Workers on the march

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of workers gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday to demand health care, better wages, guaranteed Social Security benefits and an end to the war in Iraq.

Many of the longshoremen, transit workers, carpenters and mail carriers carried signs with slogans such as “Bush lied, thousands died” and “More money for jobs, not war.”

In the decidedly anti-President Bush atmosphere, some workers wore T-shirts and badges advocating the election of Democrat John Kerry or Reform Party candidate Ralph Nader.

Organizers had billed the gathering as the “Million Worker March” and had obtained a permit for a gathering of more than 100,000 on the National Mall.

The turnout was much smaller than expected, but U.S. park police have not made official crowd estimates since a furor arose in 1995 over their estimate of 400,000 at the Million Man March sponsored by the Nation of Islam. About 10,000 people marched Sunday, according to some media reports.

Standing on the Lincoln Memorial steps where his father delivered his “I have a dream” speech in 1963, Martin Luther King III told the crowd that civil rights advocates, workers and anti-war activists must come together in common cause.

“Our most important step that we can take is the short step to the ballot box,” King said. “We must vote like we never have before.”

Robert Ortiz, 45, a safety and health representative for Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union of Greater New York, said he plans to vote for Kerry, but, he said, the Democrats take labor for granted.

“Republicans are an overt enemy of labor,” Ortiz said, adding that “Democrats are not as active as they could be.”

Organizers claimed they had gotten endorsements from unions representing 3.5 million workers, including chapters of the Communications Workers of America, United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.