Family and Friends Hold City Hall Vigil For Man Who Died Without Paid Sick Leave

Supporters of sick-leave bill say Council Speaker Christine Quinn is partially to blame for death of Brooklyn grocery store worker

Supporters of a paid sick-leave bill suggested Wednesday that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is partially to blame for the tragic death last month of Felix Trinidad, a Brooklyn grocery worker.

Healthcare and other activists organised a memorial vigil in tribute to Mr. Trinidad, 34, who died of stomach cancer after "putting in 12-hour days, six days a week, at the Golden Farm supermarket in Kensington, which does not offer sick days," reported The New York Daily News. The vigil was organised outside City Hall. “He would have been better if the bill had been passed because he wouldn’t have had to worry so much about having to miss work,” his widow, Anastacia Gonzalez, 31, told The New York Daily News.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to that entire family,” Speaker Quinn said. “That said, my position on paid sick leave legislation has not changed.”

Speaker Quinn has repeatedly said that she does not support giving paid sick leave days for people, who are sick and may be dying.

According to The New York Daily News report, Speaker Quinn has "refused to allow a Council vote on a bill requiring most employers to offer at least five paid sick days a year[,] and advocates of the bill have been pressuring her to change her mind as she prepares to run for mayor next year."

Unidentified Man Found Unconscious At St. Vincent's Hospital-Martin Luther King Candlelight Vigil

St. Vincent's Hospital MLK Day Candlelight Vigil Becomes Hospital Emergency

An unidentified man passed out on the sidewalk about 25 feet from a candlelight vigil outside of St. Vincent's Hospital tonight during a celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The man, who appeared to be in his 30's, was found laying on the frigid concrete of the sidewalk, along West 12th Street in Manhattan, not far from the Rudin Luxury Condos Sales Office. A passer-by called 911, and vigil participants waited with the stranger, until FDNY EMS rescue crew could arrive.

As the community awaits the decision by Amanda Burden, the Park Avenue socialite who serves as the New York City Planner, on the Rudin luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's, people are having medical emergencies in communities, where hospitals have been closed down. Either that, or hospitals are sealing off "private wings" so that Beyoncé and Jay-Z could give birth to their celebrity baby, Blue Ivy Carter.

If the Rev. Dr. King were still with us today, this is not the kind of society he would have wanted.