NAGE Members Rally and March for Jobs, Condemn Corporate Greed
More than 50 NAGE leaders and members joined National President David Holway and hundreds of labor activists downtown yesterday to rally and march against a jobless economic recovery spawned by unabated corporate greed.
Bobbi Kaplan, executive vice president of Local R1-207 attended the rally and was inspired by what she saw.
"We came out strong and loud today against an economy that works only for the highest paid employees and the greediest corporations," she said. "It doesn't matter if you're a state worker, a housekeeper for Hyatt, or a Verizon employee, this so-called economic "recovery" has seen more layoffs than jobs created. It isn't working for us or for our families, and we made that loud and clear tonight."
The rally kicked off in Boston Common in front of the State House with impassioned speeches by union members in both the private and public sectors. Although each had a different story to tell, a common thread of anger, disgust, and we're-not-going-to-take-it-anymore ran through all.
"These members spoke for all us," said Holway. "We've had enough. Enough promises of jobs that don't materialize, enough profit over people, enough cutbacks in state services and the job losses that go with it.
"There is no mistaking the feeling of betrayal that so many workers in this state and across the country are feeling. It's time for change and that change started right here, tonight in Boston Common."
With signs held high declaring "Jobs not Greed," and shouts of the same, the assembled activists marched through downtown streets, halting traffic and drawing scores of onlookers, many of whom joined the blocks-long line of protest.
When marchers converged on the Verizon building in Post Office Square, the crowd grew larger and louder. They gathered around the platform and microphone of Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Bobby Haynes, who furiously ticked through the list of corporate abuses, from fattening the bottom line with unnecessary layoffs at Verizon to the disgraceful dumping of longtime employees at the Hyatt—only to replace them with workers at half the hourly rate.
Despite the chill wind and darkening sky, marchers continued on from Verizon to the Hyatt Hotel on Avenue de Lafayette, where they joined masses of Unite-Here members, shouting "Boycott Hyatt!"