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TIMESLEDGER, MAY 5, 2019 TIMESLEDGER.COM
‘Ni uno mas!’ Jackson Heights worker center holds
remembrance for workers who died on the job
2019 * plus tax and season pass.
BY MAX PARROTT
New Immigrant
Community Empowerment
(NICE), the Jackson Heights
worker advocacy group,
organized a march and
vigil for April 29 to honor
workers who have died on
the job and to rally for more
worker protection.
A crowd of around 300
workers, family members
and advocates began outside
City Hall and squeezed over
Brooklyn Bridge’s walkway
to hold a candlelight vigil
in Dumbo. The marchers,
joined by Sunset Park
City Councilman Carlos
Menchaca, carried dozens
of white crosses bearing
the names of construction
workers who have died
throughout New York state
since 2015.
“We want to make sure
that the community knows
we’re doing as much as we
can to make sure workers
are protected, but also
remembered,” said Manny
Castro, executive director
of NICE.
Latino construction
workers, like many of those
affiliated with NICE, are
more likely to die on the job
than non-Latino workers
in the state, concluded a
January report by New
York Committee for
Occupational Safety and
Health. Out of the 16 workers
construction workers who
died in New York City over
the past year, 14 of them
were Latino, according
to Castro.
The vigil comes after
increased pressure from in
New York City on Albany
to increase construction
industry accountability,
following the death of three
workers on construction
sites around the city within
one week in April. The
mother of Erik Mendoza, a
Jackson Heights resident
who was one of the fatalities,
stood among the crowd in
Lower Manhattan.
Though NICE has several
campaigns for public policy
reform including, the
rally focused instead on
honoring the experience
of immigrant construction
workers. The demand that
the speakers proposed
was the establishment of
a memorial for New York
City’s day laborers and
construction workers who
have died on the job.
“We wanted to focus
on the human side of the
issue,” said Castro. “A lot of
our members felt strongly
like we should do something
like this for years.”
The workers packed the
Brooklyn Bridge walkway,
chanting “Ni uno mas” – or
“not one more” – forcing
selfie-taking pedestrians
to take notice. When they
arrived at the Empire
Ferry Park, they laid their
crosses in a pile and gave
speeches commemorating
the dead.
While listening to the
speeches, Lowell Barton the
Vice President of Laborers
Local 1010 said that two
members of his union were
included on the pile of
crosses. He said that New
York state needs legislation
to put contractors who
don’t provide proper safety
precautions in prison.
“How many memorials
are we going to have to
have? It’s not just people
who die. So many people get
disfigured, and they can
never go to work again,”
Barton said.
After the speeches,
NICE worked with The
Illuminator, a guerrilla
political projection
collective, to project the
faces of many of the deceased
workers onto a trestle of the
Brooklyn Bridge.
A slide of the projection
read, “We demand safe
dignified work.”
“All the time, people die
in the scaffolding,” said
Walter Hernandez, Jackson
Heights-based construction
worker, referring to the fact
that fatals falls account for
the top cause of construction
fatalities. In New York
City, 78 workers died due
to falls over the past 10
years, which on average
accounted for 46 percent
of all construction deaths,
according to NYCOSH.
“The point is that you
need to protect lives. No
matter if you have papers
or not,” said Hernandez.
Reach reporter Max
Parrott by email at
mparrott@schnepsmedia.
com or by calling (718) 224-
5863, ext. 226.
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
/TIMESLEDGER.COM
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