700 march in Greenfield jobs rally
About 700 people from local unions, advocacy groups and faith organizations marched to the Greenfield Bridge Thursday to call for jobs and restoration of the American dream.
The group of union members, unemployed residents, Occupy Pittsburgh campers and other protesters marched from Magee Field in Greenfield, where they initially gathered, to the bridge around 4 p.m. They used the bridge, which has been deemed structurally unsound, as a symbol for a system they say is likewise in squalor.
"Instead of doing something, we put a Band-Aid on it," said Richard Freeman of Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network, pointing to the Greenfield bridge.
The city has been catching falling concrete from the 89-year-old bridge above the Parkway East for more than 20 years and only recently announced plans to implode and rebuild it, starting in 2014.
These people can't wait that long, though.
Stopped on the bridge, the marchers were at times almost evangelical, chanting, "We are marching across Pittsburgh bridges, demanding jobs right now."
Others shouted in unison, "We are the 99 percent" and "This is what democracy looks like," hallmark themes of the recent Occupy Pittsburgh protests, as they looked out toward the traffic below.
Many held up signs and placards with messages such as "This bridge is structurally deficient," "Steelworkers to make steel" and "Give me a job, I'll fix it."
Former Steel Valley High School business and information technology teacher Ryan Dunmire said she's working full time these days -- looking for a job. She was furloughed in May after the school cut a third of its teaching staff.
"We're all one," she said of the rally.
Almost 40 other groups staged a similar protest on structurally deficient bridges across the country Thursday.
Asked how these the messages stay relevant after several weeks of protesting, Mr. Freeman said inaction keeps them going.
"It'll stay fresh until something happens," he said.