On this day in Labor History the year was 1998.
If you were trying to drive to work on that Tuesday morning in mid-town Manhattan you were probably late.
Forty thousand construction workers took to the streets in a massive protest.
They shut down more than 200 building projects.
They were rallying against the use of non-union labor.
The New York Daily News declared “Midtown Shut Down!” and “Pending Projects Hammered by Protest!”
The New York Post’s front page headline was “Midtown Mayhem.”
The protest snarled traffic outside of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Madison Avenue.
The MTA had awarded a $33 million contract to build a subway command center to a non-union employer, Roy Kay, Inc.
The construction workers chose to hold their demonstration during rush-hour to make the most impact.
One organizer explained, “We wanted to make the biggest statement possible.”
The workers chanted “What do we want? Union! When do we want it? Now!”
Some of the protestors decided to march to the job site.
At Tenth Avenue they were met by police in riot gear and police on horseback.
One protestor estimated that there were 2,000 police officers, including snipers on rooftops.
Up to that point the protest had been relatively peaceful.
But then the police demanded the protestors disperse and began to spray mace into the crowd of construction workers and supporters.
One protestor was kicked in the head by a horse.
Numerous Police and protestors went to the hospital for injuries and exposure to the police mace.
Thirty-eight people were round up and arrested.
After the protest, small pickets against the MTA project continued.
But the non-union contractor, who had the power of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s police force to back them up, would not be moved.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show