Workers nationwide decry racial inequality
Fast-food, delivery, medical staffers rally
NEW YORK — Hundreds of workers rallied Monday outside the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan and in cities across the U.S. to protest systemic racism and economic inequality, joining a nationwide demonstration demanding improvement of Black Americans’ experiences in the workplace.
Organizers hoped the effort would grow into a strike inspiring tens of thousands of people to walk off the job. But visible support came largely in the form of smaller protests that drew people whose jobs in health care, transportation and food service do not allow them to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
The “Strike for Black Lives” protest was organized by labor unions and social and racial justice organizations, which planned a range of actions in more than two dozen U.S. cities. Where work stoppages were not possible for a full day, participants picketed during a lunch break or observed moments of silence to honor Black lives lost to police violence, organizers said.
About 1,500 janitors in San Francisco walked off their jobs and planned to lead a march to City Hall later in the day, according to Fight for $15, a labor group that supports raising the U.S. minimum wage to $15 an hour. Mcdonald’s cooks and cashiers in Los Angeles and nursing home workers in St. Paul were also striking, the group said.
Participants in local rallies included delivery men and women, and ride-hailing and airport workers.
Glen Brown, a 48-year-old wheelchair agent at Minneapolis-st. Paul International Airport for nearly five years, said his job does not give him the option of social distancing. Brown and fellow workers called for a $15 minimum wage during an event in St. Paul, and he said workers were “seizing our moment” to seek change.
“We are front-line workers, (and) we are risking our lives, but we’re doing it at a wage that doesn’t even match the risk,” Brown said.
In Manhattan, more than 150 union workers rallied outside Trump International Hotel to demand that the Senate and President Donald Trump adopt the HEROES Act, which provides protective equipment, essential pay and extended unemployment benefits to workers who cannot work from home. It has been passed by the House.
“Today, we’re here to demand from those in power, including the man whose name adorns the building, that it’s time to dismantle white supremacy and combat police brutality,” said Kyle Bragg, president of 32BJ, a union representing more than 170,000 office janitors, security workers and doormen on the East Coast.
“Until we have racial justice, we cannot have economic, climate or immigrant justice,” Bragg said.
The passing of John Lewis, the Georgia congressman and Black civil rights icon, loomed large over the Manhattan rally. Lewis, who died of pancreatic cancer Friday at age 80, would have supported the issues that strikers are rallying for, said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who led participants in a moment of silence.
“One of the things John would have stood for is fair compensation for essential workers,” said Schumer. “Martin Luther King died fighting for sanitation workers in that platform in Tennessee. John was doing the same, and we are carrying on their legacies.”
Participants broadly demanded action by corporations and government to confront racism and inequality that limits mobility and career advancement for many Black and Hispanic workers, who make up a disproportionate number of those earning less than a living wage.