Hundreds of people turned out for two rallies in Oneonta celebrating International Workers’ Day Thursday, May 1.
Also called May Day, the holiday honors the struggles and gains made by the organized labor movement.
While both rallies were held in support of workers, the downtown rally had a political bent against the Trump administration while the other was a show of solidarity between two SUNY Oneonta employee unions.
Around noon, about 200 community members gathered in the vacant field on Market Street protesting changes to federal policies that resulted in cuts to public service jobs, funding and programs.
The group marched on the sidewalk west on Market Street, looped around Main Street and then proceeded down South Main Street back to the field for speeches, chanting and singing.
Cooperstown Oneonta Indivisible organizer Virginia Kennedy said that May Day is a time to remember the workers who fought for the things that made the middle class, including unions.
“We appreciate the work of unions, and we’re saddened by the people who try to crush them,” she said. “Unions want to make people’s lives better. We want to protect our programs that make people’s lives better. And we don’t understand these billionaires who want to cut these programs so they can give themselves tax breaks. We have all figured out by now, billionaire money does not trickle down to the middle class.”
Donna Latella, who owns a small business in Cherry Valley, said she’s already feeling the pinch of Trump’s economic policies.
“Our first quarter is about half of what we were for the same period last year and things look like they’re only going to get worse,” she said. “Not everything we sell is imported, but we do import a lot of things and we can’t sell them for the price we’re going to have to, because of the tariffs. I am actually afraid that we may not be able to stay in business.”
Michael Forster Rothbart, D-Seventh Ward, said that despite feeling depressed about the “chaos that the federal government is in,” speaking out is something that can be done locally.
“I keep hearing stories of individual immigrants who have been deported without due process,” he said. “I would hope that even Republicans who support the policies would also support due process … Because without rule of law, we don’t have, we can’t have, democracy. I realize chaos is not a side effect their policies. Chaos is the goal.”
Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek said that to find issues at the national level, “look in any direction.”
His top issue, he said, is “the ideals of being an American, what we stand for as Americans, nationally and internationally. Who are we? and what are we inclined to be as we move forward?”
Campus rally
Around 3:30 p.m., about 50 members of two unions representing close to 1,000 SUNY Oneonta employees joined forces to rally on campus.
The call for the joint action came from the local chapter of United University Professions, which has 704 members on SUNY Oneonta’s faculty, professional and athletics staff. Joining them was CSEA Local 635, the union representing about 240 members in the administrative and institutional services unit, including clerical, operations, custodial, laundry and medical assistant staff.
Public demonstrations show solidarity and strengthen labor rights, said Kürt Klejbuk, a carpenter and the local’s vice president.
“SUNY across the state was created for two purposes,” he said, “a valuable education to New York citizens, and to create good jobs so people could raise their families while their kids were going to the SUNY system … And the workforce itself has just been, as far as I’m concerned, disrespected, neglected and forgotten. We really just want to let people know that we’re the ones here that take care of your children.”
He added that SUNY employees have faced financial struggles, including low wages and lack of recognition.
The current collective bargaining agreement runs through 2026, “during the highest inflation we’ve seen in God knows how many years,” Klejbuk said. “Our total raise percentage over that five year period was 13%. Most of us, due to inflation, actually wound up losing almost 18% compared to average wage hikes across the board.”
Lydia Brassard, an organizer with UUP, said that connecting across unions shows that union power is alive.
“May 1 is the traditional day of labor,” said Matthew Unangst, a history professor and UUP Oneonta membership development officer. “It feels especially important right now, with the threats that higher ed is under, that labor is under at the federal level, that coming out here, showing that we all believe in what we’re doing here, the importance of SUNY Oneonta, but also of organized labor for making this better country to organize.”
Attendees included two retired SUNY Oneonta employees who joined UUP when it was established in 1973, just after their arrival.
Richard and Loraine Tyler are officers in the local retiree chapter and attended the event to show solidarity and support for their union.
“We would have never had a decent state contract without the union,” Loraine Tyler said.