by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

About 400 people took to the streets of Claremont Monday morning as part of the nationwide “Workers over Billionaires” protests, organized by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and Indivisible Claremont.

Protesters at Indian Hill and Foothill boulevards voiced their disdain for recent Trump administration actions they said are hurting workers in blue collar jobs.

“The country supergroup Alabama, decades ago, put out a song called ‘Hello America,’ and it was like, here’s to the teachers, the firefighters, the police officers on patrol, the mailman, the garbage collector,” said Victoria Bhavsar of Indivisible Claremont. “Now we can add the computer programmers, the nurses, you know, people who are doing a job, making a living, and Trump is doing his best to have everything that is theirs go to his group, and that is not okay. It destabilizes countries and that’s why everybody’s out here.”

The protest comes at a time when labor leaders and unions are facing unprecedented attacks. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler recently told NPR, “By every measure, this has been the most hostile administration to workers in our lifetimes.” On Monday, The New York Times reported, “More than 445,000 federal employees saw their union protections disappear in August, as agencies moved to comply with an executive order President Trump signed earlier this year that called for ignoring collective bargaining contracts with nearly one million workers.”

(L-R) Claremont resident Chuck Rassieur and former Claremont United Methodist Church pastor Sharon Rhodes-Wickett at Monday’s “Workers over Billionaires” protest. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

Ontario resident Glenn Black was among Monday’s protesters. “I want to honor unions, and I want [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the troops off our streets,” Black said.

Former Claremont United Methodist Church pastor Sharon Rhodes-Wickett pointed to recent ICE raids that have resulted in the arrests of both documented and undocumented persons.

“Clearly he’s trying to set himself up to be a dictator, set himself up to be an autocrat, and that’s not democracy,” Rhodes-Wickett said. “I think what he’s doing is very methodical and very scary. This government is behaving in a very bad way, and we’ve got to speak up. We can’t stay silent.”

Among the protesters Monday was Dan Romero, who traces his roots back to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

“I’m Ute Native American,” Romero said. “I’m also a Vietnam era veteran, and I do not like the way my own people are being treated here. I belong here; brown skinned people belong here. The reason why our skin is brown is because it is from here. No one else here belongs.”

Multiple “Workers over Billionaires” actions were held across the country, many spearheaded by the AFL-CIO.

Dan and Dina Romero demonstrate in Claremont Monday at the “Workers over Billionaires” protest. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

“Billionaires are converting the government into their private slush fund and just passed the largest wealth giveaway in the history of the US,” read a AFL-CIO post at mobilize.us. “The money they take from working families, they put in billionaires’ pockets and set aside to fund a private army of ICE agents … We will be in the streets, outside the offices of the corporate criminals who are behind the attacks on our freedoms, and at congressional offices. Together we will demand a country that puts workers over billionaires.”

Pilgrim Place resident Chuck Rassieur said, “If we don’t protest, if we don’t stand up, things will get worse. It’s important to resist.” Rassieur cited the administration’s recent deployment of National Guard and Army troops to Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. and deportation of people to foreign countries as just cause for protest.

“That’s not our way of doing things in this country,” Rassieur said. “Our president — this is my belief — he’s a billionaire. He has more money than most of the people in this country. He knows that he can do anything he wants to then take it to the judicial system. And he’s got the money to pay for lawyers and to take all the lawsuits through the judicial system, even to the Supreme Court. Most people can’t pay for that. But he knows he can get the judicial system to work for him. And then he was convicted of … 34 felonies; that didn’t prevent him from becoming president. So he knows how to work the judicial system. That concerns me.

A demonstrator’s upside down American flag at Monday’s “Workers over Billionaires” protest in Claremont. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

“The message for today?” Rassieur asked before holding up his sign, “In America, we don’t do kings.”