Union rallies to protect Social Security, Medicare

Roughly 16 people showed up to the event to make their feelings known on cuts to the programs known.

Lance Pagliuca, a member of the Communications Workers of America Legislative and Political Team, has been a member of the union for 26 years.

He has three years until he plans on retiring, he said at the rally.

“I’m not at my age to collect Social Security, but they’re constantly talking about cutting taxes, cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare,” he said. “This is going to affect the people that are here, and we want to say not to cutting Social Security and Medicare.”

The funds for the programs should come from taxing the wealthy, Pagliuca said.

“We’re looking to tax the wealthy, at this point,” he said. “This is where the money should be coming from.”

Working-class people should not have to wait until 69 to retire, said Claire Cousin, Hudson 1st Ward supervisor, and state Assembly candidate, at the rally.

“I worked as a teacher’s assistant, a home health aide, a nurse, CNA, grocery clerk, housing organizer and more,” she said. “I know what it looks like to be on your feet, wearing down your body to make ends meet. If you tell me that I have to wait until I’m 69 to retire, those are fighting words.”

As various chants were shouted by the group, a few passing motorists honked their horns and shouted their support for the protest.

It’s ridiculous that people have to fight for their right to the social safety net programs, Hudson Mayor Kamal Johnson said.

“Sometimes, I stop and think that sometimes we have to fight for the dumbest things,” he said. “Like, we’re really fighting for people to have their hands off of Medicare and Social Security, and these are things that have been promised to citizens of this country.”

Johnson said there were times he had to work upward of three jobs just to get by.

“We look at what inflation and cost of living is right now in our community, even just here in Hudson, and you mean to tell me that I’m going to have to work another 30 years just to get by?” he said. “It seems like we’re working just to die.”

Senior citizens depend on Social Security and Medicare, said Teresa Morley, who was reading a statement from Communications Workers of America Local 1120 President Jim Geschiedle.

“Proposing any cuts to this livelihood would have devastating repercussions, for not only CWA but all union members and workers,” according to Geschiedle’s statement.

Ensuring that everyone has access to Medicare should be a priority, said Sandy Oxford, a political and community organizer from the New York State Nurses Association.

“Part of this is to be sure that we have Medicare, and that we have it for all people, and that we don’t just limit it to those that are disabled or elderly, but that we make it part of the signature piece of what it means to be an American in this country,” she said.

The group ended the protest in front of the U.S. Social Security Office on Warren Street, chanting “hands off Social Security” as they made their way to the office.

Social Security should be increased, said Phil Payne, a member of the union and a recipient of Social Security.

“They keep talking about raising the minimum wage to a living wage,” he said. “Why don’t they raise Social Security in response to that? They keep saying they want to cut Social Security, like it’s an entitlement, we paid into Social Security, that’s our money, and we want it back.”

Payne, who has been on Social Security for three and a half years, said cuts would impact him.

“It’ll affect me to the point that I’ll probably have to go get another job,” he said.