Latino Immigrants Lead International Workers’ Day March in New York

NEW YORK — Hundreds of workers, a large number of them Latino immigrants, today commemorated International Workers’ Day in New York with a march that toured various streets of lower Manhattan demanding better working conditions and wages, the right to employment for undocumented immigrants , that sex work be legalized and respect.

Slogans of “united workers will never be defeated” and “yes we can” from the activist for the rights of farmworkers César Chávez (1927-1993) were loudly heard today in a march in which nine organizations from various sectors participated, including defense of immigrants or prisoners, unions or legal services.

Street vendors, domestic workers, restaurant employees, cleaners, doormen, construction workers with their protective helmets, the LGBT community and transgender sex workers, among many others, gathered today in the popular Washington Square, a few steps from the University of New York, where in a festive atmosphere, between Latin music and banners, they made their claims known.

One of them is that the City Council approve the bill that would prevent unjustified dismissals since it would force the employer to give an explanation.

Also that the state legislature give its approval to the project that would create the “Unemployment Bridge Program” so that workers without a work permit, domestic workers and independent workers can have an economic income if they lose their jobs, a situation that thousands experienced during the pandemic of the covid.

This was the claim of Carmen Canela, who works in the restaurant industry, a single mother with three children. “I don’t have unemployment insurance and I’m not the only one. We left looking for a better future and we found an uncertain future,” said the woman amid cheers from other workers, who carried signs (several in Spanish) such as “the workers’ struggle has no borders”, “support immigrant workers”, “excluded never again” or “without essential workers the US is nothing”.

Construction workers made their voices heard for safety at their place of employment and to demand a wage of $40 an hour in a job that has cost many their lives, a large number of them Latinos.

This year, transgender sex workers who are seeking to have their activity legalized were also present.

“I am here to make it clear that sex work is work, that we demand rights and protections,” said Nathan Brown, and assured that since she arrived in New York she has been discriminated against for being a transgender woman, a situation that she assures others have experienced just like her, so they have not been able to find employment.

“I have gone to different places to apply for a job, they look me up and down, they tell me they are going to call me and they never do. Because of this, many women in my community end up doing sex work to be able to send money to their families, pay their debts and put food on the table”, said the Latina and affirmed that “it is time” for the state legislature to decriminalize “the buying and selling of sex between adults”.

The workers marched from there, to the sound of drums and other instruments, through the streets of New York, to the surprise of many while others took photos or recorded the colorful protest.