GLOW Community Alliance and Genesee County DSA held a Labor Day demonstration at City Centre on Sunday afternoon in opposition to the expansion of the Buffalo Detention Center and in support of all workers.
“Democracy is not just voting, democracy is having a say, and unions are one of those things that give workers a say in their workplace. Workers should have a voice, and unions are a mechanism for that,” says Logan Cole, Secretary Genesee County DSA.
Cole also says people should have the right to know more about the expansion project at the Buffalo Detention Center in Batavia.
“We still have a lot we don’t know about this. I think they should feel obligated to tell the community the nature of this expansion, we don’t even know if it’s going to stay on the property.” Cole says according to County planners, federal projects don’t have to comply with local zoning or planning rules.
“They say they want to increase the capacity so they can more comfortably house detainees, that’s a refrain I’ve heard, but in the past ICE has not shown that they are prioritizing the comfort of the detainees. They plan to increase capacity by 100, but they’ll probably hold more people than they can handle. It would just increase ICE’s capacity to detain more people around here.”
