Business & Tech
Red Clad Workers Walk Through Tarrytown on Their Route From Albany to Wall Street
Fifteen Community Workers of America union members protesting Verizon policy changes talked with us on their way from Warner Library to the local wireless dealer.
A vibrant bunch, all in crimson shirts and jackets, walked down North Broadway as dusk fell yesterday, happy to tell anyone who asked what they were up to and wave to those driving by who beeped in support. A man re-inked the words written on the side of one of two accompanying vans: “We are the 99%.”
Tarrytown was a stop yesterday on the are taking from Albany to Occupy Wall Street central headquarters at Zuccotti Park for Thursday’s National Day of Action events. The group arrived in town earlier than the 5 p.m. they were slated to hang out with other local union workers in front of our Verizon Wireless retailer at 15 N. Broadway, so they waited in front of Warner Library, waving their big U.S. flag.
One affable gray-haired lady doing the entire walk is a Verizon retiree, still active fighting proposed changes that put her pension at risk. “They are trying to take away 100 contractual items we have won in the last 50 years,” Pat Cumo said. “We’re walking against corporate greed.”
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No one in the group knew each other before beginning this weeklong journey, but they are now obviously all chummy. Walkers hail from all over New York from Long Island to Buffalo.
Regina Frisoli, of Long Island, is a second-generation Verizon worker, who was walking on behalf of her 82-year-old father as well as herself. “I’m here to do this for retirees and for the benefit of all,” she said. “It’s for everyone.”
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Kevin Scrobola, a marcher who joined the group in Peekskill, explained the local origins of the vivid red color of choice. He wore a round pin on his red jacket for Gerry Horgan, a picketing Verizon worker killed by a car driven by a strikebreaker, in Valhalla in 1989. On his behalf, Community Workers of America members from “Jersey to California” started wearing red on Thursdays, a tradition that caught on and “started right here in Westchester,” Scrobola said.
The group, which has held consistent around 15 members, made stops along the route from Albany at various Occupy events, including in Hudson where they received a day of heavy rain. In Tarrytown, on this balmy evening, they were stopping for about a half hour at the Verizon retailer more for the sign and the symbolism than the store itself.
“We’re not here to hurt their business,” said Frank Bevilacqua of the Bronx. “Everyone’s having a hard time, especially small businesses. This is about big business, the corporate greed. [Verizon] is doing great, but they don’t want to share.”
When they reached the Verizon store, the manager Dee Mehra actually came out with her own phone and took their picture. “This doesn’t affect us at all,” she said. “We are just an authorized agent. This isn’t about us. We totally support them.”
The CWA union members were greeted, hugged, and handshaked by local union members with handwritten signs who came specifically to support, though they wouldn’t be joining them for the walk itself.
“As we get closer to the city, people will join us,” Scrobola said. “They don’t want to walk 60 to 70 miles.”
The vans would then take the group to their hotel rooms in Elmsford and drop them back off at the Verizon store in the morning. “So we can begin walking again from the exact point where we stopped,” said Cumo. Though her smile didn’t reveal it, she admitted, “I’m exhausted.”
