WHAT: Labor Day: Invisible No More Rally — The Fight for $15 Goes On!
WHEN Monday, September 7, 2015: 11:30 AM gathering; Noon speaking program; March to follow
WHERE: Parkman Bandstand, Boston Common, Tremont St, Boston, MA 02108
WHO: Rally and March speakers include:
- Roxana Rivera, Vice President 32BJ SEIU
- Darius Cephas, McDonald’s worker, National Organizing Committee of Fast Food Workers
- Rev. James Flavin, Episcopal Vicar of the Central Region in the Archdiocese of Boston
- State Representative Steve Ultrino, Malden
- Councilor Nadeem A Mazen, Cambridge City Council
- Janitors, airport workers, homecare workers, fast-food workers.
BOSTON – After President Barack Obama honors Labor Day at the annual Greater Boston Labor Council Breakfast at the Park Plaza Hotel on Monday morning, hundreds of workers will gather at the Parkman Bandstand in the Boston Common under the banner of the growing movement in Massachusetts for $15 and a union. Over the past year, the movement has grown from its beginnings with fast-food workers to encompass janitors, retail workers, homecare workers, restaurant workers, adjunct professors, and many more. (Airport workers and others represented in the Fight for $15 will also be available to speak with press at the breakfast).
Organized by the #WageAction Coalition and 32BJ SEIU, the “Invisible No More” rally and march will begin at the bandstand by raising up victories of the past and fights of today, after which workers will march through downtown, stopping at various landmarks in their current struggles, before ending at the Aquarium T stop on the Blue Line — the line that takes passengers and workers to Logan Airport.
“On Labor Day, the President will be in Boston to remember that worker’s rights have been won by countless men and women fighting over decades,” said Roxana Rivera, Vice President of 32BJ SEIU. “We will amplify that message by raising up the struggles that continue today in industries from fast food to contracted passenger service workers at Logan Airport, some of whom earn as little as $10 an hour.”
Other members of the #WageAction Coalition participating in the “Invisible No More” include: 1199 SEIU, the Boston Teacher’s Union, the Chelsea Collaborative, Fight for $15, Jobs with Justice, Massachusetts Interfaith Committee for Worker’s Justice, Progressive Massachusetts, Restaurant Opportunity Centers United of Boston, and SEIU Local 509.
With more than 145,000 members in 11 states, including 18,000 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, SEIU 32BJ is the largest property service workers union in the country.