New York actions push $15 minimum wage

Workers’ solidarity at Herald Square.
WW photo: Brenda Ryan

The People’s Power Assembly Movement, along with allies like OccuEvolve, took to the streets of New York City with signs and banners on April 12 for a speak-out in the busy midtown shopping area of Herald Square. There, the protesters displayed solidarity with the mushrooming national campaign of workers seeking a $15-an-hour minimum wage and the right to organize. Passersby stopped to listen to the activists and took literature. Some of the PPA activists did a flash mob inside a nearby McDonald’s for a considerable amount of time before being escorted out by the police.

Following the street meeting, the PPA held an informal assembly discussion at the Solidarity Center in preparation for May Day at Union Square. The speakers included Charles Jenkins, president of the NYC chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Lucy Pagoada, United Federation of Teachers delegate, who spoke on the education crisis; Meches Rosales, on the issue of domestic workers; Larry Holmes, on supporting low-wage workers and the April 29 demonstration against the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C.; Dustin Ponder, Teamsters 804 rank-and-file activist and a leading United Parcel Service organizer with Part Time Power; and Harrison Tesoura Schultz, of Occupy The NEED Act and Green Rush coalitions on the NEED Act and a National Liveable Wage. Teresa Gutierrez, from the May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, chaired the discussion.