From the Archives AFSCME, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike

http://www.afscme.org/about/1029.cfm



On February 12, 1968 — 40 years ago — 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., decided that enough was enough. They went on strike to force the city to recognize their union, AFSCME Local 1733. The walkout capped a long history of mistreatment and disrespect amid shameful working conditions.

The strike was a defining moment for the modern labor and civil rights movements. Officially, the men were after rights and raises, but the signs they carried made clear that their struggle was for much more — dignity and respect.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis to support the striking workers. The evening of April 3, he delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to a packed room of strikers and supporters. The next day, he was assassinated.

From the January/February 2008 issue of AFSCME WORKS Magazine.

Photo © Ernest C. Withers, Courtesy Panopticon Gallery, Boston, Mass.

Several great stories at link.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/18/martin-luther-king-jr-visionary-and-trade-unionist/

Martin Luther King Jr. — Visionary and Trade Unionist

by James Parks, Jan 18, 2008

We all know that Martin Luther King Jr. was a visionary. We know he was a champion for civil rights. But did you know that he also was a strong supporter of unions and workers’ rights from Day One?

As AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff said last year, speaking before the Electrical Workers:

I would submit to you that Dr. King was a trade unionist. He believed in our movement and struggled for our movement. He knew and he preached that civil rights were inadequate without economic rights. Dr. King knew that our economic system allows a few to have too much power and wealth and workers to have too little, so he believed that we have a responsibility to struggle to push down wealth and power from those who have too much to those who have too little. That is why he was a trade unionist. His last great campaign was the Poor People’s Campaign to organize America’s poor to fight for economic justice and dignity.

. . . (more at link)