State Labor Dept. ‘inquiry’ made over horse carriage industry

The defeat of Ryder’s Law last week was hardly the coda to the battle that continues over the city’s horse carriage industry. The day after the City Council killed the measure that would have banned the horse carriage industry, City & State was tipped off that the state Department of Labor had reached out to City Hall about requesting licensing information about the city’s horse carriage drivers and their medallion owners. 

When asked, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro confirmed that he was contacted by the state Labor Department and asked for the licensing information relating to horse carriage drivers and their medallion owners. Why? Mastro could not say specifically, but offered that it was likely out of a desire to understand the relationship between Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the drivers. “Are they independent contractors? Or are they full-time employees entitled to benefits and overtime?” he said, in a telephone interview with City & State on Sunday. Mastro said the state in its request was curious of the same. 

City & State confirmed an “inquiry” was made by the state Labor Department, but the agency declined to comment. “Randy maestro(sic) himself definitely reached out to the dol,” said John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union of America, the larger and more powerful arm of TWU Local 100, in a text to City & State. Samuelsen said he got his information from “sources inside NYS government.” 

Samuelsen noted Mastro’s final days serving in office under the outgoing Adams administration. “Randy has very little time left in office and is watching what he viewed as a sure victory slip away,” referring to the defeat of Ryder’s Law, New York City Council Member Bob Holden’s measure that would have implemented a ban on the industry, which was named after a horse that died while on the job pulling its carriage. Samuelsen claims that the measure was being put forward for more political reasons than humane reasons, and accused Mastro of now going after the union. “He is doing everything he can now to handcuff the TWU as we near the end of year.” NYCLASS, the animal rights organization which had championed Ryder’s Law, also did not lay claim to the inquiry. “I don't know who launched the inquiry, no,” said Edita Birnkrant, executive director of the nonprofit, in an email to City & State. “I do know that the question of their labor practices has been ongoing for many years now, from even before NYCLASS was involved in this issue.” On the issue of transparency, the union reports there are about 170 licensed carriage drivers and owners combined operating out of three privately-owned stables on the West Side of Manhattan in a video on its website, which portrays the industry as fun and engaged, especially with young people. 

Birnkrant vowed support for the return of Ryder’s Law. “Absolutely it is not over! We are not going anywhere, and we will not stop working on this issue until every horse is out of harm's way, out of the concrete jungle of New York City and running free on grass and pasture as nature intended,” she told City & State. “And we've already helped rescue former carriage horses who are doing exactly that – living their best lives and running free on grass at rescue farms and sanctuaries.”