[BREAKING] LI county workers demand paid Juneteenth holiday: ‘Should not be controversial’

Hundreds of Long Island County workers were furious Friday that they had not granted Juneteenth the paid holiday, while much of the rest of the state had.

Last week, crowds flooded outside Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman's office along with Democratic members of the state legislature to demand that the local government employer join the 60% of other New York counties that recognize Juneteenth and give their workers the day off.

June 16 is a federal and state holiday, guaranteeing federal and state workers the day off with pay, and municipal and private businesses do the same as they see fit.

Suffolk County, Long Island, gave its workers the paid day off, as did New York City.

“It's disappointing that it's 2026 and we're still here fighting for recognition of Juneteenth,” Kris Kalender, president of the Nassau County Civil Service Employees Association, said of the holiday, which honors June 19, 1865, the official end of slavery in the United States.

"But here we are today.

We're still asking and waiting." But workers in Nassau and 18 other counties in the state had to report to work.

"Recognition of Juneteenth and what it represents should not be controversial," Kalender said.

Blakeman called the union and Democrats' demonstration and their framing of the issue "false." He stated that his reasons for not giving county workers a paid day off for the commemoration were not due to culture war issues but rather finances.

He said he would be willing to give county workers the day off, but only if the union changes another holiday in its place.

"It has nothing to do with Juneteenth; I have to be careful with taxpayer money," Blakeman said: "I told [the CSEA], 'I'll give you Juneteenth, you'll give me another holiday,' that's the fiscally prudent thing to do," he said.

Blakeman, who is also the Republican candidate in this year's gubernatorial race against Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul, criticized the union for recently renewing its collective bargaining agreement with the county and never bringing up the Juneteenth issue in its negotiations.

retorted that Blakeman is a “hypocrite” for presenting himself as pro-union during the Long Island Rail Road strike while now refusing to stand with workers in his own backyard.

Democrats also rejected Blakeman's give-and-take offer, pointing out that neighboring Suffolk added the holiday without removing one and that Nassau's own analysis of numbers showed it would cost the county about $1 million over five years to add the paid day off without a trade.

“a drop in the bucket”, compared to the rest of the municipality's budget.

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