Public Employee Press

MAY DAY MARCH DEMANDS FAIR PAY and IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
Demonstrators hit foreclosures and corporate greed

By JANE LaTOUR

A full day of May Day demonstrations protesting corporate greed, supporting union struggles and pressing for immigrant rights culminated in Union Square Park with a late-afternoon rally followed by a march down Broadway to Wall Street. Thousands of DC 37 and other unionists, community and student organizations, Occupy Wall Street activists and immigrant groups filled the park and spilled into surrounding side streets.

"I'm here to unite with our brothers and sisters in the 99 percent," said Senior Court Office Assistant and Local 1070 member Michelle Lumpkin, who joined the rally with co-workers. "We need to show the city they can't run it without us."

"May Day started in America," said Teamster Local 814 President Jason Ide. "It became International Workers Day around the world. Given the way workers are being treated, it's time to bring it back."

Ide and his members, Art Handlers at Sotheby's New York auction house, have been locked out of their jobs for eight months in a dispute over pay, benefits and contracting out. The struggle highlights corporate greed, as the highly profitable Sotheby's sells paintings to the super-rich for millions of dollars while it demands benefit givebacks from the union workers.

Retired 33-year veteran Local 371 Social Services Worker Michael Padwee said, "I'm here today because I'm one of the 99 percent and I know I'm being ripped off by the 1 percent."

"We can't just sit in our offices and complain. We have to do something," said Dorcas Bethel, a Social Worker at Elmhurst Hospital and Local 768 member, who was proud to participate.

Other DC 37 members expressed solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Local 768 Shop Steward Nate Franco said he came to the May Day demonstration "to build solidarity within the labor movement and with the rest of the 99 percent."

Solidarity in the streets

The pain and suffering of millions of Americans infused the rally as signs, slogans and chants called attention to foreclosures, deportation of immigrants, unemployment and stagnant wages. Nurses carried signs calling for health care for all and Transport Workers Union members demanded a decent contract for the people who move the city's buses and subways.

Many DC 37 activists joined the rally after their Lobby Day buses returned to the city because of a power blackout in Albany. Criminologist Michael McCasland, Local 375 Chapter Chair for the Forensic Scientists at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said he has collected data "to educate people about the disparity in wages between public- and private-sector workers in skilled jobs."

The themes of income inequality and the greed of the top 1 percent that launched Occupy Wall Street were well represented May 1. In 2011, banks repossessed more than 1 million homes and foreclosure activists marching to Wall Street had fun delivering their message with Sesame Street characters; Elmo, Burt and even Miss Piggy marched with signs like "My Rubber Ducky was repossessed."

"I'm glad to see so many working people and our allies here today to celebrate May Day," said Local 375 President Behrouz Fathi. "This is sending a great message to the 1 percent about the fight for better wages and conditions for working people. We are here to fight for our rights."

Local 768's beautiful banners captured the attention of onlookers and the media. "We are supporting the progressive movement and the cause of the working class," said President Fitz Reid. "This movement of students and workers is a reaction to the oppressive economic conditions imposed by the corporations and the privileged 1 percent."

"It's great to see May Day resurging in the United States, which is why I'm here," said Local 2627 member Gary Goff. "This is part of a great tradition. Somewhere, Eugene Debs is smiling."

Landmarked plaques in Union Square commemorate massive labor gatherings, such as the first Labor Day in 1886 and the 1937 May Day parade, New York's largest labor gathering, when workers marched to win the eight-hour-day. One hundred years from now, will historians look back at DC 37, today's labor fightback against the 1 percent and the Occupy Wall Street movement as the beginnings of a turnaround in working peoples' fortunes?