BY OLGA RODRÍGUEZ
NEW YORK - Nearly 40,000 union carpenters, plumbers, and electrical workers converged on the headquarters of the Metropolitan Transit Authority June 30, to protest the MTA's award of a major contract to a nonunion construction firm. The construction workers then fanned out and picketed various nonunion construction sites in the midtown area.

There were dozens of arrests and injuries, as the cops - caught off-guard by the massive size of the protest - attempted to halt construction workers at various points of the five-hour demonstration.

The administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani initially mobilized more than 500 cops, who treated the peaceful demonstration as a riot, and then doubled the number of cops to 1,000. News reports indicated that at least one construction worker was seriously injured when he was kicked in the head by a mounted cop's horse.

The construction workers explained they are fighting not only for their union jobs, but for future generations of workers. Mayor Giuliani claimed that construction workers were attempting to shut down the city. Referring to a demonstration by taxi drivers a few weeks ago when at the mayor's instructions cops refused to allow cab drivers from Brooklyn to enter Manhattan, Giuliani said, "Had the construction workers given the same advance warning that the taxi drivers gave, they'd have been dealt with in the same way."

The class hatred shared by the big-business press for the construction workers permeated the news coverage. The New York Times claimed that the "rowdy" demonstration became an "embarrassment because the street chaos overshadowed the unions' message."  
 
 
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