From everyday wins to extraordinary efforts, our members’ stories highlight the strength, solidarity, and impact of our union. Help us build a wall of truth: We may not be able to share every story, but every voice helps shape our union’s vision and our future.
Martin Luther King told the Memphis sanitation workers, “it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.”
“Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality.” Martin Luther King, Jr., March 18, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee It rained in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 31, 1968. For about an hour. Twenty-two black sewer workers were sent home for the day, before the rain stopped. Their white coworkers stayed on the job. The […]
“The time is always right do what is right.” Martin Luther King, Jr., September 21, 1967 Over the course of this series honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of his assassination in Memphis, we have emphasized his many connections to the labor movement. Many are still unaware of just why […]
“Poverty, after all is not only among the unemployed. Most of the poverty stricken are people who are working every day.” Martin Luther King, Jr., September 21, 1967 Addressing a large gathering at the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10’s hall in 1967, King declared, “I don’t feel like a stranger here in […]
“I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.” -Martin Luther King, Jr., December 10, 1964 In Dec. 1964, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., joined workers on strike in Atlanta, Ga., and tied the fight for economic justice to the civil rights movement, […]
“I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963, Washington, DC It is the most famous speech in the 20th century by one […]