Thursday, May 1st, 2014. New York City – May Day “Immigrant Worker Justice Tour” to Picket Downtown Manhattan Highlighting Labor Campaigns, Deportation and Detention of Immigrants.
Press release by ImmigrantsOccupyNYC.
New York, NY—May 1stth, 2014 Workers, activists, students and community members from across NYC plan to march to over a dozen downtown targets to highlight the attacks on workrs and the criminalization of the immigrant community. The “Immigrant Workers Justice Tour” will speak out on issues of wage theft, exploitation in the global supply chain, and record levels of detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants. Marching under the banner “Our Fights are Local. The Struggle is Global” the tour’s three-mile march through the heart of downtown Manhattan will allow workers and activists to speak directly to businesses and institutions that profit off of labor abuse and separate immigrants from their families.
NYU, Wendy’s, Staples and other business that have been identified as labor and human rights abusers will be picketed. NYU Law School, and Board of Trustee member Daniel Strauss will be targeted for labor abuse and intimidation of law students who have joined the campaign for NYU to drop him from their board. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is currently pressuring Wendy’s to sign on to the Fair Food Program, a national partnership between farm-workers, growers and buyers. Staples has been a target of pickets by public workers after agreeing to partner with the US Postal Service to privatize thousands of public jobs. A funeral procession led by a brass band is planned to highlight the deaths of workers at the USPS and Rana Plaza, a factory that collapsed in Bangladesh over a year ago, killing 1,129 workers.
This years tour will also highlight the newly-launched ”ICE-Free NYC” campaign, spearheaded by the Migrant Power Alliance, which demands full citizenship rights for all, and an end to the criminalization, detention and deportation of migrants. The coalition plans to increase pressure on the City to end its collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Between October 2012 and September 2013, 3074 people were turned over to ICE by the NYC Department of Corrections. One of the tour’s main stops is an institution that plays a crucial role that process. Several multinational banks with financial ties to the detainment of immigrants will be also be targeted. Groups are calling for full divestment from GAO and CCA, two for-profit prison corporations who collectively made over $4 billion last year on the massive increase in detention of undocumented immigrants.
WHEN: Thursday May 1st, beginning at 12:30pm
WHERE: Tour starts at Washington Square Park and will make over a dozen stops in the Downtown area ending in Union Square.
Rallies and marches around the world – live updates by The Guardian.
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