Several hundred liberal activists gathered outside the Labor Department for a protest organized by labor groups, including the AFL-CIO.
The protest featured a moving truck with digital billboards proclaiming, "We Stand With the Women Not the Sexual Predator in the White House." Attendees waved placards saying, " Women Workers Rising" and "Medicare for All." The AFL-CIO, the union front group Restaurant Opportunities Center, and several non-labor-oriented groups, including the anti-war activist group Code Pink, organized the event as part of the "A Day Without a Woman" protest movement. Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, emceed the event, which ostensibly focused on ending workplace harassment.
"Are there any hard-working vaginas in the park?" Ensler asked. "We need unions."
Several restaurant workers at the podium called on Congress to raise the tipped minimum wage, which is one-third the rate of the $7.25 per hour minimum wage. Tiffany Kirk, a Houston-based waitress and member of the Restaurant Opportunities Center, said that the labor movement would play a key role in opposing President Trump.
"Watch out Donald, we're about to grab you by the policy," Kirk said.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said that social justice protests must include organized labor to boost their numbers. She said political activists are needed because "the right to join a union is under more assault than ever."
"The way we gain respect is power at the bargaining table and power at the ballot box," she said. "Our vote is our voice."
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) pledged to take those complaints and turn them into legislative action. She said that wage issues would be key to the Democratic agenda in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
"We are still fighting for equal pay ... and for equal pay for tipped workers," Schakowsky said. "We have to get rid of (Trump) and we have to get rid of serial harassment."