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Picked Up Protesting

Two Local Pols Arrested For Civil Disobedience At LGA Rally

They spent Martin Luther King Day in an act of civil disobedience.

City Council Members Antonio Reynoso (left) and Jimmy Van Bramer (right) were arrested on Martin Luther King Day (Monday, Jan. 20) after they refused to stop blocking the 94th Street Bridge that connects LaGuardia Airport to East Elmhurst. The sit-in was part of a demonstration led by service union 32BJ SIEU calling for better pay and working conditions at metropolitan-area airports.

Several city lawmakers, including local City Council Members Antonio Reynoso and Jimmy Van Bramer, were among those collared when the protest blocked the 94th Street bridge leading to LaGuardia Airport.

The politicians rallied along with 32BJ SIEU, the city’s largest service worker’s union, as a part of the union’s efforts to unionize airport workers.

A statement from Van Bramer claims there are 12,000 airport workers in New York City-area that are employed by contractors who do not offer benefits or pay minimum wage.

“It is a disgrace that employees at our City’s airports work tirelessly without health benefits and on minimum wage salaries,” Van Bramer said in a statement. “My act of civil disobedience … was out of solidarity with airport workers who are being treated unfairly. I support the workers’ efforts to unionize and believe whole-heartedly that their ongoing campaign to secure living wages is a fight worth waging.”

Both council members were released later that day, according to multiple sources.