Archive for March 26th, 2008
Author of ‘Going Down Jericho Road’ at AFL-CIO on March 31
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Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 40 years ago while trying to help striking sanitation workers in Memphis gain dignity and respect on the job. On March 31, historian Michael Honey, whose book Going Down Jericho Road chronicles King’s last campaign, will share stories from the workers and discuss the strike’s impact on the civil rights movement during a presentation at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.
Those in the Washington area who can attend the event also can take a look at an exhibit of photos and quotes in our lobby that commemorate the sanitation strike and King’s commitment to working people. The AFL-CIO exhibit runs through June 30.
In a Point of View guest column on the AFL-CIO website, Honey says we should remember King not only for his “I Have a Dream” speech and his leadership of the civil rights revolution, but also for his quest for economic equality.
Student Labor Week of Action Spotlights Tomato Workers’ Struggle for Fair Wage
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Progressive students have been deeply involved in issues of worker justice on campuses and in their communities. So much so, that those involved are forgoing spring break on the beach so they can take action in support of low-wage workers’ struggle for fair wages and freedom to form unions.
The ninth annual week of action, sponsored by the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) and co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO and several unions, takes place March 28–April 4 between the anniversaries of César Chávez’s birth and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Many student events will support the struggle of tomato workers, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), who are reaching out to 1 million people to sign a petition demanding that Burger King and food industry leaders improve wages for workers who pick tomatoes and help eliminate slave-like conditions and human rights abuses from Florida’s fields.
Food for Your Children or Medicine You Need. What Would You Choose?
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Like most parents, Marie from Wisconsin puts her children’s welfare above her own, even when it means foregoing the medicine she needs so she can feed her kids.
Employed and with health insurance, Marie told the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey that the nation’s broken health care system has failed her, as it has for too many millions of others in the nation.
What would you do if you had to choose between food or medicine? Because of rising health care costs, that is a question that is frequently asked in my home. I work full time and have health care through my employer, but only a percentage is paid by them. I need a better-paying job, but as a single parent…I cannot go to school and work at the same time—I need the money to pay for myself and my two children to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Adding extra things to our budget is devastating.
I recently needed medication for an ailment, but did not get the medicine—I couldn’t. What would I choose? I chose my children and what they need, whether it be food or medicine. I am the one who will go without before they suffer.
