Thu, 2 Jul 1998 13:15:29 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 13:17:26 -0700 To: rachelj@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu From: CyberBrook Subject: Re: strike in ny city mjkinnuc@umich.edu, brsboop@aol.com, flatta@ceb.ucop.edu, theperegri@aol.com, jinsong@ucdavis.edu, osluzano@ucdavis.edu, rice@dpls.dacc.wisc.edu, DLEVINE@BPL.ORG, s-frum@nwu.edu, social-movements@Staffmail.wit.ie In-Reply-To: Here's a report of the construction workers' protest in Manhattan the other day Workers' Protest Ties Up Midtown NY By Katherine Roth Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- An estimated 40,000 construction workers strangled the morning rush-hour today with a protest rally and march through midtown Manhattan, and some scuffled with police in riot gear. The workers were angry over the awarding of a non-union contract for a transit project. Nearly four hours into the demonstration, about half a dozen workers were arrested when they tried to turn over a parked van. Some of them said police used pepper spray before handcuffing them and putting them in a police van. The crowd shouted ``police state'' when dozens of officers with nightsticks came to break up the crowd. There was shoving and bottle-throwing, and some officers used nightsticks to control the crowd. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the crowd numbered about 40,000 at its peak. The rally began at about 8 a.m. at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on Madison Avenue between 44th and 45th streets. Pedestrian and motor traffic came to a standstill as the demonstrators marched from there toward a construction site at 54th Street and Ninth Avenue. They were blocked by police at 53rd and Ninth, where most of the scuffling occurred. Some demonstrators, waving flags, climbed on cars, vans and street lights. More than 100 police in riot gear began cutting through the noisy, chanting mob on Ninth Avenue. Scores of police vans and horses were at the scene, and police helicopters hung overhead. Officers holding out their nightsticks could be seen on rooftops. Many businesses and offices on 44th and 45th streets between Madison and Fifth avenues opened late because of the crowd and because police blocked workers from entering their buildings. The demonstrators accused the MTA of awarding work to a contractor who used nonunion help. Some displayed a 10-foot inflatable rat, symbolizing what they called rat contractors. MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said the unions' allegations are being investigated by the state Department of Labor. ``We awarded the contract in question to the lowest responsible bidder in accordance with law,'' Kelly said. The contract, for a new transit command center on Ninth Avenue, was awarded to Roy Kay, a Freehold, N.J.-based contractor, Kelly said. A woman answering the phone at Roy Kay this morning said the company would have no immediate comment. ``They're taking food from union families. We want to make sure we get the right attention,'' said electrician Joe Solano of Brooklyn. ``We live here, work here. We're taxpayers, voters,'' said Matt Lettieri, a Teamsters Union construction worker from Lindenhurst, Long Island. Police barriers could not contain the crowd at MTA headquarters, and they spilled west to Fifth Avenue, blowing whistles, waving flags and chanting, ``Way to go union, way to go. Out with Giuliani.'' They carried banners identifying themselves as masons, carpenters, roofers and other construction trades. ``It's not the right thing to do,'' said bystander Lalit Khanna, who said he had waited 40 minutes and still couldn't get to his job at Brooks Brothers. At the J. Press men's clothing store on 44th Street, assistant manager Yuko Kobayashi said, ``It took me 15 minutes to cross the street. ... The trouble is I'm losing half of my employees today because they can't get through.'' ``It's a loss for my business. Time is money,'' lamented a stalled cabbie, Habib Naba of Brooklyn, who admitted he took part in a recent protest march of taxi drivers. By noon, the construction workers' demonstration appeared to have broken up into smaller groups, with some heading back towards MTA headquarters. Giuliani, who blocked a protest by taxi drivers earlier this summer by arguing that they were trying to shut down the city, said today the city was surprised by the size of the construction workers' protest. ``The information that was given to the police department was that it was going to be much smaller,'' the mayor said. ``Had the construction workers given the same advance warning that the taxi drivers gave, they'd have been dealt with in the same way.'' © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press At 10:21 PM 01-07-98 -0500, Rachel Jones wrote: >There was a *tiny* side story in today's (7-1-98) New Orleans >Times-Picayune about a strike/riot by construction workers in New York >City (Manhattan?). The blurb said several hundred people were involved >and that the police had to be called in to quell the uproar. Does >anyone have anymore details? > >thanks... >-- >Rachel K. Jones rachelj@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu