Continuing Protests Across
U.S.
Nationwide Strike for Black Lives to Be Held on July 20
"Today, in this national moment of
reckoning, working people are demanding fundamental changes to
America's broken system. They're coming together in the Strike for
Black Lives to declare that until Black people can thrive, none of our
communities can thrive." - Mary Kay Henry, President, Service
Employees International Union (SEIU)
 Fast-food,
nursing home, rideshare, farm, airport workers and many other workers
will go on Strike for Black Lives on Monday, July 20, joined by
thousands more who will walk off their jobs for eight minutes, 46
seconds to remember George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and
other Black people killed by police, the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) informs. Across the country, youth and
climate activists will join in the actions, the union informs. The
actions will "confront the triple threat of white supremacy, public
health emergency, broken economy," the union says.
Major national labour organizations, including the
SEIU, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the American
Federation of Teachers, United Farm Workers, the National Domestic
Workers Alliance and the Fight for $15 and a Union will join forces
with leading racial and social justice groups like the Movement for
Black Lives; the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral
Revival; March On; Future Coalition; U.S. Youth Climate Strike
Coalition; Center for Popular Democracy; Jobs with Justice; and One
Fair Wage.
An excerpt from the union's press release follows:
"Companies like McDonald's cannot on the one hand
tweet that 'Black Lives Matter' and on the other pay us poverty wages
and fail to provide sick days and adequate PPE," said Angely Rodriguez
Lambert, an Oakland McDonald's worker and leader in the Fight for $15
and a Union. "We're going on strike because McDonald's and other
fast-food companies have failed to protect us in a pandemic that has
ravaged Black and brown communities across the country. We're going to
keep joining together and speaking out until McDonald's and other
companies respond with actions that show they really value our lives."
 In Missouri,
striking workers will rally at the McDonald's in Ferguson, followed by
a march to the memorial for Michael Brown, who was killed by police in
2014. Rep. Rasheen Aldridge, a former leader in the Fight for $15 and a
Union, will join strikers. In Detroit, striking McDonald's and other
fast-food workers will rally with nursing home workers from across the
city who will walk off their jobs to call out the industry's failure to
protect its largely Black workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and
respect workers for the essential work they perform. In the Twin
Cities, where Floyd was killed, striking nursing home workers will
participate in a caravan that will include a stop at the airport, where
they'll be joined in protest by airport workers including wheelchair
attendants and cabin cleaners who are demanding $15/hr and a just and
safe plan to bring people back into public and travel spaces. And in
Los Angeles, striking fast-food and nursing home workers will join with
Uber and Lyft drivers and Postmates [delivery] workers, janitorial,
security and other workers in a car caravan that begins at a
McDonald's, with stops at the LAUSD [Los Angeles Unified School
District] and the University of Southern California, where they will
demand the nation's second-largest school district and the University
drop their use of the LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] on campuses.
Strikes and protests will also take place in
Boston, Chicago, Denver, Durham, Harrisburg, Hartford, Houston, Los
Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Martinsville, Oakland, Orlando,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, Sacramento, Scranton, Seattle,
St. Paul, Toledo, Yakima and more.
"Here in Detroit, us nursing home workers are at
the centre of the COVID-19 crisis. We're putting our lives on the line
every single day without proper PPE, paid sick days or safe staffing
levels," said Trece Andrews, a nursing home worker from Detroit,
Michigan. "Thousands of workers and residents have needlessly lost
their lives. I've seen firsthand how this virus is devastating the
Black community, exposing the systemic racism that has always existed.
That's why I'm going on Strike for Black Lives: to demand greater
protections for my coworkers, our residents and working people across
the nation."
Dismantling Racist Policies
Workers are demanding solutions from government
and corporations that centre communities of color and dismantle racist
policies to make sure every family is healthy, safe, and secure, no
matter their race, immigration status, job, or where they live.
Specifically striking workers are demanding:
Justice for Black communities, with an unequivocal
declaration that Black Lives Matter, as a necessary first step to
winning justice for all workers.
 Elected officials
and candidates at every level must use their executive, legislative,
and regulatory authority to begin to rewrite the rules and reimagine
our economy and democracy so that communities of every race can thrive.
Corporations take immediate action to dismantle
racism, white supremacy, and economic exploitation wherever it exists,
including in our workplaces. This includes corporations raising wages,
allowing workers to form unions, providing health care, sick leave and
expanded health care coverage to people who are uninsured or have lost
coverage as the result of losing their jobs during the COVID-19
pandemic, child care support and more, to disrupt the multigenerational
cycle of poverty created by their anti-worker attacks.
Every worker must have the opportunity to form a
union, no matter where they work.
"We cannot achieve economic justice without racial
justice," said Mary Kay Henry, President of SEIU. "From our nation's
founding, white supremacy and economic exploitation have been
inextricably linked. Today, in this national moment of reckoning,
working people are demanding fundamental changes to America's broken
system. They're coming together in the Strike for Black Lives to
declare that until Black people can thrive, none of our communities can
thrive."
Why We're Striking for Black Lives
In this moment of national reckoning, working
people from across the nation and allies in the interconnected fights
for justice are standing together in the Strike for Black Lives.
 Rev. Dr.
William Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of
the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral
Revival: "We must show the nation that if you scratch a liar, you find
a thief. If you scratch a racist, you find a thief who will steal
health care, steal living wages and give those to corporate interests,
treating corporations like people and people like things. We can't talk
about racial justice in this moment without addressing income
inequality. We must push toward economic uplift for everybody -- poor
and low-income Black people, white people, brown people, indigenous
people, and Asian people. In other words: everybody in, nobody out."
Sandra Ellington, janitor in Ohio:
"Despite all this pain, I'm hopeful because this time is different.
This time is a movement! People don't want to say it. I'm not shy: it's
a revolution! As a mother, it got stuck in my head George Floyd's last
words calling for his mother, every time I remember it my heart
shatters. I think about my own son, I want him safe, seen as what he
is: a human being."
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Co-Executive
Director of Highlander Research and Education Center and member of the
Movement for Black Lives policy and strategy tables:
"Corporate giants such as Walmart and McDonald's profit off racial
injustice and inequity. They claim to support Black lives, but their
business model functions by exploiting Black labor -- passing off
pennies as 'living wages' and pretending to be shocked when COVID-19
sickens those Black people who make up their essential workers. They do
this without consequence. Our economy, both past, and present, is
dependent on Black servitude, yet we are robbed of wages, health care,
paid sick time, and so much more. Corporate power is a threat to racial
justice, and the only way to usher in a new economy is by tackling
those forces that aren't fully committed to dismantling racism."
James P. Hoffa, International Brotherhood
of Teamsters General President: "We're demanding action from
corporations and government to dismantle white supremacy and to ensure
the health, safety, and economic well-being of every worker. This is a
moment of reckoning, a chance to decide who we are as a nation. We can
no longer turn a blind eye to the deadly impacts of structural racism
in America's economy and democracy."
Adam Neville, National Coordinator, XR
Youth U.S.: "Young people have made it clear: we will not sit
around and watch our futures be destroyed in front of our eyes. We are
determined to mark this moment as the turning point for justice.
Returning to business as usual is complicity in the murder, freedom,
and future of Black people, and our collective liberation requires all
movements fighting for the protection of Black lives. The youth-led
climate movement stands hand-in-hand with the Strike for Black Lives,
and will be showing up in full force on July 20 because reimagining our
future is our only choice."
Sonja Ogburn, Building Services Manager
at Montgomery County Public Schools in Bethesda, Maryland:
"Everyone should feel safe and have the right to live in this world.
When we talk about justice and equality, it doesn't mean just for the
rich and white, it's for everyone. And it's not just Black people
fighting; folks of every race, creed, and color are fighting together."
Randi Weingarten, President of the
American Federation of Teachers: "We are living in a time of
three great crises -- a health crisis, an economic recession and
systemic racism, all made worse by a president who fans the flames and
wants to divide, not heal. The global health pandemic, racism and the
recession are exposing and exacerbating long-standing and persistent
inequities. The AFT supports our sisters and brothers who are Striking
for Black Lives. We cannot turn a blind eye to the deleterious impact
of structural racism, and we will stand with our allies to demand
justice and to build a more equitable future for all."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 26 - July 18, 2020
Article Link:
Continuing Protests Across
U.S.: Nationwide Strike for Black Lives to Be Held on July 20
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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