While 1199SEIU members in the New York metropolitan area took to the streets on November 17 for the National Day of Action, healthcare workers further north enthusiastically rallied in solidarity. The National Day of Action for good jobs and a fair, democratic economy is the latest in a series of joint actions by the Occupy movement and labor and community organizations.

Activists from Rochester, Buffalo and other upstate regions gathered at Lafayette Park in Albany, the state’s capital and site of the Occupy Albany movement. Marching past the Capitol building, to protest in front of the state Business Council’s headquarters, Roz Hampton, an 1199 delegate from Buffalo, said, “It’s time for the wealthiest to pay their fair share. I am here on behalf of the working people in Western New York to tell the Business Council lobbyists that enough is enough --- no tax breaks for the rich.”

Hampton was referring to New York’s planned $5 billion tax break that the wealthiest New Yorkers will receive if the supplemental tax rates on the wealthiest New Yorkers are allowed to expire as planned on December 31. When the crowd of a few hundred people left the Business Council offices, they headed back up to the Capitol, chanting “Hey you millionaires pay your fair share!” and dropped off petitions to the Governor and the Senate Majority Leader, demanding that they extend the tax surcharge on the wealthy in a special legislative session next month.

Instead of rallying up north, Sawson Jamal, a dietary worker at Victory Lake Nursing Home in New York’s Hudson Valley region, traveled to NYC for the November 17 Day of Action. She has been supporting the people who are “Occupying Poughkeepsie” in that city’s Hulme Park. She said, “The Occupy Poughkeepsie movement represents those throughout the Hudson Valley who are joining with others across the world and banding together and fighting strong for change. I have been doing everything I can to support this movement, because I am the 99%. I know I am a part of something that is big and that will have a lasting effect for economic equality.”