Dozens of UUPers—including every statewide officer—joined nearly 15,000 of their union sisters and brothers at the “We Are One” rally in Times Square April 9. Many of the UUPers marched as a group for 15 blocks to the rally from the site of the just- concluded NYSUT RA shouting, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Activists from across the state jammed the sidewalks along Seventh Avenue for more than four blocks south of Times Square for the rally—organized by the New York State AFL-CIO—prompted by the attacks on workers’ rights in a number of states. Those attacks include a new law in Ohio barring unionized public employees from negotiating health care, sick time or pension benefits. In Wisconsin, a new law strips public employees of their right to collectively bargain on anything except wages, and calls for almost all public workers to contribute more to their pensions and health care coverage, changes that amount to an average 8 percent pay cut.

UUPer Janie Forrest-Glotzer of Oneonta found it very moving to be part of such a huge gathering to support and affect positive change for the labor movement. “It’s critical for unions to stick together and support one another under the ‘We Are One’ theme,” she said. “Together we support safe working conditions and health care for all.”

A lineup of prominent labor leaders energized the crowd, leading them in chants such as “Workers united can never be defeated,” and “Respect our rights.” “We will not be pushed around,” said state AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes. “We will stand up and fight for the middle class. We are the labor movement and we are one.”

“What we’re facing is an attack on working conditions,” NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi said. “We hear this garbage about how it has to do with deficits, but it’s really an attack on collective bargaining.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said unions will not go away in the face of demoralizing attacks. Rather, they have become stronger and more energized.

Several speakers directed their attacks against the leaders of Wall Street and the wealthy who are using their clout to gain tax breaks while public workers are being targeted for sacrifices. UFT President Mike Mulgrew said history being made now will be a lesson for future generations. Mulgrew believes that 20 years from now, teachers will be telling the story of how the wealthiest 1 percent of the country tried to take more from the rest of us—and failed.

The rally was part of a series of events held in the days around April 4 to honor the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated on that date in 1968 in Memphis. His assassination came one day after he gave a speech to striking sanitation workers who were demanding the right to bargain collectively.

— Donald Feldstein