Jon Kest, Advocate for Low-Wage Workers in New York, Dies at 57

John Kest, a founder of the Working Families Party, organized the recent strike by the city’s fast-food workers, among many other initiatives. He recently died on Wednesday at his home in Brooklyn because of cancer. He was involved in many community services in New York that helped bring balance to the community and job opportunity to the low-income people. He founded the Working Families Party, which begun in 1998. The organization planned on organizing new labor unions and other advocacy groups in New York. “The party, which has chapters throughout New York State and in Connecticut, Delaware, Oregon and South Carolina, seeks to advance a liberal agenda on a range of issues.” Jonathan Lee Kest was born on June 17, 1955, in Mount Vernon, N.Y., He went to school at Oberlin College, and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. One of the events he organized, which is greatly recognized is the “squatting drive” in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, in which neighborhood residents took over hundreds of apartments in abandoned buildings. As a result, the city agreed to convert the buildings into low-income housing. He also helped stop Mr. Giuliani’s plan to privatize the city’s public schools. Mr. Kest was involved in the continuing effort to unionize workers in the city’s carwashes. He was a great man and will be recognized for his had work in the community.