5,000 march on Wall St. "Give us a raise!" AFL-CIO vows to "take from you what you've taken from us!" title

by Tim Wheeler

This article was reprinted from the June 15, 1996 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

NEW YORK - Thousands of trade unionists chanting "America needs a raise "packed Wall Street June 6 to protest declining wages and mass layoffs while corporate profits and CEO salaries skyrocket.

"We're here in Wall Street to say that it is not right, it is unfair, that executives' pay has increased 360 percent while wages decline," said Brian McLaughlin, president of the New York City Central Labor Council which organized the demonstration.

"Shrinking paychecks, disappearing jobs, " McLaughlin said, "workers working longer hours for less pay, increased discrimination against women and minorities - we 're here to stand up against the most anti-worker Congress since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. "

The crowd of about 5,000 packed the intersection of Wall Street and Nassau and filled the steps in front of Federal Hall dominated by a bronze statue of George Washington, a half-block away from the New York Stock Exchange.

The action in the heart of the nation 's financial district was one of a series of rallies and town hall meetings by the AFL-CIO to promote the demand for jobs and a living wage in this election year.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the crowd, "If families are what election years are all about, why do workers need to work three jobs just to stay even? Answer this, Wall Street: If corporate profits are up 200 percent and executive compensation is up 400 percent, why are working family incomes down 12 percent?"

"Wall Street and Corporate America have put profits before people. Too many politicians in Washington have been pandering to the rich at the expense of working families," Sweeney said.

Sweeney recited a list of challenges to big business: "Start exporting goods and stop exporting jobs," he declared. "Stop stalling around on the minimum wage. Corporate America, when do we get our raise?"

Sweeney had a warning for the expensively dressed executives and stockbrokers who filled the financial district during the noontime rally. If the banks and corporations continue to stiff-arm working people, he said, the workers will "rise up and take from you what you have taken from us."

That line drew a roar that echoed from the surrounding skyscrapers. "Union, yes!" the workers chanted.

It was a cross-section of New York 's multiracial, multinational working class, African American, Latino, Asian American and white. There were hundreds of members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and hundreds of workers marched behind the banner of UNITE, the garment workers union that is spearheading the drive to organize New York City sweatshops.

One of those sweatshop workers, Bertha Morales, told the crowd about UNITE's drive, drawing sympathetic booing from the crowd upon the mention of talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford. Gifford became the object of national scorn when the union revealed that a line of clothing bearing her name was made in sweatshops.

There were big contingents from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Teamsters and Transit Workers unions, as well as building trades unions. Striking clerical workers from Barnard College, members of United Auto Workers Local 2110, were also present.

Perhaps the biggest single contingent was the members of Hospital and Health Care Employees Local 1199 confronting Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's drive to bankrupt, close down or privatize dozens of New York hospitals. Jim Crampton, a Local 1199 area director for Westchester County, told the World, "They are trying to privatize health care and cut back on care for poorer communities as fast as they can. At the same time, some of the biggest profit-makers are health care corporations. It 's the same thing on Wall Street: the money is going to the top and damn the people."

What is the solution? Crampton said, "In the first place, make sure that the first priority is health care for everyone, rather than something secondary after profits. This has to be an issue in the 1996 elections. If public officials don 't concentrate on this health care crisis, a whole lot of people are going to die."

William Johnson, a member of 1199 told the World he worked eight years for a laundry in Queens that washed linen for five New York City hospitals. Then the hospitals brought in Angelica Laundry to operate the facility. The firm operates 32 hospital laundries across the country.

"They thought our wages were too high," Johnson said. "We fought them for four years. Rather than giving us a contract, they shut it down and started trucking the laundry to their plant in New Jersey. I lost my job along with 80 other workers."

Johnson said he was making $10.91 an hour at the time. "In New Jersey, the company is non-union and pays the workers $5.50 to $7.00 per hour. The conclusion I draw is that all that matters to these employers is profits. They cut it out of the workers' pockets," Johnson said.

Matse Jenkins, an organizer for SEIU Local 72, which represents licensed practical nurses, told The World, "A demonstration like this gives us hope. We need to organize those who are unorganized so that we can stand up and defend our rights and not be overworked, underpaid or laid off. We sent a message today." Jenkins said, "The politicians talk about eliminating benefits right when we need them the most. They tell us about the deficits and tell us there is no money. This is Wall Street. This is where the money is. They 've got the profits. The money is here!"