This week, over 400 Social Security advocates, 4 Senators and 5 Representatives packed a room in the US Senate to deliver a message with one voice: No cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or Veterans’ Benefits.

Thousands of people watched along at home, and even more have seen it since. That’s why Social Security Works put together this video of the highlights—so you can join Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Jack Reed and Al Franken and Representatives Keith Ellison, Jan Schakowsky, Peter DeFazio, Ted Deutch and David Cicilline in standing up for the benefits we have all earned over a lifetime of hard work.

Help Social Security Works keep up this fight with a small donation.

Where was the Queens Congressional Delegation – Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and House Members Israel (3), McCarthy (4), Meeks (5), Jeffries (8), Meng (6), Maloney (12), Crowley (14)? If you are unsure of who your House member is go here. Give them a call and let them know that the Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans’ Benefits are off the table.

Join the OQ contingent for the March to City Hall. We will meet at the Andy Warhol statue on the northeast corner of Broadway and 17th Street (across 17th St. from the northwest corner of Union Square) @ 4:30 pm. Look for the Occupy Queens banner. Depending on the crowd we may move to another position to prepare for the march at 5 pm.

(((___((__(_ ¡¡¡Occupy Astoria Long Island City out in force!!! _)__))___)))

Sunday, March 17th, Occupy Astoria Long Island City was out in force supporting the locked out workers of the Trade Fair supermarket on 30th Avenue in Astoria. Shoulder to shoulder, we stood with the workers and representatives of their union, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 342. OALIC handed out flyers and helped to alert the community of the lock out.

Employees of nine Trade Fair supermarket locations throughout Queens have been locked out of their jobs since Wednesday, March 13th. The chain’s 100 meat department workers have been working without any type of contract since the last one expired in October of 2012.

In a letter to his constituents, NY Councilman Daniel Dromm of Jackson Heights succinctly explained the situation the workers are facing:

“Trade Fair has refused to bargain fairly. Instead they have insisted on wage freezes throughout the length of a new contract, cutting workers’ hours, taking away workers’ Sunday premium pay, and gutting their healthcare benefits.”

As the workers have been locked out, Trade Fair has hired replacement employees. Displayed outside the store, were oversized posters advertising help wanted for part-time meat workers. The qualifications of these new workers were brought into question this past brisk Sunday afternoon. Locked out workers informed OALIC that the meat being marked Halal by the replacement workers was not in fact Halal. This is a serious issue considering that many Astoria residents shop at Trade Fair specifically for their Halal meat. On the street, OALIC encountered a Bengali Astoria resident who has shopped at Trade Fair for his Halal meat and who also had heard the startling news that the meat being put out on the shelves was not Halal. He seemed very dismayed by the news and supported the workers. He made a point of saying that local Muslims developed a relationship and trust with their butchers and that the situation with the Halal meat should be made aware to the larger Muslim community. OALIC also met other residents who also were supported the workers and therefore were boycotting until the unfair labor practices were resolved.

As for now, the workers are locked out in the cold. Their union is continuing to work toward better working conditions and a fair contract. Until then, OALIC supports the Trade Fair workers both in spirit and in the streets.

What you can do:
• Boycott Trade Fair supermarkets until the workers are brought back!
  Your dollar is your vote. Put your money where it matters. Money talks.
• Sign this petition in support of the workers
• Spread the word about the Trade Fair lockout to your neighbors
• Educate yourself with some of these resources:
* For up-to-date news on the lock out, visit UFCW Local 342’s Facebook page
* Local Astoria blog interviewing Locked Out employee by local Astoria resident

Trade Fair management wants to cut workers’ hours to 24 hours a week! Many workers are left to question how they can live on that. The owner wants to cut back the workers’ hours from full time to part time. The rise of part-time work notes an alarming trend chronicled by NY Times writer Catherine Rampell:

“We are nowhere near recovering the jobs lost in the recession, and the track record looks even worse when you consider that so many of the jobs lost were full time, whereas so many of those gained have been part time…. These trends are part of the reason that many people believe the standard unemployment rate of 7.7 percent understates the extent of underemployment. If you include both part-time workers who want full-time work and people who have stopped looking for jobs but still want to work, the unemployment rate is actually 14.3 percent.”

The Declaration of the Occupation of NYC declares that “all of our grievances are connected.”
OALIC knows that the fight being now fought by Trade Fair workers is not an isolated incident. OALIC stands in support of Trade Fair meat workers and workers everywhere!

Workers’ Rights: Fight Back
For the Workers: Fight Back!
For their Families: Fight Back!
Together We Stand! Together we win!

Occupy Astoria Long Island City

*** READ & COMMENT TO THE ORIGINAL POST HERE @ OALIC ***

(((___((__(_ TIDAL #4 _)__))___)))

Pick up your FREE hard copies of TIDAL #4, Block-by-Block at the following NYC locations:

- Blue Stockings
- Brecht Forum
- 16 Beaver
- Housing Works Bookstore
- McNally Rand Books
- St. Mark’s Books
- Book Culture/ Columbia Book Store
- Yippie Cafe
- Think Coffee on Mercer

Share this email please to pread the word, original pieces by George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, Chantal Mouffe, Michael Hardt, Pamela Brown, Team TIDAL, Rev. Michael Ellick of Judson Memorial Church and much more. Special collective pieces on Palestine, Detroit, and Loss and Movement. TIDAL, www.tidalmag.org

FREE PDF download—-> here

_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_¡MayDay!_

——-> CITYWIDE MEETING <——-
(((___((__(_Miércoles / Wednesday 13 FEB ::630-9PM_)___))___)))

DONDE/WHERE? :International Brotherhood of Transportation Union Local 808
22-43 Jackson Avenue, en la esquina de Jackson Avenue y 46th Avenue
cerca de la estación del tren 7, en Long Island City, Queens.

¿QUÉ?_:: La Coalición Primero de Mayo Por los Derechos de Los Trabajadores y Los inmigrantes, invita a todas las organizaciones de la Ciudad de New York, para discutir la planeación de la Marcha y Rally del Primero de Mayo, celebrada desde el 2005.
Este ano el Primero de Mayo tiene un gran significado por la crisis Socioeconómica, que la clase trabajadora enfrenta en los Estados Unidos y alrededor del mundo
La reunión del primero de Mayo en la plaza de “Unión Square”, nos dará un oportunidad para expresarnos por los derechos de los trabajadores, para demandar trabajos bajo los derechos de los Sindicatos para todos, así como para una vida saludable y segura para la clase trabajadora. Será un llamados de solidaridad con todos los trabajadores del mundo.
La reunión de Union Square será un oportunidad para expresara que los trabajadores se están organizando por sus derechos, y no dependiendo que esos derechos sean permitidos, estamos organizado el poder de los trabajadores para producir cambios urgentemente necesitados.
Todos están invitados: estudiantes, trabajadores de unión, desempleados, indocumentados, jóvenes de hoy y de ayer, activistas anti-guerra, antirracistas. Venga a esta importante reunión de toda la Ciudad de New York, para planear el Primero de Mayo del 2013.

¿WHAT?_:: The May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights invites everyone to the Citywide Meeting to discuss plans for the May 1st rally & march as well as for other events throughout the year. This event has been hosted by the Coalition annually since 2005 at Union Square Park.
Whether you are a student, union member, unemployed, undocumented, young or old, an anti-war or anti-racist activist, whether you are looking for a job or organizing for a union on your job, May Day 2013 takes on great significance in light of the economic and social crisis working people face in the New York City area, and around the world.
The May Day Rally at Union Square is a militant opportunity to demonstrate for workers’ rights, to demand jobs with union rights for all, to call for pro-worker immigration legislation that includes immediate legalization for all, an end to the deportations and no militarization of the border. We will demand every right that working people need for a healthy, safe life, education, healthcare, housing and so on. As we do every May Day, we will call for international solidarity with workers around the world.
The Union Square May Day Rally is a declaration that people are organizing for their rights, not waiting for those rights to be granted. May Day is organizing people’s power to create the changes workers and immigrants urgently need.

(((___((__(_ www.may1.info _)__))___)))

(((___((__(_ 212-633-6646 _)__))___)))

 Willets Point Group, Inc. is fighting back!    

Hear the diverse voices of small business owners and employees. Hear what they have to say. Listen for the help and support that is needed.

Willets Point has caught the eye of the 1%, They see a large tract of ‘underdeveloped’ land and its potential to generate wealth for a select few. It is next to ‘vacant’ land (Flushing Meadows Corona Park) for which they have grand plans for profit as well.

The plan requires that the current inhabitants need to be removed. This is a job for government. Elected officials, members of the 1% themselves or desperately currying favor to fill their war chests, share the same vision spied by the real estate moguls through their myopic viewfinders perched atop the Manhattan skyline. They wield their NEW AND IMPROVED! POWER OF EMANENT DOMAIN to clear out the area – ‘legally.’ The lives and livelihoods of the people, the 99%, who work there are seen merely as an impediment to progress – if they are seen at all.

This is a battle for which the Occupy Movement was born but more shoulders are needed to do the work if we are to succeed. Join Occupy Queens and others as the fight continues.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park privatization scheme.

Join the OQ Flushing Meadows Corona Park Working Group.  Check the ‘Events Calendar’ for meeting updates.  Occupy Queens is a supporter of the Fairness Coalition of Queens fighting to save our park.