By Ann Clune
May day! May day! May day! With the world confronting a novel, life-threatening pandemic, we were made acutely aware of how much we depend on essential workers to sustain our lives. Critical workers include the doctors, nurses, and scientists scrambling to find ways to treat and prevent the Covid-19 virus. Nonetheless important are the janitors, grocery / pharmacy clerks, and nursing home workers who work long hours under dangerous conditions, but who are often, taken for granted.
Broome County Peace Action, Broome County Veterans for Peace, Indivisible Binghamton, Broome Tioga Green Party, Midstate Council for Occupational Safety & Health, and the Workers’ Center of the Southern Tier, wanting to acknowledge and support all workers, coordinated a caravan through Johnson City and Binghamton on May 1st, the International Workers’ Day.
The primary intention of the caravan was to thank and support the essential workers for their service. Given that, the participants practiced “social distancing” by remaining in their vehicles. The larger objective of this event was to sound the clarion call for universal solidarity with workers, a long overdue need, in our nation and throughout the world.
