Workers in the United States Protest for Racial Inequality on National Strike Day

Many workers rallied outside the Massachusetts Statehouse and the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan to fight racism and economic inequality. An effort that organizers believed would develop into a nationwide strike, The AP reported.

In Manhattan, around 150 union workers collected outside the Trump International Hotel to demand that President Trump and the Senate affirm the HEROES Act. Around 1,500 janitors in San Francisco left their jobs and organized to lead a walk to City Hall later in the day, as per Fight for $15, a group of working people that supports raising the lowest per hour salary in the United States. McDonald’s cashier and cook in Los Angeles and nursing home professionals in St. Paul also took part in the strike, the union added.

The majority of support came greatly from individuals whose jobs in medicinal services, construction, transportation didn’t permit them to work from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Coordinators said around 20,000 workers in 160 cities stepped off their jobs, motivated by the racial retaliation that followed the injustice and death of many Black people by police. 

In Massachusetts, nearly 200 people, including janitors, health care workers, and other essential workers, joined in front of the Statehouse in Boston.

Workers couldn’t stop work for the entire day, people participating in the protest expected to picket during a mid-day break or observed silence to pay respect to Black people’s lives that died due to police brutality, organizers added. The strike named “Strike for Black Lives” was organized by social and racial justice organizations and the labor union in over two dozen U.S. cities.

What the demonstrators are stating, if that we need to be concerned — and we ought to be — about police viciousness and individuals getting killed by the police … we need to be worried about the individuals who are biting the dust and being placed into critical circumstances through job cuts in Covid-19 and economic exploitation throughout the nation.

Rev. William Barber II, co-chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign, one of the organizations that teamed to support the strike

The nationwide protest many workers demanded effort by the government and companies to stop racism and inequality. However, help in fulfilling the demand of providing workers with higher wages and added PPE to work safely amid coronavirus crisis. 

Article Credit: The US News/ The Associated Press