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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer at WNYC. Now, live coverage of the ticker-tape parade to honor New York's essential workers who risked their lives to serve the public during the depths of the pandemic. The parade kicked off a short time ago in the stretch of lower Manhattan known as the Canyon of Heroes as they March up Broadway from the Battery to City Hall. A big question though, do those being honored think this is the right way? The Emergency Medical Technicians Union is boycotting because they say they are so underpaid. They even say anyone participating should be seen as crossing a picket line. The TWU, the union that represents transit workers is also criticizing Mayor de Blasio.

Officially, the parade is honoring 14 groups of essential workers. Are you ready for the list? They all deserve to be called out out loud, hospital workers, healthcare workers, education and childcare, first responders, community care, city workers, advocacy organizations, transportation, hospitality and building care, emergency food, communication and delivery, small business and bodega, utilities, and reinforcements. I'm not sure what reinforcements mean, but maybe we'll find out in the course of this coverage. We'll go live to the parade in just a second, but so you don't have to go out in the heat, we're also opening up the phones for a ticker-tape parade of the air.

Name and essential worker or a group of essential workers who you would like to honor for their service during the pandemic, 6-4-6 4-3-5 7-2-8-0. You are invited, or if you are a member of any of the honor groups, how are you, and what would you like the listening public to know, 6-4-6 4-3-5 7-2-8-0. Whatever political controversies there are between groups of marchers and the mayor, this is an earnest question from us, name an essential worker or a group of essential workers who you would like to honor for their service during the pandemic. What would you like to say to them or about them as this ticker-tape parade proceeds in person up Broadway in lower Manhattan?

6-4-6 4-3-5 7-2-8-0, or if you are a member of any of the honored groups, how are you, and what would you like the listening public to hear from you? 6-4-6 4-3-5 7-2-8-0, 6-4-6 4-3-5 7-2-8-0, or join our parade on Twitter, whatever you want to say, tweet @BrianLehrer. With us live now from the parade is WNYC's Karen Yi. Hi Karen, where exactly are you, and can you set the scene for us?

Karen Yi: Hey, Brian. I am on Broadway. I'm marching with [inaudible 00:03:03] workers. We just passed the record street and it is lively. I don't know if you can hear it, there's quite a bit of spectators here. A lot of the spectators I spoke to are actually essential workers themselves, teachers, a doctor, and some are recovering COVID patients. They're here to yell, "Thanks," and there's a lot of emotion, a lot of joy. It's a really celebratory atmosphere. Of course, a lot of paper confetti that's already been shot up and is already all over Broadway. As you mentioned, a lot of different workers are being honored today, including sanitation workers.

I talked to one sanitation worker who's going to be in the parade and he was excited to be recognized and also excited not to have to clean up for once. Normally sanitation workers are at the end of the parade. He was really thrilled to have his family cheer him on.

Brian Lehrer: Wait, who cleans up if not sanitation workers?

Karen Yi: They are going to clean up, but not the ones in the parade, so I guess it was a luck of the draw whoever got to march and whoever didn't, but for a few of them today, it won't be their job.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, [chuckles] at least some of them won't have to do it. Are there throngs of people lining the streets and cheering like in the classic ticker-tape parades we think of from the past?

Karen Yi: Yes. There's another [unintelligible 00:04:23] right now if you hear the cheers. I would say down Broadway, there's at least one to two lines up to three lines thick of people. I don't know if it reaches the crowds of other parades, but there's definitely a showing here. People are holding signs and waving flags [unintelligible 00:04:41] and a lot of this is personal for so many people. I saw a little girl holding a sign that said, "My aunt, my hero." Now there's a lot of paper flying around.

Brian Lehrer: Is the dissension by the EMT or EMS union apparent, including their challenge that anyone marching is crossing a picket line in their view?

Karen Yi: Well, there are so many different groups of workers here that assembled pretty early, so not necessarily. I have seen some EMT workers, unclear if they're here to work the parade or are here to March in it. I did speak to one paramedic, I'm not sure if he's represented in the union, I didn't get a chance to ask him before he marched on, but he's [inaudible 00:05:29] and he was just taking in the moment and really, really glad to be here and get recognition that they don't normally get, but I also spoke to the dad of an EMT worker who was holding a sign demanding better pay for his son. I think their absence for some is definitely felt.

Brian Lehrer: WNYC's Karen Yi at the ticker-tape parade. Thank you so much for joining us. Good luck out there.

Karen Yi: Thanks, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: We'll have more live reports from the parade as we go through this coverage, but let's start with our parade of the air, our ticker-tape parade of the air for you to thank any individual essential worker or any group of essential workers or if you are one yourself, to say how you are and whatever you would like the public to hear. Let's start with a nurse calling in, Steven in Queens. Steven, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Steven: Thank you, Brian. Thanks for what you do. Thanks for all you do. I just want to point out there were plenty of essential workers like myself, I'm a registered nurse in charge of this mobile unit that are all over the city now. We're giving vaccinations, Pfizer vaccinations today, and it's happening all over the city. I don't know how many sites, it's a greatly expanded situation. I just wanted to point out that essential workers are still doing essential work as we speak.

Brian Lehrer: Steven, thank you very much, and thank you for your essential work. Alegra in the Hudson Valley, you're on WNYC. Hi, Alegra.

Alegra: Hey, thanks so much for taking my call. I wanted to give a shout-out to my local librarians. I have always loved our local library. I've been bringing my kids there for years and just being able to go to down and get books is just a really fun ritual for us. I think our library was closed for a few weeks or maybe even those early months when things were really shutting down, but they brought things back online and they did it safely and they were able to open the doors and get books out. They had pickups scheduled for a long time so you could place orders through the phone and then go pick up your books and they would walk them out to you.

I just really want to acknowledge my local library. It was really special that they made that happen.

Brian Lehrer: Alegra, thank you so much. Ricardo in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC, welcome to the parade of the air.

Ricardo: I'd like to shout out Methodist Brooklyn Transport Team for sticking it out [unintelligible 00:08:07]. They did a good job [inaudible 00:08:10].

Brian Lehrer: We don't have a great connection, but I hear you thanking the workers at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Thank you for your call. In fact, joining us right now for a couple of minutes is a nurse. Nancy Hagans is the newly elected president of the New York State Nurses Association in fact. She works at Maimonides Hospital in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Nancy, thanks for giving us a few minutes. Welcome to WNYC.

Nancy Hagans: Thank you for having me, Steven. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: I understand that you are not personally at the parade right now, but that some of your members are marching, what would you like to say this morning on behalf of the Nurses Association?

Nancy: On behalf of the New York State Nurses Association, first of all, I would like the members to know as their new elected president, as their leader, I am very proud of our members, of how they came out during the pandemic and worked very hard with the little bit of PPE and the supplies that were provided for us in the beginning. We've saved many lives. We could have saved much more alive if we were prepared and had enough PPE, but I'm tremendously proud of our members. The way everybody came out, the way our members put the community first ahead of ourselves. We got up every day and cared for New York. I am grateful for the parade today.

However, I would like for the mayor and everyone to acknowledge the members that need financial compensation. They are members, I work in a private institution where members were compensated and had pandemic pay. Unfortunately, the health and hospital members were not compensated at all. We have members who are at home with chronic illness from COVID and they have to go back to work and be compensated. Although today it's a great day we have celebrating our members, we have celebrating New York, the resilience that we showed during the worst pandemic, but I wouldn't want it to stop today.

I would want it to continue and I want, like somebody else called earlier, the essential workers to be acknowledged financially. [unintelligible 00:10:37]-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: So many groups of workers saying today, "Okay, a ticker-tape parade is nice symbolism but do take care of us with fair pay." Can I ask if you can even put this into words, how you and your fellow nurses summon the courage to walk into the hospital or other healthcare facility every day at the depths of the pandemic, especially before we had the vaccines, knowing you might very well be exposed and get sick from the virus that was ravaging your patients and your colleagues?

Nancy Hagan: Well, as nurses, as you know, we are one of the most trusted professions for 20 years in a row. Also, remember we take an oath, it's to nurse, it's to care for people. When we went to work, as I said, we put the patients ahead because we won because it was a public health issue and that's our duty. That's our call. You don't just get up and become a nurse. You want to be a nurse. We enjoy healing and taking care of others. That's why it was very painful of us when we lost so many lives every day. Some of us went to work, some of us went home, we could barely go home.

We were crying. We were very upset when we lose a patient but when our patients went home, we had the clap and we celebrated them. Every day we were resilient. The more we go into work and realized we could make a difference, the more we wanted to be there and help our patients and help our community, that's how we felt.

Brian Lehrer: Well, Nancy Hagans, congratulations on becoming the newly elected president of the New York State Nurses Association. On behalf of all our listeners, I'm sure, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being nurses. However we can honor you on this day of the ticker-tape parade, we honor you and we certainly hear you about compensation and we will keep those issues going.

Nancy Hagan: Yes. It's very important for the compensation because we do have members that are chronically ill because of exposure to COVID because of lack of PPE. In the beginning, no one really knew what to do and how to treat, especially before the vaccine. Some of us did not have proper equipment in order to care for patients and [unintelligible 00:13:10] getting sick and went home and brought it to our family, to our parents at times. We would like to see compensation, not only for the nurses, for all the frontline workers, for all the essential workers. [unintelligible 00:13:25]-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Did you consider, by the way, not having the Nurses Association participate when the EMS workers asked people not to, and they saw it like crossing a picket line?

Nancy Hagan: Well, we don't look at it like that. We'd look at it today is a day to celebrate our heroes. Then, we have a lot of members who wanted to be acknowledged and be recognized. Although we realize there's more that needs to be done, but New York as a public, they really appreciated us. They really came out and supported us and gave us the strength to get up every day and go to work. We decided to come and we do acknowledge, and we are in solidarity without brothers and sisters, the EMS workers. We do understand where they are coming from.

[unintelligible 00:14:18] [crosstalk] some of our members wanted to participate as well, and we will continue to acknowledge, and we will continue to address that situation with them because we do have some of our members that were not properly taken care of. It's great to have a ticket-tape parade, but the mayor also could acknowledge, especially the health, the HMH hospital and stuff [unintelligible 00:14:44] where we had the [unintelligible 00:14:48]-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Those workers where they didn't get the hazard thing.

Nancy Hagan: Yes, that's something-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Nancy Hagans, the newly elected president of the New York State Nurses Association, thank you for giving us a few minutes as the ticker-tape parade is going on.

Nancy Hagan: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we're taking your calls, inviting you to name an essential worker or a group of essential workers who you would like to honor as the ticker-tape parade for essential workers goes on at this hour up the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan, or if you're a member of any of the honored groups, how are you and what would you like the listening public to know? 646-435 7280. Let's go next to Jillian in Wichmann Hill, Queens. Jillian, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in.

Jillian: Thank you for letting me speak. I want to give a shout-out to the bus drivers of Queens because for us elderly who can't get to grocery stores, et cetera, in Queens, which is a lackluster place, these people were just essential, and a lot of them got sick, but the rest of them came to work and they saved lives as much as any nurse. Thank you so much.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for thanking the bus drivers. Angela in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Angela. Thank you for calling in.

Angel: Hi, Brian, how are you doing? Good morning, everyone. I would like to acknowledge the people who worked for Spectrum, Verizon, all of those workers who made sure that the internet service was up. I have someone close to me who works for Spectrum, and Verizon received a co [unintelligible 00:16:42] pay or whatever it's referred to. Those workers received that pay on a regular basis. Spectrum workers, they only got a Starbucks card or Dunkin Donuts card. That was all they received from the company. They received no monetary compensation for working.

Someone close to me works from midnight to 8:00 in the morning to make sure those lines were working so that I could teach remote learning, my students and all of the businesses could continue. It's really disappointing that no one has acknowledged the obvious people, the people who made sure that our internet service was working. They had to make sure everything was done before 6:00 in the morning if there was an outage because nothing and no one could be down. It's just a shout-out to them as an essential worker that was overlooked this year and a half. I've never heard anyone acknowledge them.

Brian Lehrer: Good one, Angela. Thank you so much. Who ever shouts out love for the cable guys? Well, Angela just did. Imagine if you've never thought about it being a cable guy in the height of the pandemic and having to go into another person's home and then another person's home and then another person's home. Tonya in Hoboken, you're on WNYC. Hi, Tanya.

Tanya: [inaudible 00:18:01].

Brian Lehrer: Hi there.

Tanya: Sorry. I'd like to shout out to my friend Cassie who's been constant in just her ability to go into work in a really difficult situation. She's a nurse in Cobble Hill and she originally worked in an Alzheimer's unit and they changed that to a COVID unit. Then she got COVID and she's been suffering with long-term long hauler fatigue. She still goes into work all the time, whether she had to take a bus or an Uber just to get there on time every day. She's an amazing person and has given so much to the city.

Brian Lehrer: Tanya, thank you so much for that. I'm sure she appreciates it. I hope she heard you. Joining us now for a couple of minutes to discuss the decision that we mentioned earlier to boycott the parade and to break down the union's demands for us is Owen Barzilay President of FDNY EMS, Local 2507. Owen, thank you for giving us a few minutes. Welcome to WNYC.

Owen Barzilay: Good afternoon. Thank you for having me on.

Brian Lehrer: Tell us who your members are and why you're boycotting the ticker-tape parade in your honor?

Owen Barzilay: Sure. Yes, so I represent over 4,000 EMTs, paramedics, and fire inspectors. The past year and a half has been extremely demanding on all fronts that you can think of. Our EMTs and paramedics have seen things that no one should see in such a short amount of time. I've been here over 26 years, I've seen quite a few deaths in my history here, but these men and women have seen more deaths in a year that they will see in a lifetime that is required for them to work here. They basically worked in a war zone. We were placed in harm's way, the city wasn't prepared, we didn't have the right equipment, we didn't have the right personal protective equipment.

As the weeks and days kept on going and we saw such an influx of core increases, it just placed us in such danger that 2000 of my men and women became infected with the disease. It caused five of them to succumb to the illness, three additional members committed suicide, countless others today still have lingering effects, and they will probably have to either resign or retire soon because of that they're not able to recover. Then for the mayor to throw this parade today, and then we said this last April in 2020 when he said that we're going to throw a parade for them, that a parade is not going to fix our problems.

I have men and women who are mostly people of color, and 30% are women. I'm sorry more than 50% people of color, that are struggling. They're living in their cars. They're living in shelters, they're sleeping on a friend's couch, living with their parents. They can't afford to work in this city. They're being paid $35,000 a year. We are required to work 2000 hours, if you divide that it's basically minimum wage. How do you expect to keep us helping you and working for you and constantly be there for you when a disaster strikes the city, yet you're not willing to acknowledge our work?

Our work is just as dangerous as other first responders. The police officers, firefighters, they can see the dangers that's coming their way. We can't, we deal with communicable diseases for years, and we've been telling them this, that-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: It is incredibly low pay for people in such a frontline life-saving profession as the members who you represent. I understand that the union is in contract negotiations with the city right now. Would it have detracted from your ability to get a fair contract by letting your members also march and be honored in the parade?

Oren Barzilay: We have been at negotiations for over a year now. The past few months have been a little more accelerated, but it's been very disappointing the past few weeks. They haven't offered us anything above the pattern. They haven't gone out of their way to adjust anything for us. Anything that we negotiated, basically, we have to work for it.

We had to [unintelligible 00:23:27], work additional hours. There's nothing given to us. The city may come back and say, "Well, their rate would have increased," yes, but if you count the additional hours we have to work, then you watering down our hourly rate, it's not a raise by working additional hours.

They're not negotiating with us in good faith, I can tell you that. We've been sitting with them till the wee hours of the morning some days, and just to end abruptly because there's been no movement on their behalf.

Brian Lehrer: Well, Owen, your members may not have been able to participate or chose not to participate in the ticker-tape parade that's going on right now but I guess we can say your media strategy has been effective. You've certainly got a lot of attention that you might not have gotten otherwise to your cause today here and elsewhere. Owen Barzilay president of FDNY EMS Local 2507, good luck to you and your members in the contract negotiations and in your life-saving work. Thank you for joining us.

Oren Barzilay: Thank you, sir.

Brian Lehrer: Our coverage of the ticker-tape parade and your calls on our ticker-tape parade of the air for essential workers continues after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC as we continue live coverage of the ticker-tape parade to honor New York's essential workers who risked their lives to serve the public during the depths of the pandemic. We're taking your calls in honor of whoever you want to honor, or if you were one of those essential workers yourselves to tell us how you are and what you would like people to hear, 646-435-7280, and how wide are some people casting this net of honor? A listener writes, "I want to honor all those people who came out of their homes and got themselves vaccinated. Without them, we could not have begun on the road to herd immunity." LJ in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hello, LJ.

LJ: Hey there. Thanks for having me. I just wanted to shout out my friend, Jillian, who's a nurse who's been working this whole time, risking her life during the pandemic, and in her honor, I just want to say, it's been said before, but what the essential workers need is not a parade, but better wages and better benefits, not just nurses, but all the low-wage workers whose labor enables our whole society to function, and in my opinion, they all work much harder than any CEO out there.

Brian Lehrer: LJ, thank you very much. Debra in Huntington, you're on WNYC. Hi, Debra.

Debra: Hi. I wanted a shout-out for my niece, Jessica [unintelligible 00:26:21]. She is an emergency room nurse, and she worked in Westchester Medical in St. John's and went into NYC Manhattan. She was in the thick of it when it came to Westchester, they were the first group. She's not only pregnant, today is her birthday when she was going through all of that. Today's her birthday as well. This is a great honor to have this parade happen on her special day.

Brian Lehrer: She gets an essential workers ticker-tape parade, a birthday shout-out, and a baby shower all in the same phone call. Debra, thank you very much. Denise in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Denise.

Denise: Hi. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good, thanks for asking.

Denise: I am calling to give a shout-out to the essential workers at Red Rabbit based here in Harlem. They are a school food company that was able to pivot in September and do home deliveries. My family was one of the families that was able to stay safe and home while we got fresh meals delivered to our doors, and apparently, they did this for over 6,000 families. It was an amazing opportunity for my family to stay fed during this really crazy time as well as thousands of families across the city, and their staff was amazing, they accommodated us, they accommodated different meal types, and really just made it safe for us to be fed and make sure that our kids were fed.

Brian Lehrer: Denise, thank you for that shout-out. Thank you very much. Bobby on Twitter writes, "I am a building services worker and I have not heard one mention of us doing our maintenance job straight through the pandemic, so yay to the building service workers," who are officially one of the 14 groups being honored by the ticker-tape parade today. We'll take one more via Twitter. A listener writes, "Would like to thank the essential WNYC engineers and hosts," but I'm going to deflect from the host, "that kept radio on the air throughout the pandemic. I'm trying to imagine going a year without the local news and shows you folks produce for us, and it would have been a much darker year."

"Thank you," says that listener. I say thank you to you, but I'm going to make a distinction between people like myself who were able to work from home and our engineers like Juliana Fonda and the Liora Noam-Kravitz doing the show today who are going into the station day after day, week after week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to wrap up by going back live to the parade with Gothamist Scott Heins. Scott, I hear the celebration behind you. Describe the scene.

Scott Heins: Brian, the parade is in full swing. We are looking at Broadway right now that's just covered in, it's not actually ticker tape, it seems to be more of a confetti but it's just a really, really frankly, heartwarming team here to see so many people in the crowd are seeing members of whether it's their health care union, maybe they're a teacher and they were cheering for the DOE that just walked past me about 30 seconds ago, maybe they're just generally so thankful for all of the groups that came together to get New York through this pandemic and to save as many lives as they could. There's an old FDNY fire engine that's blasting its sirens by me right now.

I got to say, I wasn't sure how I would feel just attending this parade after having covered a lot of the pandemic myself. I understand some people maybe being dissatisfied with the parade and wanting more to really safeguard and show that New York City cares for essential workers, but seeing folks here who have lost co-workers, lost friends, lost mentors, and family members cheering for, say, their union or their hospital as it walks past, it really gives you a sense of how much these groups of essential workers are communities unto themselves. It's just really, really amazing to see. I'm very happy that New York City [unintelligible 00:30:48] [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: Nicely said, Scott. Scott Heins, a reporter who knows the difference between confetti and ticker tape even. There were supposed to be speeches and a ceremony outside City Hall at the end of the parade, but that's all been canceled because of the heat. Seems kind of anti-climactic. We've got 20 seconds left. Is anything more informal being planned in its place that you know of?

Scott Heins: Not that I can see, Brian, but I honestly don't think anyone who's here celebrating is going to walk away feeling like they missed out. People just getting the chance to cheer, be together in what seems to be a pretty much unmasked, and hopefully, well-vaccinated crowd is just an achievement and a celebration too itself.

Brian Lehrer: Scott Heins reporting for Gothamist from the ticker-tape parade, thank you. To all the essential workers, one more time, thank you.

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