Labor Day 2011 MLK and the Unions: We Got Work To Do
I spent 20 years as a Union member for the Communication Workers of AMERICA .Each year we had a Labor Day breakfast.I still attended after I became a manager.I realized then as well as now the importance of men and women and the right to organize.
At one union meeting, I urged my fellow union members to recognize that Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. was called to Memphis ,Tennessee to participate in a labor strike. It was the rights of working men ,the sanitation workers that were organizing for their collective wages and benefits that Dr. King supported.
The city government of Memphis was determined to put down the collected organizations that banded together which included labor, American Federation of State,County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and civil rights organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The events of April 4,1968 silenced not only the most preeminent Civil Rights icon of the ages ,but also one of America"s Labor Martyrs.Dr. King is gone ,his Dream still lives ,and WE ALL GOT WORK TO DO !
Happy Labor Day !
At one union meeting, I urged my fellow union members to recognize that Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. was called to Memphis ,Tennessee to participate in a labor strike. It was the rights of working men ,the sanitation workers that were organizing for their collective wages and benefits that Dr. King supported.
The city government of Memphis was determined to put down the collected organizations that banded together which included labor, American Federation of State,County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and civil rights organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The events of April 4,1968 silenced not only the most preeminent Civil Rights icon of the ages ,but also one of America"s Labor Martyrs.Dr. King is gone ,his Dream still lives ,and WE ALL GOT WORK TO DO !
Happy Labor Day !
posted by EdGray4America.com at
7:18 AM
2 Comments:
Considering our history: We were chained and dragged here to provide the labor to build America; it would make sense to integrate the Labor Unions, post slavery and Jim Crow eras. Being paid for the work we do has always and still is a problem in America for the Black Race. Dr. King died trying to integrate the middle class. Tea Party Conservatives are trying to reverse those gains from yesterday.
A great correlation between the recognition of Labor Day with the memory of Dr. King and his work which still goes unfinished today... The erosion of the influence of labor unions amid the widening gulf in wealth and income in America between rich and poor is a troubling one and deserves more attention than the media is giving it. Thanks for picking up on this Ed...
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