20,000 unionists march for jobs

WW photo: John Catalinotto

The New York City Central Labor Council coordinated a Dec. 1 march for “Jobs and Economic Fairness” from Herald Square to Union Square in midtown Manhattan that drew 20,000 workers, according to the organizers. (www.nycclc.org) Unions in both the public and private sector participated, including many teachers and iron workers, with strong delegations from the United Federation of Teachers, the Professional Staff Congress, the New York State Nurses Association and many other unions.

As one observer noted, “The turnout was looking pretty good, the crowd was getting pumped up, and then SEIU 32 BJ showed up!” This dynamic union of the porters, maintenance and other building workers are opening contract talks for 60,000 union members in the metropolitan New York region and had just come off a huge strike authorization vote. The union plans another rally on Dec. 14 to support a fair contract, with the place to be named later. (www.seiu32bj.org).

Some of the workers on the march were wearing buttons reading, “I am the 99 percent.” A contingent from the group “Occupy 4 Jobs” carried two banners in the march.

After the demonstrators reached Union Square, the Occupy Wall Street Labor Outreach Committee led two groups downtown to Zuccotti Park. As described by participant Sam Talbot: “The two marches converged on Houston and Broadway, and marched along both sides of the street, with a police escort sandwiched in between. With a corp of drummers banging away at the head of the march, we continued to draw more and more people into the procession.”

“When we got to the park,” Talbot continued, “the police refused to let us enter as a group. After a standoff, they agreed to let everyone except the drummers into the park, so they stood at the perimeter and banged away!”

Hundreds of copies of Workers World newspaper reached the workers on the march.

—Report and photo by John Catalinotto