Rally in Solidarity with workers at Woodlawn (Bronx) Cemetery: Monday 2/21,11am

[Omaha Steve]

To all interested in workers' rights:

come to the rally at Woodlawn Cemetery on Presidents' Day:
MONDAY, February 21, at 11am: 233rd St. & Webster Ave.
(Take the 2 train to 233rd & White Plains Rd, then walk 2 blocks downhill to Webster Ave.,
or by bus take the Bx16 or Bx31 which stop right at 233rd & Webster.)
Congratulations to the Band of Sisters, In solidarity with the Band of Brothers & Sisters!
Also see the important information below from Chris Silvera, leader of Teamsters Local 808, representing the Woodlawn workers.

Please distribute as widely as possible.

In solidarity,
Dee Knight
for the Labor-Community Forum of
the South Bronx Community Congress






FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 8, 2011
CONTACT: CHRIS SILVERA: 718-389-1900 or 917-297-2241

Chris Silvera, leader of Teamsters Local 808, released a letter to the union movement, as well as New York community organizations, appealing for solidarity with the workers at Woodlawn Cemetery. The Woodlawn workers chose Local 808 as their bargaining agent in November, and are now facing a management demand for 35-40 percent wage cuts or layoffs of nearly two-thirds of the work force.



Silvera called on all workers in New York to “Return to the Haymarket – that high-water moment in the 19 th Century when American workers won the eight-hour day for workers throughout the world.” He called for union and community members to join a demonstration at Woodlawn Cemetery on Presidents’ Day, February 21, at 11am, at East 233 rd Street and Webster Avenue in the Bronx. “Let the demonstration on Presidents’ Day be the Haymarket of the 21 st century,” he said. “Let us join together to protect good jobs, with health and pension benefits for all workers.”



Addressing both public sector and private sector workers, Silvera said “your struggle is the same as that of the workers at Woodlawn Cemetery. A wealthy not-for-profit corporation, Woodlawn Cemetery, has decided to outsource work that has been done by union workers to a company that uses ‘guest workers,’ more accurately identified as indentured servants,” he said. “Workers with H2B visas are bound to their sponsor and have no rights under the National Labor Relations Act,” he added.



“Today we are confronted with anti-labor forces more powerful than at any time in the struggle for workers’ rights and a fair share of the wealth produced in this country,” Silvera said. “The intensity of the attacks on labor has continued to increase unabated since the initial frontal assault by Ronald Reagan against PATCO,” in 1981.



“The time has come for workers to collectively fight back,” Silvera said. “It is time for us to embrace the labor creed that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all.’ The Bloomberg-Cuomo alliance has publicly declared that they fully intend to divide and conquer working people in this state.



“The assault on public sector workers and their wages and benefits will not be turned around at the negotiating table,” Silvera declared. “Nor will it be defeated in the halls and conference rooms of the New York State Legislature. We must take this struggle to the street and to the people to protect what we have fought for justly and legally for many decades.”



The planned Presidents’ Day solidarity rally follows one that took place on Martin Luther King Day, January 17, which featured Teamster Locals 831, 805, 814, and 804, as well as 808, representing warehouse workers, UPS drivers, MetroNorth Railroad employees, and others. Also DC37 Local 374, workers at New York Botanical Gardens, who do much the same landscaping work as many of the Woodlawn workers. There were also workers from other cemeteries around New York City as well as Westchester County.



There were strong delegations from Transport Workers Union Local 100, District 32BJ-Schools Division, and District 1199-Health Division of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Also United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers, as well as the Professional Staff Congress/American Federation of Teachers at City University of New York, UNITE-HERE, and the New York State Nurses Association, with members at nearby Montefiore Hospital.



Ramon Jimenez, a leader of the South Bronx Community Congress, added a special appeal to community organizations, saying “we need to know that the attack on the unions is really aimed at all of us. We need to stand with the organized workers so they can stand with our communities.” He added that the South Bronx Community Congress is appealing to people who own plots at Woodlawn Cemetery to withdraw their proxy votes from Woodlawn management and support the workers.