May Day Rallies Demand Equity and Rights for All Essential Workers

In Connecticut, as around the country and world, the celebration of May Day, International Workers Day, has taken on new meaning in this pandemic year with scores of marches, protests and strikes on behalf of the safety, wages and benefits of all essential workers. The lives lost in the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, the crisis of systemic racism and the climate crisis are all being fought out on the streets and in the legislature.

On Sunday at 4 pm, after the rallies and marches on May 1, the Connecticut People's World will host a virtual rally, May Day 2021: Workers of the World Unite for an Equitable Recovery for All featuring a slide show and panel of worker and immigrant leaders. Register in advance to receive the zoom link in your e-mail.

And on Wednesday May 5 at 5 pm the unions at Yale and New Haven Rising will cap off the May Day week with a giant rally and car caravan at Grove and Prospect Streets demanding that Yale settle good contracts in the current negotiations with 5,000 workers, make a substantial contribution to the City of New Haven, and hire workers from Black and Latino neighborhoods in the city.

The University endowment has increased to $31 billion during the pandemic, as working people and the city have struggled. On May 1 the unions will hold a day long street painting event at Grove and Prospect with the words “Yale Respect New Haven.”

A major state-wide action will take place at the Governor's Mansion on Saturday, May 1 at noon, organized by the Recovery for All coalition. This is a time for bold, transformative change say the many union, community and faith groups that make up Recovery for All. It is a time to expand health care, housing, education and aid to cities, they say, which can be funded by increasing taxes on the very wealthy who now pay a much lower combined tax rate than everyone else.

The courage and sacrifice of essential workers is at the heart of a series of protests leading up to the rally at the Governor's Mansion.

The May Day rally will call on Governor Lamont to pass a budget that repairs Connecticut's broken tax structure, makes dramatic investments in communities, and lays the foundation for rebuilding a better and more equitable Connecticut. While working class residents face insecurity and crisis, eleven Connecticut billionaires saw their wealth increase by $8 billion during the pandemic, yet continue to pay a much lower rate in combined taxes than everyone else.

The rally will also stand in solidarity with healthcare workers who may be forced out on strike for living wages and PPE at 50 nursing homes.

Rallies leading up to May Day were also held at the Department of Labor, health care facilities and schools around the state. On May 17 the actions will culminate in a state-wide protest at the State Capitol.

On April 30, students, staff, and faculty from the state's colleges and universities are marching from to the state capitol to demand greater investment, equity, and access in public higher education. They are calling for a system of higher education that offers students of all ages and backgrounds the possibility to obtain quality education without being saddled with crushing student debt.

Since 2006, immigrant workers and the entire labor movement have joined together to place their demands. On Saturday May 1 at 10 am prior to going to the Governor's Mansion, Make the Road and Connecticut Students for a Dream will gather at the ICE office on Main Street in Hartford to demand a road map to citizenship for immigrant essential workers, to stop deportations and include the undocumented in COVID relief.

“Our black and brown communities are the ones who suffer most when our schools are under-funded, when access to healthcare is unaffordable, and when our streets, schools, and communities are over policed,” they emphasize.

Later on May 1 in New Haven, a march led by Unidad Latina en Accion will demand a path to citizenship, amnesty and full equal rights for essential immigrant workers. At 3:00 pm on the New Haven Green immigrants, public officials, and community leaders will give testimonies before the march which will conclude with live salsa music on the Green.

“Undocumented immigrants are disproportionately represented in the 'essential' industries that have suffered the highest rates of COVID mortality. These deaths are not accidental, but produced by anti-worker and anti-immigrant policies that have been deliberately advanced to ensure that immigrant labor is super-exploitable and to exclude immigrants from health protections and stimulus payments,” they said in a release.

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The week before, a march from the Fair Haven neighborhood to New Haven city hall demanded that the Husky healthcare program be extended to include immigrants regardless of status. The Husky for Immigrants action brought state-wide support. State Rep. Anne Hughes told the crowd that even though there are some in the legislature who want to limit expansion of HUSKY to children, “there is no reason you should have to beg, health care is a human right.”

Many marches and rallies were held on Earth Day, leading up to May Day. An Earth/Peace Day gathering organized by the City of New Haven Peace Commission was held at the Amistad Statue outside City Hall to celebrate the Green New Deal and New Haven's 82% vote to reallocate funds from the military budget to cities, jobs and a sustainable economy, calling on Congress to respond.

MAY DAY WEEKEND PLUS

HARTFORD

Sat May 1 at 10 am at the ICE offices, 450 Main St, Hartford. Call to action for immigrant workers rights. https://www.facebook.com/events/1264340503982984

Sat May 1 at noon at the Governor’s Mansion , Hartford. Recovery for All Coalition picket and action to demand increased services and worker benefits with revenue from taxing the wealthiest their fair share..

NEW HAVEN

Sat May 1 from 9 am to 5 pm at Prospect and Grove St New Haven. Paint Yale: Respect New Haven on the street. At 1 pm delivery of petitions to President Salovey's house. pick up a paintbrush as we paint 'Yale: Respect New Haven' on Prospect Street

Sat May 1 at 3 pm on the New Haven Green. Unidad Latina en Accion tabling and speeches followed by a march at 4 pm through downtown New Haven and then salsa and dancing on the Green .https://www.facebook.com/events/5364143433660641

Sat May 2 at 4 pm virtual. CT People's World May Day rally: May Day 2021: Register now. Workers of the World Unite for an Equitable Recovery for All  Panel, Slide Show. Music. Actions.

Wed May 5 at 5 pm at Prospect and Grove Sts, New Haven. Yale unions and allies demand respect for the union and the New Haven community. Social distancing, masks, and all other necessary safety precautions will be followed. When we fight together, we win. Yale Respect New Haven Car Caravan 

We Need A Fully Funded Department of Labor and We Need It Now!!

by Jahmal Henderson

Last Saturday afternoon the Recovery for all Coalition with AFSCME workers,  Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA), the Western Connecticut Labor Federation and others gathered at the Hamden Department of Labor (DOL) offices. The rally demanded a fully funded DOL that can support the struggling workers facing wage theft and the need for unemployment compensation due to massive job losses during COVID-19.

A better investment in the DOL will ensure our state and its workers a better standard of living. Equal rights for domestic workers, a fair tax system for the working class and healthcare for all were addressed during the rally through powerful stories told by immigrant, low-wage female workers.

Nora Garcia stressed the importance of domestic/essential worker and the key role they play in everyday life. "We are important workers who are just as important as doctors and legislators, we care for the professionals gardens, houses, children, elders and we have rights. We do the work that makes all other work possible," she said.

Wanda Eza, member/leader of ULA for 15 years, spoke about how she and her husband are both essential workers who clean the hospital. They were exposed to COVID-19 and both got sick. They were excluded from obtaining unemployment benefits, Husky medical insurance and stimulus checks because they are migrant workers even though they pay taxes and work two jobs because their wages aren't enough. Undocumented Immigrants in Connecticut pay four million dollars in taxes a year. They are essential frontline workers but have no rights.

Eza also mentioned the fight at the state legislature this year to pass HB 6537 to expand paid sick days to all workers,  as the crowd chanted "The people united will never be defeated!!" holding signs that said "Poor People Demand Justice" and "Economic Relief for all Undocumented Workers."

The Hamden American Job Center parking lot was filled with labor leaders in solidarity from AFSCME Local 269 whose members work at the DOL. Vice president Ed Hawthorne demanded dignity and respect for low wage undocumented workers who are owed money for the work they preformed.

AFSCME 269 secretary Steven Worveicki, a 27 year employee with the DOL in Waterbury, said before 2015 there were two call centers that employed about 80 people to answer phones and file unemployment claims offering excellent service to the public. Soon after 2015, 120 employees were laid off and five phone centers were closed permanently due to budget cuts. Now during the pandemic things have gotten even worse at the DOL, making it difficult for the workers to serve the people and their needs.

Rev. Gini King spoke about increasing funding for DOL to support immigrant workers, fair wages and lower taxes for working families.

A disabled immigrant worker spoke about how a drunk driver ran him over leaving him without a leg. He is now disabled and needs medical care the rest of his life. He has no health insurance and zero support from the state, Over 200,000 people in Connecticut are without health insurance.

"Healthcare should be affordable for all, it shouldn't be about how much money you have or your immigration status," he said.

When he and his friends tried to organize a union at the factory where he worked in Branford the boss threatened them by calling immigration. He believes in a higher moral law that will grant rights to the workers as long as they keep fighting for justice.

Recovery for all leader Puya Gerami ended the rally by telling the crowd how Connecticut is the richest state in the richest country but the most unequal and segregated with 30% of Black and/Latino children living below the poverty line and with immigrant workers denied benefits even though they pay taxes.

The Recovery for All coalition is organizing messages to the State Legislature in support of HB 6187 and SB 821 that will raise $3 billion in taxes from billionaires who pay a much lower tax rate than everyone else. The added revenue could fully fund the Department of Labor and other vital services for the community, as well as provide living wages and benefits to state workers including home care and other low wage workers.

                                        

MAY DAY WEEKEND

Sat May 1 at noon at the Governor's Mansion, Hartford. Recovery for All Coalition picket and action to demand increased services and worker benefits with revenue from taxing the wealthiest their fair share..

Sat May 1 9 am to 5 pm at Prospect and Grove St New Haven. Paint Yale: Respect New Haven on the street.

Sat May 1 noon to 4 pm on the New Haven Green. Unidad Latina en Accion tabling and speeches

Sat May 1 at 4 pm from the New Haven Green. Unidad Latina en Accion May Day March through downtown New Haven

Sat May 2 at 4 pm virtual. Register Now CT People's World May Day rally: May Day 2021: Workers of the Workd United for an Equitable Recovery for All. Panel, Slide Show. Music. Actions.

Wed May 5 at 5 pm at Prospect and Grove Sts, New Haven. Yale unions and allies demand respect for the union and the New Haven community. Social distancing, masks, and all other necessary safety precautions will be followed. When we fight together, we win.

Workers at McDonald's on I-95 Win Wage Settlement

This month, two former McDonald’s co-workers received settlement checks that vindicated their faith in fighting for better working conditions at the concessions in the Connecticut interstate service plaza system.

The negotiated agreement brings to a close a case at the National Labor Relations Board, in which the company running a McDonald’s in the Milford I-95 northbound plaza was charged by 32BJ SEIU with numerous violations of the National Labor Relations Act, including cutting the work hours of Azucena Santiago and Yadira Martinez in retaliation for supporting the union. In media interviews, protests, and legislative hearings, both women decried the low wages, lack of benefits, and managerial mistreatment at the McDonald’s operated by Goldenhawk LLC, a company owned by Connecticut fast food magnate Roger Facey.

For years, workers at many service plaza McDonald’s and other concessions have labored at or near the minimum wage, despite the Standard Wage Law guaranteeing better pay and benefits at businesses operating under a state contract. Many workers also reported losing their wages whenever they had to stay home sick, having never been told about the state’s paid sick leave law. The combination of low wages and a de facto lack of sick days often forced workers to come to work while feeling ill, a threat to everyone’s health that has turned potentially lethal during the pandemic.

Azucena Santiago summarized the situation in testimony before a General Assembly committee last year. “Many of us at the service plazas are parents with young children. None of us can depend on a regular schedule. We don’t have personal days. Our employers have never given us the right to take sick days. Some of us come to work when we have illnesses that can affect everyone. The pressure never stops.”

Even now, the mother of two preschoolers admits to having mixed feelings about the settlement. “In all honesty, I feel a little sad because I wish we didn’t have to undergo the stress of fighting for our basic rights – I wish that the bosses would just treat everyone right – and I know we have a long way to go. But at the same time, I also feel really glad, because the court vindicated our rights. Yadira and I lost our hours, but we won our demonstration.”

For a full year, Santiago scraped by with only one or two shifts a week, determined not to leave the job in order to win her rights. After the settlement, her schedule increased to about 35 hours a week. Yadira Martinez is now taking time off to tend to her newborn baby.

In addition to the financial payment, Roger Facey’s Goldenhawk also agreed to post a notice affirming the worker’s protected rights to “form, join or assist a union.”

“WE WILL NOT ask you about your support for the Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ (the Union) or any other labor organization,” reads the posted notice, in part.

“Workers like us have to all keep fighting, however we can,” Yadira Martinez said. “We have to raise our voices, and never surrender our rights.”

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UPCOMING RALLIES

An Earth / Peace Day chalking event at the Amistad Statue in front of New Haven City Hall won Thursday April 22 at 4 pm will celebrate Earth Day, the Green New Deal, and the New Haven vote of 82% to transfer funds from the military budget to human needs, jobs and a sustainable economy. The ballot referendum read: ”Shall Congress prepare for health and climate crises by transferring funds from military budget to cities for human needs, jobs and an environmentally sustainable economy?” The family event has been coordinated by the City of New Haven Peace Commission, the New Haven Climate Movement, the Greater New Haven Peace Council and the Connecticut Climate Crisis Movement. A petition to the Connecticut Congressional Delegation can be signed here: <https://nhpeacecouncil.org/sign-petition-decrease-military-spending-save-jobs-fund-needs/>

The Recovery for All Coalition has a continuing series of protests and demonstrations underway across the state demanding of Governor Lamont that health care, labor department and other state workers be paid living wages and that the services they deliver be fully funded. House Bill 6187 and Senate Bill 821 would raise $3 million by requiring billionaires to pay the same rate in taxes as everyone else. Send a message in support here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/recovery-for-all-bill

The Husky for Immigrants Coalition will rally on Friday, April 23 at Ferry and Grand Streets in New Haven followed by a march to New Haven City Hall in support of SB956, a bill that will expand access to HUSKY medicaid for all Connecticut residents regardless of their immigrant status and will also raise the federal poverty level for eligible applicants, bringing broader access to affordable healthcare for working class families all across Connecticut. More information: Facebook event

State Healthcare Workers March and Sit-in for a Moral Budget to Expand Services

Taking to the streets during a week of actions on the 53^rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. SEIU Local 1199 healthcare workers were joined by community and faith leaders and elected officials in their cry for a moral budget that expands services and pays living wages to long term caregivers.

On Thursday, 20 workers sat in at the Department of Public Health in Hartford for a civil disobedience action following a picket by caregivers, community partners and members of the General Assembly. The rally demanded that the State of Connecticut start to facilitate the Long-Term Care Workers Bill of Rights to ensure safe staffing, quality jobs and quality patient care in home care, group home and nursing home services.

Two days earlier, over 200 people took part in a “March for a Moral Budget” from the State Capitol through Hartford demanding the expansion of state services to meet the growing need of residents and communities across Connecticut.

Currently in contract negotiations with the State, the healthcare workers joined together with service recipients, elected officials, and community allies to call on Governor Lamont to fulfill his commitment to racial equity by expanding the essential services that have saved lives during the pandemic despite chronic under funding. The union represents 7,000 state healthcare workers.

The march called for greater racial equity through major investment in critical state mental health and health care services. Decades of service cuts have led to immense suffering and skyrocketing waiting lists, disproportionately harming communities of color. Workers and community allies demanded that Connecticut’s elected officials not only protect, but dramatically expand, these services to save the lives of the most vulnerable residents and reduce systemic disparities in health care.

“Here we are today, five decades after Dr. King’s assassination still determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world. We’re still struggling to eradicate systemic racism, still fighting for dignity and human rights, still fighting for basic things like ensuring that a wealthy state like Connecticut gets to appropriate sufficient funding to be able to provide quality services,” said Rev. Joan Cooper Burnett, associate chaplain with the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) at York Correctional Institution.

Chronic under funding is leaving behind Connecticut’s most vulnerable populations. At the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, general funds have been reduced in the past decade resulting in a smaller number of staff positions while the need for services continues to grow.

Similar downward trends in public investment have taken place at the Department of Developmental Services. At the DOC some 170 additional staff are currently needed to provide health care in Connecticut’s prison system.

“Here we are today hoping for our State of Connecticut, one of the wealthiest states in one of the wealthiest countries in the world to close the gap, to demolish economic disparities and to reverse long-standing racial inequalities. We hope that our state will protect struggling citizens and the vulnerable populations who need public services to survive. We cannot wait any longer. Our families cannot wait another 50 years. We need redemption. We need it now!” said Burnett.

The members of 1199 and community partners have raised specific funding concerns and solutions so Connecticut can provide these critical services where they are needed the most. Some of the proposals are eligible for 85 percent match funds from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan. Additional state funding will be required to rebuild services for the long-run.

“Under the threat that ‘our state is bankrupt’ public investment in critical services have been flattened or reduced for the past decade,” said Rob Baril, president of District 1199 New England, SEIU, and one of the leaders of the Recovery for All coalition. “The result is a systemic erosion of services that no longer meet the needs of working families and poor communities. The result is more poverty and less resources to achieve equity in Black, Brown, white and AAPI communities in need.

“We are here to say that Connecticut is not bankrupt,” said Baril. “We are here to demand that this state gets its act together and starts funding these services with the urgency they require. We are here to show that we will not let our state services keep sliding down the path of divestment from the state’s duty to serve the people of Connecticut.”

“Now is the time to boost vital services and protect those who are most vulnerable in our communities,” said State Senator Rick Lopes of New Britain. “The people of Connecticut do not want to go back to ‘normal’. When we cut services down to the bone we all suffer. We want to live in a state that makes wise investments in health care and mental health. We want to live in a state that makes a real investment in Black, Brown and poor communities to break away from the legacy of extreme economic disparities that still haunt us,” concluded Lopes.

“The past year has taught us that there are many weaknesses in our safety net,” added State Senator Jorge Cabrera of Hamden. “We can find the resources in Connecticut to build back our public services. We can afford to care for each other in Connecticut. And a good place to start is by expanding critical mental health and addiction supports, services for people with disabilities, and services for rehabilitation and community reentry. That’s what equity is all about. That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was all about.” 

 

OPINION: Enact CT Climate and Jobs Bill for a Just Transition

There is finally a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. But still looming behind it is a crisis that will dwarf the coronavirus pandemic in its threat level, duration, cost, and the necessity for dramatic change: the climate crisis.

Big challenges require commensurate responses. Connecticut is meeting the challenge with climate policy to reduce greenhouse gases and transition from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy. As part of our climate policy, it is also critical that Connecticut ensure a technically advanced, sustainable labor force, and provide good jobs for workers and communities in clean and renewable energy development.

This legislative session, elected representatives are considering a bill to address this issue. Passing SB 999, An Act Concerning a Just Transition to Climate-Protective Energy Production and Community Investment, gets to the heart of what will be needed as climate shifts continue to displace millions of people from their homes and disrupt society.

The bill has three major components: community benefits, prevailing wage, and labor agreements for large-scale projects.

Community benefits would require utility-scale renewable energy projects that receive state assistance to craft a “community benefits agreement” ensuring localities hosting renewable projects are benefiting from the opportunities these projects can produce, such as local jobs. Additionally, projects of a certain magnitude will need to pay a prevailing wage and use Connecticut workers through the use of a Project Labor Agreement (PLA).

In the 1930s, manufacturing became the dominant driver of the U.S. economy and a major generator of employment. But those jobs were dangerous, exhausting, and low-paid. It was only after industries unionized that these jobs became the primary path to middle-class membership.

Now, as the economy shifts and clean technology jobs increase, we have an opportunity to make energy jobs the new path to economic prosperity instead of settling at poverty wages as many retail jobs have.

Large-scale renewables requiring PLAs stipulate that the project must be built by union-represented workers. In turn, this would offer apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and other training needed to give under-represented workers, like people of color and women, a shot at clean technology construction careers.

This is particularly important so workers displaced from fossil fuel-related jobs into renewables will experience the least amount of disruption and the most support possible —a process known as “just transition.” A just transition can also include diversifying workforces to address past racial inequities and require renewable energy jobs to have family-sustaining wages. If we establish renewable energy “green” jobs as desirable and stable, then we have a chance of getting through this crisis in good economic health.

A PLA also keeps projects on schedule while only marginally reducing wealthy developers’ profits. Simply put, supporting this bill will be a pivotal moment for our state, and our nation, which will set the bar for years to come.

This approach is a winning equation that creates good jobs for Connecticut while we move into a clean energy future instead of allowing renewable energy jobs to become the new Walmart. That would be bad for the economy. It would mean that workers previously employed in carbon-intensive sectors slide downward, losing income and future prospects in the process. Likewise, if these jobs do not expand to include more diversity, then they continue to limit opportunities.

The outcome is resistance to climate change mitigation policies, slower adoption of and transition to renewables, and ultimately, the real possibility that we fail to make the necessary changes to avoid disastrous consequences.

To ensure green jobs are good jobs, we urge the legislature to pass SB 999, An Act Concerning a Just Transition to Climate-Protective Energy Production and Community Investment.

John Harrity is Board President of the  Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs. Samantha Dynowski is State Director of the Sierra Club Connecticut.