Low-Wage Workers March in New York -- Will It Make a Difference?

By David L. Wilson, MRZine
August 6, 2012

Several thousand union and non-union workers came together in Manhattan the afternoon of July 24 for an unusual display of solidarity between people who until the 2008 economic crisis had often seemed to belong to completely different social classes.

The event, the "New York Workers Rising Day of Action," brought out a mix of low-wage workers -- car washers, cab drivers, domestic workers, retail and restaurant employees -- and members of long-established unions for a series of protests. About 500 low-wage workers marched 17 blocks down Broadway starting at 4 pm, with brief pickets along the way at local stores and restaurants accused of exploiting workers. At 5 pm, the marchers joined a rally that filled the north end of Union Square. Another march then left from Union Square to join locked-out electrical workers rallying at the nearby Irving Place headquarters of New York's main power company, Consolidated Edison. In the evening there were more pickets, some in the Union Square area, some as far away as Brooklyn and Queens. [...]

Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/wilson060812.html