Demonstrators shut down part of Broadway
Union members wait behind police barricades on 51st Street before a march towards Union Square, in New York. (Dec. 1, 2011) Credit: AP Photo
Thousands of union demonstrators shut down a portion of lower Broadway Thursday for about an hour to call attention to income inequality and unemployment.
"One hundred million Americans are living in poverty or close to poverty," said Vincent Alvarez, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, which organized the march.
"In the richest nation in the world, this is a fundamental problem," he said. "We need to be growing this economy; investing in education, infrastructure and jobs which put people back to work."
Demonstrators from about 10 unions, representing transit, sanitation, health care and other workers gathered in Herald Square shortly after 4 p.m. and marched to Union Square, chanting slogans protesting pay and benefits cuts, and bank bailouts.
Organizers put the number of demonstrators at 10,000, an estimate that couldn't be confirmed by police. Marchers included some students, but many were in their 50s and 60s.
"A lot of these older people strongly support the younger people in their demonstration," said Mitchell Strong, 63, a building worker from Queens.
In the past, he said, people his age were unwilling to put up with the discomfort and risk of arrest that can come with street protests.
"But that's changing," he said.
With Igor Kossov
