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Our City Needs Saving! Municipal Workers to the Rescue
By
Briana Parker
Published Jun 17, 2010
Modified Jun 17, 2010
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By
Briana Parker
Published Jun 17, 2010
Modified Jun 17, 2010
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City workers have joined the non-stop protest action yesterday outside City Hall, where 99 unions representing over 300,000 workers mobilized as part of the "Save Our City" rally. The protest drew thousands and spanned four blocks on Broadway. Each union sported a different color shirt displaying their personal plea—to save our schools, firehouses, libraries, hospitals, sanitation services, hospitals—but the messages coalesced around the worry that Bloomberg's proposed budget cuts would end vital jobs and services.
This public display of outrage is the latest in a series that includes MetroCard fury, senior center closure unrest, and after-school program dismay. It occurred while Governor David Paterson set a June 28th deadline for passing the New York State budget; the city budget must be passed no more than three days after. Paterson has said the state's $9.2 billion deficit would lead to a $1.3 billion cut in funds for the city, which is already facing its own deficit. Protesters carried signs presenting alternatives to the cuts, including taxing the wealthy and cutting spending to less visible and important city programs.
Emceeing the event was United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew, who called the participants "the workers that make this city run"; Harry Nespoli, President of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association (USA) echoed the sentiment by referring to the crowd as the people that "go to work every single day, and make this city work." Then things got real: City Comptroller Bill Thompson, seen as Bloomberg's main Democratic competition in the 2013 mayoral election, led a couple rounds of "Who has to go," with the crowd replying "Bloomberg!"
But the most powerful weapon was saved for last. 9-year-old Kassandra Rivera of PS 234 in Queens used her excessive adorableness as a tool to get through to Bloomberg, stating, "The mayor has all this money to make stadiums, but he doesn't have money for schools. That's not fair," according to the UFT blog.
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Budget cuts
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save our city
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