April, 13 2015, 05:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Bartees Cox, bartees.cox@berlinrosen.com, (202) 815-6457
Emma Stieglitz, emmaS@berlinrosen.com (646) 200-5307
Jack Temple, jack.temple@berlinrosen.com (734) 395-8441
Fight 4/15: On Tax Day, U.S. Workers to Wage Largest-Ever Mobilization
Fast-Food Workers to Strike in 230 Cities; Adjunct Professors, Home Care, Child Care, Airport, Industrial Laundry and Walmart Workers to Protest Coast to Coast
WASHINGTON
On Tax Day, fast-food workers from Pittsburgh to Pasadena will walk off the job, while adjunct professors, home care, child care, airport, industrial laundry and Walmart workers will march and rally in what will be the most widespread mobilization ever by U.S. workers seeking higher pay.
The two-and-a-half-year-old Fight for $15 will go to college, with protests expected by students from 200 campuses. Activists organizing around #BlackLivesMatter will join in as the ties between the racial and economic justice movements deepen. And the marches and rallies will stretch around the globe, with protests expected in more than 100 cities, in 35 countries, on six continents, from Sao Paolo to Tokyo. The first global strikes coordinated with U.S. workers are scheduled for Italy and New Zealand.
Workers chose tax day both because the date, 4/15, is their demand and because they want to highlight the fact that they are paid so little that too many are forced to rely on public assistance to get by. [The strikes and protests will start a day earlier in Boston out of deference to the April 15 anniversary of the marathon bombing.]
The nationwide strikes and protests will come two weeks after McDonald's announced it was increasing salaries for a fraction of its workforce by $1. But rather than mollifying employees, the paltry pay move is attracting ridicule and inspiring even more workers to join the walkout.
WHO: Workers from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts and other fast-food restaurants; students; #BlackLivesMatter activists; adjunct professors; and home care, Walmart, child care and airport services workers
WHAT: Largest-ever mobilization of underpaid workers; biggest campus protests since the anti-apartheid movement
WHEN/ WHERE: For information on times and locations of strike lines in a particular city, please contact Emma Stieglitz at 646-200-5307 or emmaS@berlinrosen.com
For national media in New York City, here is the schedule of strikes and actions for New York City on 4/15.
6:15am-- McDonald's, 395 Flatbush Ave Extension (at Fulton)
Nationwide protests kick-off in NYC with fast food strikers joining with union and non-union construction workers demanding $15 and union rights
12 pm--McDonald's, 2049 Broadway (at 71st and Amsterdam)
Fast food workers, college students, high school students, retail workers, community supporters participate in die-in outside McDonald's, drawing the connection between physical and economic security.
4 pm--57th Street at 7th Avenue
Thousands join the call for $15 and union rights at construction and fast food worker rally
5 pm-- 64th Street btwn Central Park West & Broadway
Home healthcare workers in white lab coats, who care for our nation's elderly and infirm but don't earn enough to provide for their own families, join the call for $15
5:30pm--Columbia University's Low Plaza (115th St. & Broadway)
College and high school students from across the city gather at Columbia to protest in support of underpaid workers; 6 pm march to uptown McDonald's
5:30pm Columbus Circle (West 60th St. & Central Park West)
15,000 underpaid workers and community supporters converge on Columbus Circle to demand livable wages in largest mobilization of low-wage workers in New York to date; 6 pm march to Times Square to follow.
Background
Two-and-a-half years after it launched in New York City, with 200 cooks and cashiers walking off their jobs demanding $15 an hour and union rights, people working in a range of different industries (including home care, child care, airport services, retail and academia) in the US and around the world have joined the Fight for $15 movement. What seemed crazy-- workers' demand for $15 an hour--has caught on and is now reality in SeaTac, Seattle and San Francisco. From coast to coast, cities, states and companies are racing to raise wages well above the federal minimum of $7.25. Now Democrats and leading economists are increasingly pointing to strengthening working Americans' freedom to form unions as a key solution to boost wages and restore broad-based prosperity, something fast-food workers have been saying since their first strike in November, 2012. And the urgent need for solutions to America's low-wage crisis is already emerging as a key issue in the run-up to the 2016 election
On Wednesday, the Fight for $15 --the movement Slate said, "managed to completely rewire how the public and politicians think about wages;" MSNBC said, "entirely changed the politics of the country;" and Fortune said, "transformed labor organizing from a process often centered on nickel-and-dime negotiations with a single employer into a social justice movement that transcends industry and geographic boundaries,"--will wage what is expected to be the largest-ever mobilization of U.S. workers seeking higher pay, with strikes, rallies and protests to be held across the country, and around the world.
LATEST NEWS
'We Intend to Win': California Billionaire Tax Officially Certified for November Ballot
"The fact that the ultra-wealthy and billionaire-backed politicians like Gov. Newsom nearly succeeded in killing it is the single best argument for why we need to tax billionaires in the first place."
Jun 26, 2026
Organizers said late Thursday that a proposed one-time wealth tax on California billionaires has been certified to appear on state ballots in November, advancing despite efforts by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and billionaire-funded groups to tank the measure ahead of the June 25 deadline.
"Today we’re making it clear that we aren’t backing down–the billionaire tax will be on the ballot this November, and we intend to win,” said Debru Carthan, a radiologic technologist and spokesperson for Billionaire Tax Now, the healthcare union-led coalition leading the ballot initiative.
If approved by California voters, the proposal would tax billionaires' wealth at a rate of 5%, raising an estimated $100 billion to shore up the state's healthcare system amid devastating federal cuts to Medicaid. Revenue from the tax would also be used for food aid and education, according to the initiative's text.
Last week, organizers offered to withdraw their proposal if Newsom agreed to push a 2% tax on billionaire wealth in California's Legislature. Newsom, who is widely seen as a 2028 presidential hopeful, rejected the compromise and privately told a major Democratic donor that he was confident the billionaire tax would not appear on California's ballot in November.
Organizers emphasized Thursday that despite Newsom's opposition and fearmongering from billionaires and other opponents, the proposed tax is popular among California voters, who are facing an affordability crisis as the wealthiest see their fortunes soar. From 2023 to 2025, the wealth of California billionaires surged by 144%, according to a recent paper co-authored by leading economists.
"Voters consistently support the billionaire tax by large, double-digit margins, and the growing campaign has brought on thousands of volunteers," organizers said in a statement. "Supporters of the measure submitted over 1.6 million signatures, more than double the number needed to secure a spot on the general election ballot."
To succeed, proponents of the billionaire tax must secure enough votes to pass their initiative while also defeating separate ballot measures that would effectively cancel out the wealth levy. One of the competing initiatives was pushed by a group bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to defeat the billionaire tax and who left California in late 2025 to avoid the potential levy.
The competing ballot measures—the Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act of 2026 and the Improving Transparency, Effectiveness, and Efficiency in California Government Act of 2026—are titled in ways that could lead some voters to support both the wealth tax and proposals that would counteract it.
Igor Volsky, director of the Tax the Greedy Billionaires campaign, said in a statement that "when billionaires can erase democratic initiatives that threaten their fortunes, they have too much power."
"The fact that the ultra-wealthy and billionaire-backed politicians like Gov. Newsom nearly succeeded in killing it is the single best argument for why we need to tax billionaires in the first place," Volsky added.
US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a vocal supporter of the proposed billionaire wealth tax, said Thursday that "this issue couldn’t be more simple."
"There are 250 billionaires in a state of 40 million people," said Khanna. "What we’re saying is, tax these 250 billionaires so that millions of Californians can have healthcare."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Ruinous Venture' Alligator Alcatraz Closes, But Systemic Abuse of Immigrants Continues
"The fact that this site ever existed is a travesty, given the cruelty behind it, horrific conditions, and blatant violations of due process," said the deputy director of the ACLU's National Prison Project.
Jun 25, 2026
While welcoming Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' confirmation on Thursday that the immigrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" has closed, rights advocates also renewed criticism of how immigrants are being treated across the country as President Donald Trump continues his deadly push for mass detention and deportations.
The facility in the Everglades opened last summer despite concerns about both human rights and the environmental impact. DeSantis said Thursday that "Florida led the way in increasing much-needed detention capacity and working with our federal partners to streamline deportations, removing thousands of the most dangerous criminal aliens from our country."
Despite claims from the president and his allies, federal data have shown that most immigrants detained during his second term lack criminal convictions. In addition to flooding US streets with agents from Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Congress give CBP and ICE more funding.
"Our detention operations support has led to nearly 30,000 additional deportations, and Florida accounts for more than 40% of all state/local immigration arrests nationwide," DeSantis added Thursday. "Alligator Alcatraz has fulfilled this mission. Detainees who are still awaiting deportation have been transferred to other federal facilities, and demobilization efforts are underway."
Responding to the governor on social media, Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said: "You wasted more than $1 billion of Florida's emergency response fund on a failed PR stunt that hurt people and destroyed families. You should never be anywhere near public office again."
As The Associated Press noted Thursday:
Immigration advocates said the center’s tents were never safe or humane for holding people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers and described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that didn't flush, floors flooded with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.
They described large white tents with rows of and rows of bunk beds surrounded by chain-link cages. The air conditioning could shut off abruptly in the sweltering Florida heat. Detainees could go days without showering or getting prescription medicine.
The state and national ACLU as well as Americans for Immigrant Justice (AIJ) had sued over the facility last year.
"The fact that this site ever existed is a travesty, given the cruelty behind it, horrific conditions, and blatant violations of due process. We challenged the Trump administration and the state of Florida over the facility, and now celebrate its closure," Carmen Iguina González, deputy director for immigration detention with the ACLU's National Prison Project, said Thursday.
Keisha Mulfort, deputy executive director and strategy officer of the ACLU of Florida, declared that "with its official closure, 'Alligator Alcatraz' seals its reputation as a ruinous venture. This detention center stands as a monument to what happens when a state government abandons its conscience in service of a federal cruelty agenda."
"The DeSantis administration deliberately built a detention facility in the middle of the Everglades—not despite the harsh conditions, but because of them—and spent over $1 billion of Florida taxpayers' money to do it," she pointed out. "That is not governance; that is cruelty dressed up as policy, and complicity dressed up as leadership. In spite of this, hundreds of thousands of Floridians protested, organized, called their legislators, and refused to look away. They made this moment possible, and we should name that clearly: This is what accountability looks like when the government won't hold itself accountable."
Mulfort also stressed that "as people are transferred to other facilities, the abuses do not disappear—they relocate." She and Iguina González pledged that the state and national ACLU will not stop tracking abuses of immigrants across the country.
"The nightmarish scene found at 'Alligator Alcatraz' is not wholly unique and reflects systemic patterns of abuse at other ICE detention facilities nationwide," Iguina González said. "We remain very concerned that people may be transferred to other sites with sordid and dangerous conditions, and we will continue to monitor this situation."
Paul Chavez, director of litigation and advocacy at AIJ, also emphasized that "closing this facility is an important step, but the government's obligation to respect due process does not end at the facility gates. Constitutional rights must follow every person wherever they are detained."
"We remain deeply concerned that people transferred out of this facility will continue to face mistreatment and civil rights violations in other detention centers," he said. "Americans for Immigrant Justice will continue to defend due process, offer free legal representation to low-income immigrants, and stand strong with our immigrant neighbors, friends, and their families."
After using $1 billion to brutalize immigrants, the concentration camp known as "Alligator Alcatraz" has been emptied. Its victims still need justice.truthout.org/articles/flo...
[image or embed]
— UAINE (@mahtowin1.bsky.social) June 22, 2026 at 10:36 PM
As for the environmental impact, The New York Times reported that after the Trump administration announced that detainees had been relocated, Paul J. Schwiep, an attorney for groups suing over Alligator Alcatraz, promised last week to continue the lawsuit against what he called the "secret gulag in the Everglades."
"They hope that they can slink away in the middle of the night without explaining to anyone what they did, why they did it, or how they proposed to clean up the mess that they've made," said Schwiep. "And we don't intend to let them get away with it."
Ripping the facility as an "internment camp," Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) similarly asserted on Thursday that "the fight isn't over. We need accountability for the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted, the abuse and harm inflicted on detainees, and the damage done to one of Florida's most sacred ecosystems."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Advocates Renew Call for End to US Sanctions After Devastating Venezuela Earthquakes
"This is the time for cooperation, compassion, and respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty," said CodePink.
Jun 25, 2026
Human rights groups on Thursday implored the United States and allied countries to lift all sanctions against Venezuela—which experts say have already killed tens of thousands of people—as the beleaguered South American country reels from Wednesday's devastating earthquakes.
At least 188 people are dead and over 1,500 others injured, with those figures almost certain to rise, following a 7.2-magnitude temblor centered in San Felipe, Yaracuy—about 100 miles west of Caracas—and a 7.5-magnitude quake that struck less than a minute later, also in centered in Yaracuy.
US President Donald Trump, who authorized the illegal invasion of Venezuela and adbuction of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, wrote on social media after the earthquakes that his administration “stands ready, willing, and able to help."
“We will be there for our new and great friends," Trump claimed.
Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's vice president and acting president since his ouster, thanked the Trump administration for "offering support and solidarity to the people of Venezuela in the face of this tragedy that has plunged us into mourning."
However, US sanctions—first imposed during then-President George W. Bush's second term while Hugo Chávez was leading Venezuela and ramped up under the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations—remain in place, complicating relief efforts after one of the country's worst-ever natural disasters.
While the Trump administration has issued narrow exemptions from sanctions to companies looking to profit from Venezuela's crisis and copious natural resources, primarily oil, these waivers have not delivered broad relief to the people who need it most.
"Today’s catastrophe makes clear what we have long argued: When a country is deliberately weakened through economic warfare, its ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters is also weakened," the US-based peace group CodePink said in a statement. "The United States has a responsibility to help address the humanitarian consequences of the policies it has imposed."
🇻🇪 CODEPINK extends our deepest condolences to the people of Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes that have taken hundreds of lives, injured thousands, and left entire communities in urgent need of assistance.Our full statement: buff.ly/QzYcQ3p
[image or embed]
— CODEPINK (@codepink.bsky.social) June 25, 2026 at 2:22 PM
CodePink continued:
Too often, we’ve seen the US and other Western countries exploit natural disasters like this in order to deepen foreign control. In Haiti, the US and its allies have repeatedly pushed militarization and politically conditioned aid instead of genuine recovery led by the country itself. In this moment, the world must refuse to allow Venezuela to be forced down the same path.
We also call on the administration to immediately lift all US sanctions on Venezuela and release Venezuelan funds under US jurisdiction so they can be used for emergency relief, reconstruction, and recovery.
"This is the time for cooperation, compassion, and respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty," CodePink added. "We urge the international community to support relief efforts and stand with the Venezuelan people as they rebuild their homes, their communities, and their future."
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a Washington, DC-based think tank, said Thursday that "while the Trump administration has issued a series of general licenses to allow foreign businesses and banks to operate in Venezuela in spite of US sanctions, the continued existence of these sanctions significantly discourages international economic and financial actors from expanding operations there."
CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot said that “we must remember that Venezuela suffered the worst depression in the history of the world, without a war, due to illegal US economic sanctions."
"This deadly destruction was not a mistake, but an expected result that would happen to any country that was cut off by sanctions from the international financial system, and also from the vast majority of its foreign exchange earnings from exports," he continued.
According to a 2019 CEPR report, as many as 40,000 Venezuelans died due to sanctions during the previous two years. The sanctions ostensibly targeted Maduro's government, but made it much more difficult for millions of people to obtain food, medicine, and other necessities.
“Tens of thousands, and more likely hundreds of thousands, of Venezuelans died as a result of those sanctions," Weisbrot said Thursday. "The United States is therefore obligated to help prevent further loss of life in Venezuela."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular