Martin Luther King, Jr. Died Fighting for Labor

by: Kathy

Fri Apr 04, 2008 at 13:51:33 PM EDT

Over the past three decades, however, this situation has taken a turn for the worse as both the number of jobs in manufacturing and the number of unionized jobs have declined sharply. In 1979, for example, manufacturing accounted for nearly one-quarter of all jobs in this country and about the same share of the total workforce was in a union. Today, only about one-in-10 jobs is in manufacturing, and roughly 13 percent of the workforce is in a union or represented by one at their workplace.

The decline in manufacturing employment reflects, in part, the country's massive and long-standing trade deficit. Instead of producing goods here, we now import a large share of the manufactured goods we consume.

Meanwhile, probably the most important reason for the simultaneous drop in unionization was corporate America's deliberate decision to adopt a more hostile attitude toward unions. Many firms have relocated plants overseas or in states with little union presence as part of a conscious effort to evade unions. [...]

Employers also regularly violate other aspects of the NLRA designed to protect workers' freedom to form unions. Research... has estimated that one-in-five workers actively involved in organizing a union can expect to be fired in the middle of a union organizing election.

And here in Michigan, we have the "right-to-work" crowd stirring the pot. These attacks on labor are discouraging, but as King often said, "We, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

In his lecture, "The Quest for Peace and Justice", King said...

Let me close by saying that I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom. In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away, and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born.

If Martin Luther King were alive today, I have no doubt he'd be openly critical of the economic inequality in our country. King believed all work has dignity and worth and it was a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages. It's up to us to continue his fight.  

Martin Luther King, Jr. - Trade Unionist

by: Kathy

Mon Jan 21, 2008 at 11:48:28 AM EST

We all know that Martin Luther King Jr. was a champion for civil rights, but how many of us know that he also was a strong supporter of unions and workers' rights?   This is King as described by AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff when he spoke to the Electrical Workers earlier this year:

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.

The AFL-CIO is holding its 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observance in Memphis, Tennessee from Jan 17-21 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Memphis sanitation workers' strike.  The strike was King's final campaign.  He was assassinated in Memphis in 1968 while supporting these striking workers.

(See King supporting the sanitation workers.)