At least 20,000 people walked off jobs to protest racial and economic inequality

Kaylee Greenlee, DCNF

Around 20,000 workers walked out of their workplaces worldwide to protest racial and economic inequality Monday, organizers told the Associated Press.

About 60 labor unions and other social justice organizations organized The Strike For Black Lives walkout in 160 cities around the world, according to the AP.

“There was a time when the Irish and Italians were a subjugated people, too,” said 38-year-old Justice Favor, an organizer for New York City’s Laborers’ International Union Local 79, told the AP. “How would you feel if you weren’t able to fully assimilate into society?”

July 20, across the country, workers will rise up to strike for Black lives and withhold our most valuable asset — our labor — in support of dismantling racism and white supremacy to bring about fundamental changes in our society, economy and workplaces. https://t.co/N3SPAPIkPW

— Movement 4 Black Lives (@Mvmnt4BlkLives) July 15, 2020

Workers blocked the drive-thru for eight minutes and 46 seconds, at a Los Angeles, California McDonald’s to protest, according to the AP report. This is reportedly the length of time a St. Louis policeman kneeled on George Floyd’s neck before Floyd’s death.

A few dozen Uber and Lyft drivers formed a vehicle convoy in Los Angeles to demand better health insurance and paid sick leave, the AP reported.

“It’s basic stuff, and it creates a more profitable economic environment for everyone, not just the companies,” 28-year-old Jerome Gage told the AP.

Around 200 essential workers met Democratic senatorial candidates outside the Boston Statehouse, according to the AP.

“We’re just being overworked and underpaid,” Toyai Anderson, a nursing aid at Hartford Nursing and Rehab Center nursing in Detroit, Michigan, told the AP.

Employees of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport called for a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, the AP reported. “We are risking our lives, but we’re doing it at a wage that doesn’t even match the risk,” said Glen Brown, a wheelchair agent whose job does not accommodate social distancing.

“We have to also be concerned about the people who are dying and being put into lethal situations through economic exploitation all over the country,” said protest organizer Rev. William Barber II, co-chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign.

Activists in Durham, NC paint “Strike for Black Lives,” along W. Morgan St as labor unions, along with social and racial justice organizations from New York City to Los Angeles, will participate in a range of planned actions. #StrikeForBlackLives #BLM pic.twitter.com/lAdireYms1

— Bob Karp (@BobKarpDR) July 20, 2020

Around 150 union workers gathered outside Trump International Hotel in New York to support the HEROES Act, the AP reported. The act would provide essential workers with more personal protective equipment, essential pay, and extended unemployment benefits, according to the AP.

The House of Representatives passed the HEROES act on May 15, according to congressional record.

Around 6,000 workers from 85 nursing homes in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut protested personal protective equipment shortages affecting black and Hispanic workers and nursing home residents, the AP reported.

Dozens of janitors, health care workers and security guards observed a moment of silence for George Floyd in Denver, according to the AP. In San Francisco, around 1,500 janitors walked out of their workplaces and marched to City Hall.

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