Dr. King’s Dream Lives on in the Labor Movement

April 04, 2008

Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to support 1,300 AFSCME sanitation workers on strike. The men had walked off the job to get the city to recognize their union: AFSCME Local 1733. On the evening of April 3, 1968, Dr. King delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech – the last formal remarks he would give before his assassination the following day. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that Dr. King’s support for unions is more relevant than ever. As the AFL-CIO blog points out, the study

“found that black union workers earned, on average, 38 percent more than their nonunion peers.”

Ministers, community activists and students marched alongside the striking workers in their fight for dignity. Two weeks after Dr. King’s murder, they won collective bargaining rights and recognition of their union. Community support for the Memphis strike has paved the way for successful coalition work to this day. Witness how the United Methodist Church joined workers at the Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis to win their four-year fight to form a union with AFSCME. Broad community support is also sustaining the current organizing efforts of 10,000 employees at Chicago’s Resurrection Health Care. This video illustrates the close ties between Dr. King’s dream and AFSCME’s ongoing struggle for social justice. Four decades later, his dream lives on.