From the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch at Bushnell Park to the steps of the state Capitol, around one thousand people marched Thursday to the drums and horns playing “I’ll Fly Away” in celebration of May Day.
International Workers Day recognizes the working class. About a dozen towns across the state marked the day with marches, joining rallies across the country in protest of Trump administration policies. In Hartford, hundreds turned out to protest the Trump administration and to call on the state government for fiscal support.
Ed Hawthorne, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, said workers are tired of being left behind while corporations rake in profits.
“Without us, the wheel doesn't turn. If workers just stop showing up, the people that profit off of our work would cease to exist,” Hawthorne said. “We need to be respected. 40 hours should be enough. You should be able to work one job and be able to afford basic necessities.”
Though he would like to see the federal government stop its cuts of essential services, Hawthorne said the state also needs to work on a budget that takes working people into account. He says state lawmakers need to loosen the budgetary rules that limit spending in favor of paying down debts.
“We need to adjust the fiscal guardrails, declare a fiscal emergency and use the massive surplus that we're expecting to plug the holes that D.C. is going to put before us,” he said.
A spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont’s office said theDemocrat is prioritizing working families this legislative session with his proposed budget.
“From raising the minimum wage to passing Paid Family Medical Leave and including the largest income tax cut for working and middle class families in state history, increasing the EITC, and providing a more flexible tax credit for retirees, Governor Lamont has ensured that affordability and opportunity are at the heart of his legislative agenda and every budget he’s signed,” the statement said.
Some union members say what they see as lack of action from Lamont has them ready to strike.
Nursing home workers set date for potential strike
Sylvia Grant is a Hartford resident who has been working in behavioral health for the past 20 years. She is a member of the SEIU District 1199 New England, the state’s largest health care union.
The wages Grant and her fellow health care workers get are outdated, she said.
“The governor said that we are essential workers. Pay us essentially,” Grant said. “The cost of living is going up now with the tariffs and everything else. It is hard for us to provide for our families. We are not able to do the adequate work that we need to because we're tired and we're understaffed and overworked.”
The union is prepared to strike on May 19 with nearly 6,000 workers. Talks of a strike have been in motion for several months after Lamont’s budget proposal showed what union members say is insufficient funding for nursing home workers, who would like to see wages starting at $25 an hour.
Norwich resident Judy Kyle, another union member, showed up to the rally to fight for Connecticut’s nursing homes too. Kyle said she wants a budget from the state government that can bear the brunt of any cuts from the federal government.
“Connecticut needs to get their budget properly funded by raising, literally, the fiscal guardrails on the rainy day fund, so they can get their budget up to speed, so it's not so detrimental once cuts come from Washington D.C.,” Kyle said.
The lack of funding is not just impacting workers, Grant said; it’s impacting the people they care for.
“We are the backbone of everything,” Grant said. “It's gonna affect the people that we take care of, whether it's in a group home, whether it's in a hospital, whether it's assisted living. That's who is affecting. You're hurting them, and it's not fair to them.”
Marching to protest Trump
Giselle Chavez is an organizer with Make the Road Connecticut. This May Day, she said she was celebrating immigrant working families.
“These are people that leave their families back in their countries to come for what they call the American dream,” Chavez said. “We're celebrating this group of people that come and leave their family to follow a dream that sometimes can get crushed in the United States because of so many laws that are not being passed or protected [for] this community.”
Chavez said it’s difficult to cope with all the actions the Trump administration has taken toward the immigrant community.
“It's hard and it's sad,” Chavez said, “but we're not going to stop fighting.”
Susie Pitler of Glastonbury went to the march with her husband. The 72-year-old says she is now eight years free of pancreatic cancer, thanks to medical university research. She fears what could happen to others if the Trump administration cuts funding to clinical research.
“I was able to go to Yale and participate in a clinical trial,” Pitler said. “Without that, I probably would have died … So much money is being cut from so many important places. It's a shame, and it's a disgrace upon our democracy.”
Cori Mackey is the director of the Center for Leader and Justice, a non-profit in Hartford that helps develop social justice leaders. For her, the people of Connecticut are at a crossroads with a national and a local state crisis, but she said she felt encouraged seeing the turnout at the rally Thursday.
“I hope the tide is turning,” Mackey said, “and that there's a moral cry for justice, especially in our state.”
