Community Corner

SEE: Protest For Excluded Workers Takes Over BK, Manhattan Bridge

The demonstration is the latest from a coalition calling for funding for New Yorkers excluded from coronavirus relief packages.

Activists March In Manhattan Calling For A Tax On Billionaires in July.
Activists March In Manhattan Calling For A Tax On Billionaires in July. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

BROOKLYN, NY — Hundreds of New Yorkers shut down the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges on Friday morning in the latest call for the state to workers left out of coronavirus relief packages.

The huge crowd of "excluded workers" from across New York took to the streets in Brooklyn before marching, and driving, across the bridges, shutting down traffic on the inter-borough connectors with chants and drumlines.

The demonstration is the latest from a coalition of more than 100 organizations who are calling on the state to #FundExcludedWorkers, or those who have been excluded from coronavirus relief because of their status as formerly incarcerated, self-employed or undocumented.

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Only 5 percent of households in immigrant, Black and brown communities received unemployment insurance despite nine in 10 of those surveyed losing their job or income, according to a study by one of the organizations, Make the Road New York.

The workers include taxi drivers, salon and restaurant staff, street vendors, and countless others who have been on the frontlines during the coronavirus crisis. More than half of New York City's essential workers are immigrants, according to the coalition.

Find out what's happening in New York Cityfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The coalition has proposed creating a billionaire wealth tax to help pay for flat rate monthly payments to the eluded families and funds to retroactively pay those who have not been given relief since the start of the crisis.

More than 60 state legislators have signed onto the idea.

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