who lost his life due to the willful negligence of a contractor, ensures that these bad actors face real penalties when they exploit workers and risk their health and safety.”

The New York State Assembly has passed this bill twice before, only for it to languish under a Republican-controlled Senate. Such a partisan barrier no longer exists.

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