Restaurant workers celebrate Biden-Harris
inauguration, hold them to campaign promises
BY DEAN MOSES
Restaurant workers celebrated the
Biden-Harris inauguration earlier
this week by erecting a 24-foot tall
Elena the Essential Worker statue in the
East Village.
On Jan. 19, essential service workers
gathered at Elisa’s Love Bites on 441 East
9th St. in the Lower Manhattan to host an
early salute to President Joe Biden and Vice
President Kamala Harris while also showcasing
their support of #BuildBackBetter
plan, which is said to provide a standard
fair wage to all workers.
One of the many platforms the Biden
campaign pushed over the course of their
run was that of a fair and living wage across
the United States. Restaurant workers
have been some of the hardest hit occupations
during the pandemic. For the past
11 months, these essential workers have
waited with bated breath for Biden’s proposed
relief package, especially restaurant
workers who have for years struggled to
survive off of bare minimum wage. Biden
promises to raise the minimum wage to $15
per hour.
Coordinated by One Fair Wage, the
celebratory occasion served as more than
just a toast to the new president. It was a
moment to bring awareness to the plight
of a restaurant worker and the daily abuses
they undergo without the feeling of fi nancial
security to support them when they
want to speak up.
The restaurant workers gathered beneath the Elena the Essential
Worker effigy.
“We are here to thank the Biden-Harris
administration for stepping up and advocating
for what we deserve but also holding
them accountable and making sure that
this actually goes through,” said Gemma
Rossi, the lead New York organizer for One
Fair Wage.
Rossi, like many of the restaurant workers
in attendance, is aware that there is a
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
great deal of work laid out for the Biden-
Harris administration, so they took a moment
to congratulate the new president and
vice president while also reminding them
of their promise.
“We’ve been fi ghting for more than a
decade to raise the sub-minimum wage,
but really since COVID hit over the last
year, workers–not just in New York but
around the country–have really stepped
up to mobilize right now. A lot of workers
prior to the pandemic maybe felt a little be
indifferent about having a full wage before
tips out of the fear it would take their tips
away. They are realizing now the value of
having a full wage that they can count on.
Partly because a lot of restaurant workers
really struggled to access unemployment
insurance due to their sub-minimum wage,
but also tips are down right now,” Rossi
said.
One woman shared that having a $15
minimum wage would allow her to feel
secure enough to stop customers and
even members of management from sexually
harassing her. “You can’t really say
anything to a customer,” she said fi rmly,
adding that an increase in her wage would
make a world of a difference. “It opens
the door for me to say I’m not going to
take that disrespect because I’m already
getting paid and I don’t need to take this,”
she said.
Each worker took a moment to share
their personal experiences beneath a
24-foot-tall effi gy of Elena the Essential
worker, an artistic spin on Rosie the Riveter,
a World War II poster with the motto,
“We Can Do It!”
The rally pushed to inaugurate change
and wants everyone to be reminded that
essential workers have been on the frontlines
during this pandemic and deserve to
be recognized and not left behind in relief
packages.
Crude protesters attack videographer at Madison Square Park
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
Detectives are looking for a group
of protesters at Madison Square
Park who recently attacked a female
videographer with a soiled diaper and
other items apparently because she began
fi lming them, authorities said.
Police released extensive video footage
on Jan. 15 of the assault that occurred at
noon on Jan. 10 in the area of East 23rd
Street and Madison Avenue in the Flatiron
District.
Law enforcement sources said the
33-year-old woman was fi lming an ongoing
protest at the park when a number of participants
in the demonstration grew angry
because she began fi lming the proceedings.
Other than exercising her First Amendment
right to freedom of the press, the victim
did not say or do anything that would
have provoked the attack, cops stated.
The protesters’ angry words at the videographer
then turned physical, cops said,
when one smacked her on the head with a
raw egg. The individual then hit her with
an umbrella, causing the victim to drop her
phone.
As the victim attempted to run away,
police noted, the suspects continued to
chase and harass her. Another individual
then sprayed her with aerosol string, while
another man hit her with a skateboard.
Finally, cops said, another male protester
rubbed the woman’s face with a discarded,
dirty diaper.
Following the revolting assault, the suspects
fl ed the scene in an unknown direction.
The incident was reported to the 13th
Precinct. The victim did not suffer serious
injury.
Anyone with information regarding
their whereabouts can call Crime Stoppers
at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial
888-57-PISTA. You can also submit tips
online at nypdcrimestoppers.com, or on
Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages
are kept confi dential.
FILE PHOTO
The moment when a protester at Madison Square Park shoved a dirty diaper
in a female videographer’s face during a protest on Jan. 10, 2021.
Schneps Media January 21, 2021 3
/nypdcrimestoppers.com
