Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on La Mega 97.9

May 12, 2017

Janiero Matos: Mr. Bill de Blasio. Como estas? Buenas tardes. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Todo bien. Buenas tardes, amigo. 

[Laughter]

Matos: Gracias, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. 

[Matos speaks in Spanish]

Mayor: Listen, the fact is that, for decades and decades, women and people of color have gotten less pay than they deserve for the same exact work that someone else does for a higher amount of pay – it’s as simple as that. This law is simple, it says employers can’t ask someone’s salary history because that salary history comes from a history of discrimination. It levels the playing field. People should be payed what they’re worth and for what they produce, not what happened [inaudible] what happened in the past. 

[Matos speaks in Spanish]

DJ Supreme: Mr. Mayor, he asked when does this law come into effect? If someone’s listening in on the radio right now, when can they go into an interview, knowing that they’re fully protected by the law? 

Mayor: The law is going to come into effect shortly and, right now, it’s gotten so much attention. I think a lot of the employers understand this is going to be what’s required of them. So, the bottom line is, this is going to be in effect very soon, and then if someone feels that they’re not being paid fairly because they were asked their salary history, they can call 3-1-1 and report that and we’ll be able to do enforcement based on that.

[DJ Supreme speaks in Spanish]

[Janiero Matos speaks in Spanish]

DJ Supreme: Mr. Mayor, he says that New Yorker City for the past 100 years – we’ve been leading the percentage in immigrants – so, that means your office is well aware and you guys are there to protect us and help us. 

Mayor: Absolutely. We have the highest number of immigrants in this city that we’ve had in 100 years, and we are also the safest we’ve ever been and we have the strongest economy we’ve ever had. It’s because of immigrants that the city is so great right now. We will protect immigrants, the NYPD will protect immigrants, we will provide legal help to anyone who is threatened with deportation. This is a city that is proud to be a city of immigrants. 

[DJ Supreme speaks in Spanish]

Matos: Mr. Mayor, how is – how do you see the first 100 days of Donald Trump as President of the United States?

Mayor: I think it’s been a failure. I think he has not kept his promises to working people. In fact, what he’s done on healthcare would take away health insurance from over a million New Yorkers. And what I see more and more – his administration is simply there to help millionaires and billionaires and give them tax cuts, not to help regular people. 

[Matos speaks in Spanish] 

DJ Supreme: Mr. Mayor, he wants to know what message do you have to daily transit-ers of the MTA. Lately, within the last couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of delays, a lot of construction, power outages, and passengers are becoming a little bit hectic and less patient on trains. What message do you have to New Yorkers?

Mayor: My message is to remember that the subway system, the MTA is run by the State of New York, not the City of New York, but we’re going to do all we can to push the State to invest in the subway system to try and fix some of this basic infrastructure so it will run better. We’re also trying to come up with own solutions as a city. Just in the last two weeks, we started ferry service in a lot of parts of the city – the Rockaways, in Queens – but it’s going to reach Red Hook, in Brooklyn, it’s going to reach Soundview, in the Bronx, and many more neighborhoods. So, in addition to trying to get the subways addressed by the State, we’re going to create our own options in the city to give people better alternatives. 

[DJ Supreme speaks in Spanish]

[Matos speaks in Spanish]

DJ Supreme: He asked, what message do you have for undocumented immigrants in New York City? As everybody’s well aware [inaudible] leaders in immigrants in the states. So, what message do you have for people who are worried about their status here?

Mayor: So, there’s a half-million folks in New York City undocumented, another half-million who are permanent resident green-card holders. The message is, we respect our immigrants, we believe that they are contributing to this being the greatest city in the world. We will protect them. You’ll never see the police or anyone else who works for the city asking people their documentation status. We’ll provide not only that protection, but we’ll also again provide legal help, legal assistance if, God forbid, anyone is threatened with deportation. 

[Matos speaks in Spanish] 

[DJ Supreme speaks in Spanish] 

Matos: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor: Nos vemos, amigos.