About AFSCME

Strike Settlement

Shortly before the assassination Mayor Loeb had said, "I'll never be known as the mayor who signed a contract with a Negro union." Until the tenth week of the strike and for 12 days after the assassination, he kept that vow.

Undersecretary of Labor James Reynolds arrived in Memphis the day after Dr. King's murder. He had orders from President Johnson to mediate in the labor dispute. There had been no attempts at federal intervention before, despite the outbreak of violence on March 28. The first Southern Regional Council report on Memphis noted the failure of "other agencies of government, state and federal, which might be expected to act toward mediation and reconciliation when a city did not." Only after murder did action come on this level, as in the Congress of the United States with passage of the 1968 Civil Rights Law, and in other matters which must have seemed to Negroes "too little, too late." Non-binding mediation had been initiated locally with the very capable help of Frank B. Miles, former labor leader, and Department of Labor mediator, whose services were donated by the Memphis lumber company which presently employs him. Those negotiations had collapsed before the assassination.

Finally, on April 16, an agreement was reached. The union won recognition by resolution of the city council -- a better form than they had anticipated as union negotiators had previously suggested a mere exchange of letters as a face-saving device for the mayor. A contract included union dues check-off through the city employees' credit union, a good grievance procedure, and wage increases of ten cents per hour May 1 and another five cents in September. The period of the contract was 14 months. Members of Local 1733 approved the agreement unanimously. The city council vote was 12 to 1.

Memphis Negro ministers plan to continue the organization they formed to support the strike. (It was called Community on the Move for Equality, or C.O.M.E.) Mass meetings on a regular basis have been discontinued. The general boycott of downtown stores has been called off, but not the one against Memphis' two newspapers. Selective boycotts are planned, aimed at securing jobs for Negroes and business investment in the black community. A group of 1,000 Negro women is being organized to back these and other efforts.

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