By Juan Soto
Elected officials and labor leaders honored the Queens working class on the steps of Borough Hall in a ceremony co-hosted by Borough President Melinda Katz and City Councilman I. Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans) last week.
“It is the working people that keep this city running,” Katz said. “We honor you for your dedication and for the sacrifices made by you and your predecessors in the labor movement in order to secure fair wages and benefits.”
Miller, chairman of the Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor, said Labor Day was not a federal holiday until 1894, and that the state Legislature in Albany had become the first in the nation to consider Labor Day a holiday 10 years before that.
“Today, we want to make sure we honor the true tradition of labor so it’s not forgotten,” Miller said at the Sept. 4 event. “The first Labor parade was in 1882, when people were being exploited, and obviously that still happens today, unfortunately.”
All the speakers described how important the labor movement was to benefit the working class, from the time they began to have the weekends off to the recent paid sick leave benefit for most workers who were not entitled to them through their actual jobs.
They praised unions, but reminded them that more needs to be done, especially when it comes to fighting for better wages.
“We have to invest to make sure the minimum wage is increased,” said state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst). “The minimum wage has to increase to at least $15 an hour.”
He joined others in calling on Albany to allow municipalities to have their own minimum wages laws.
“We are taking this fight up in Albany,” the state legislator said. “We are investing in our own children, in our future.”
Peralta, elected officials and union leaders said living in New York City “is much more expensive” than residing in other places throughout the state.
“The city of New York is what it is today because of labor,” Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) said. “We have to make sure New York City gets the right to control its own minimum wage law.”
Leroy Comrie, special assistant to Katz, said “the only way the city can move forward is with a strong labor movement behind it.”
Also present at the ceremony, among others, were state Assembly members Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village), Michael DenDekker (D-East Elmhurst) and Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) and representatives from the Amalgamated Transit Union Locals 1179 and 1056, the United Federation of Teachers and 32BJ SEIU, the property service workers union.
“Queens is underserved when it comes to public transportation,” said Mark Henry, of Amalgamated Transit Local 1056. “But transportation creates jobs and it’s clean for the environment.”
Reach reporter Juan Soto by e-mail at jsoto@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
