Minimum Wage March: NYC FIGHT FOR $15 In Pictures

My first half-dozen photos were taken before the arrival of the main body of marchers. Several representatives were already on site, as was the media. Then, their ranks swelled significantly with the arrival of the Brooklyn contingent. 

The demonstration on West 71st Street was peaceful and orderly. As far as I could tell, the city police refrained from any overt confrontations, even though people packed the sidewalk, shoulder-to-shoulder, for an entire block. At some point, the demonstrators lay down on the sidewalk for a ten-minute “die-in,” after which they dispersed until re-gathering in mid-afternoon at Central Park West and Columbus Circle.

From there, they would march, in the early evening, to McDonald’s flagship store on Times Square. I did not document this final leg, but here is one of many reports that did. 

Besides this, consider the fact that the average McDonald’s restaurant makes twice as much as Burger King, its closest competitor. Years of low pay enabled McDonald’s to become the world’s largest fast-food franchise.   This is reason enough to focus on the franchise.

Clearly, for this April 15th event, two of America’s major social problems, racism and income inequality have joined forces. Behind this alliance, so we learn, is an event that took place three-and-one-half weeks earlier;  members of the Black Lives Matter campaign traveled to the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC to meet with Fight For $15 organizers. Add to this event the fact that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has put money and support into the minimum wage movement, and it becomes clear that quite a few, disparate organizations are now working together to promote social justice.

As Mary Kay Henry, the SEIU president observed, this “is no longer an internal debate.”  Or, as John Kotter, writing for the corporate world, would put it, expand your horizons and opportunities, “bring the outside in” by “breaking down silos.”

 In an interview in January with msnbc‘s Emma Margolin, Shantel said she was not afraid of being punished for participating in work strikes: “I can’t make it on this type of income,” she said….”the punishment is making this type of money.” 

On its webpage, the movement defines #BlackLivesMatter as “a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society.”

Black Lives Matter has started a public story bank and is now inviting anybody to contribute a one- or two-minute recording which begins with the phrase: “In a world where Black Lives Matter, I imagine…”

In a HuffPost article written earlier this month, Dave Jamieson interviewed several SeaTac shuttle drivers whose wages just increased from ca. $9.55/hour to $15.00/hour. The difference in pay changed their lives, in that they finally could spend some time with their children, renew time for sports and recreation, and give up a second job that amounted to a brutal 80 hour work week. 

In other words, the jump to $15/hour enabled them to live meaningful lives as human beings once again.

“Demand More” is what the April 15th protests in over 200 American cities and several other countries around the world are about.  And as one group chanted at a mic check at a Midtown McDonald’s in the early evening, the “more” was not limited to salary and wages: “Our fight is one fight. Workers fighting for $15 and a union are fighting for system change. Climate activists are fighting for system change. We’re here because we’re ready to fight together for sustainable jobs and a sustainable world.”

By the way, the building seen in the upper left corner is The Dorilton, a lavish Beaux-Arts apartment building that was completed in 1902.

Central Park has 20 entrance gates, and in 1862 a Commissioners’ Committee proposed that each entrance should be named to embody, by profession, the people of New York City as a whole. This gathering would have lost some of its symbolic meaning were it in front of the Hunters’ or Miners’ Gates, wouldn’t you say?

As the balloon floating in front of Trump International states, “Poverty Wages Don’t Fly!” Nor could any of the demonstrating workers even afford a one-minute rental in one of its units. And, naturally, Donald Trump as well as almost every Republican presidential candidate is adamantly against any government-mandated increase in the minimum wage for which they are demonstrating.

1.  Some 291 workers who came to McDonald’s through the State Department’s J-1visa program for cultural exchange successfully sued the corporation for forced 25-hour shifts, no overtime pay, rooming on bunk-beds in the boss’ basement at high rent, and sometimes very few hours of work/week even when promised full-time employment. 

2.  Manhattan workers were forced to work in 110-degree conditions, even after complaining of dizziness and getting sick. 

3.  Ten workers in Virginia were fired because the owner said the stores were “too dark” and he needed to “get the ghetto out.”

Stringer also has shown his bona fides by fighting the Wall Street Bankers who have been “managing” the City’s pension funds, charging exorbitant fees, and leaving the funds with little or no growth.

I was deeply moved, but had no means to take any notes. My hope was that he had a text. Alas, as with so many of our best orators, he spoke without a note.

It was ironic that Eric Garner was the target by police for the selling of what we know as ‘loosies.’ In part the reason why brothers and sisters sell ‘loosies’ is because of the high tax rate on cigarettes. There’s something very ironic about someone whose action was trying to subvert what was viewed as high taxes. And in case you don’t understand why it is familiar, in 1773 this country was born by a subversive movement against high taxes; and so it is amazing how a country born in revolution and subversion against over-priced tea would now consider a criminal and kill a man who is trying to subvert over-priced cigarettes. There’s something ironic that he would be choked to death. The truth is that many people of color in this country have been choking for a long time.