Our Perspective
Racial and Economic
Justice Forever
Intertwined
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
BRONX TIMES R 4 EPORTER, JULY 3-9, 2020 BTR
Crespo resigns as
Dem. party leader
Elected offi cial announces resignation
On Friday, AM Marcos Crespo resigned as chair of the Democratic Party in the Bronx, which
coincided with his offi cial resignation from the Assembly. File photo
staff and volunteers,” Crespo said in a
statement. “We supported the election
of young, dynamic and diverse progressive
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BY JASON COHEN
On Friday, Democratic County
Leader and Assemblyman Marcos
Crespo resigned as chair of the Democratic
Party in the Bronx.
This recent development added to
the bombshell announcements about
his offi cial resignation from the Assembly
back in February, when Crespo
announced he would not seek reelection
nor run for borough president,
a position which many in the Bronx
thought that he would be the top contender.
According to reports, the assemblyman
will step back from public service
in favor of a job at Montefi ore Medical
Center.
“I am proud of all we have accomplished
over the last fi ve years thanks
to the work of talented and committed
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elected offi cials. We made history
with the fi rst black female district
attorney in the State of New York. We
also strengthened the judiciary by supporting
and electing dozens of women
of color to the bench. The party has become
more inclusive and the community
now has a more welcoming space
for larger gatherings and political activities
with our newly built out headquarters.”
Crespo has served in the State Assembly
since 2009 when he won a special
election to replace Ruben Díaz Jr.,
who became Borough President. In
2015, Crespo was elected chair of the
Bronx County Democratic Committee,
replacing Carl Heastie.
In America – and indeed the entire world – an
unprecedented and long overdue
conversation on racial justice is happening.
We are seeing sweeping changes in the way people from all sorts of
different backgrounds view ingrained racial injustices and the
consequences that result for people of color. It’s a societal reckoning
the likes of which we have never before seen.
And while the changes being made around the country show that
the protest movement is making a significant difference, it’s
important that we also focus on the economic issues that contribute
to systemic racial injustice in the U.S. It’s clearer than ever that to
achieve true racial justice, we need to address the underlying
economic conditions under which so many people of color live.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the poultry processing
industry, a low-paying, dangerous job performed almost exclusively
by people of color. The poultry workers who feed everybody from
California to here in New York face blinding fast line speeds, extreme
temperatures, dangerous, repetitive cutting motions that often lead
to debilitating injuries, and for the majority of them, who do not
have union representation, no voice to help make their jobs and their
lives better.
Poultry workers have gone so far as to call themselves “modern
day slaves,” and say management only cares about corporate
profits at the expense of the health and welfare of their workers.
The COVID-19 crisis shed a harsh new light on the treatment of
workers at these “modern day plantations,” with dozens of workers
dying and thousands infected. And while unions like the RWDSU
have been able to improve working conditions in union plants –
forcing implementation of better social distancing, more PPE, and
policies that encourage sick workers to stay home – the industry as
a whole has failed terribly when it comes to prioritizing safety
during this pandemic.
And that must change. America needs to start treating all its
workers – including people of color – with dignity, not just in poultry,
but in all industries across the country.
That’s just one of the many reasons that we support the Black
Lives Matter movement. We embrace this movement because it is
the morally right thing to do, and long overdue. Unions fight for
economic equality and for racial equality. We know that these two
things are intertwined, and we can’t have one without the other.
The RWDSU has a proud history of fighting for racial justice.
Today, we are proud to be part of the BLM fight. All
workers – from poultry workers in the South to
car wash workers here in New York – deserve
economic and racial justice. We will not stop
fighting until they are achieved.
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