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May Day Protests: South Florida Workers Take To Streets To Speak Out Against Rising Costs & Low Pay

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Domestic workers packed the streets to speak out against rising costs and low pay now impacting their lives.

"We are here saying that throughout this pandemic, workers have been on the front lines, they've been exposed, and they deserve increase wages, and they deserve respect and dignity in the work that they do," said Sandra Denis with Miami Worker Center.

Miami Worker Center is one of several nonprofits that rallied and marched through downtown Miami Sunday to fight for those being priced of the area.

"Florida is the most expensive place to live in the nation, yet we have the hospitality industry not even paying people the minimum wage of $10. Our workers can't even afford to live in South Florida," added Denis.

In addition to demanding a living wage, the protesters included construction and farm workers who say the conditions they are being subjected to are unacceptable.

"We know that we are entering some of the hottest months of the year, and the people make who our food, the people who make our plants, who build our city, they don't have basic lifesaving protections, whether it's water, whether shade, whether it's rest," said Oscar Londoño, with We Count, a local union.

But the domestic workers of South Florida weren't the only ones taking to the streets. All across the country, workers protested in honor of International Workers Day. All demanding the same thing: living wages as well as protections from the housing crisis and labor discrimination.

"The majority of Miami is relying on service workers and domestic workers and a lot of us do not have the money to pay these rent hicks," said protester Nicky Parez.

"The average person is not making enough to be able to sustain the insurance, housing, a decent living," echoed another protester, Keisha Guyton.

And groups say even when the protest is over they will continue to fight.

"We want corporations to know that workers make all things possible. There would not be the billions without workers, and workers have something to say. Without the workers, the company and corporations would not have made the billions that they have made. Workers too deserve to live in Miami, workers deserve to be able to take a day off when they're sick," said Denis.

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