International Workers Day was celebrated on Friday, both around the world and in downtown Buffalo. Hundreds of union members and supporters cheered as national AFL-CIO Vice President Tafare Gebre urged them to stand together and fight for their rights.
Gebre said, “Workers in this world are marching around the streets, saying, ‘Enough is enough,’” and asked if the crowd in Niagara Square stood with them. Boisterous chants told him they did.
Gebre said workers must demand action from elected officials, and pointed out that wages across the spectrum of jobs need to be raised.
“We need to raise the minimum wage, but we need to raise wages for all 90% of American workers who toil in our schools every day, who toil in our hospitals every day, who build our roads, who help the sick, who put out the fires,” said Gebre. “They are coming together and saying, ‘I want to raise wages.’”
Gebre noted that the plight of immigrant workers and the high rate of incarceration rather than education are obstacles to raising the minimum wage.
Looking to the federal and international arena, Gebre told the crowd that President Barack Obama could not be more wrong than in his stance on international trade, namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Gebre said American workers want and support trade, but only if it lifts them up. He noted that Buffalo’s steel workers have lived through the hardships of previous international trade agreements, which he said failed to live up to their promises. Gebre said it is time Mr. Obama listened to his national base, and ended the fight for fast track negotiating authority.
