On February 12th, 1968, Sanitation Department workers in Memphis, Tennessee, went on strike, protesting low pay, unsafe working conditions, and inhumane treatment by their bosses. The sanitation workers were African-American. Their managers and the Mayor, Henry Loeb, were white. These workers held the line for 2 months, carrying picket signs with a direct message "I AM A MAN". After months of organizing and mobilization, including the active intervention of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, whose life was taken in at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4th, 1968 by an assassins bullet, the members of AFSCME Local 1733 won recognition from the city as a union and won their first union contract.
50 years later, despite all the progress won by working people, we and our unions are still under attack. At the end of February, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Janus v AFSCME Council 31 case, the latest effort by the forces of wealth and reaction to destroy workers' union solidarity. 2 days before that case is heard, on Saturday, February 24th, working people will gather in major rallies across the country to defend our our unions and our freedom to stand together to advance our interests as workers, and to demand a free, fair economy for all workers.
Unions are the best way to fix an economy that is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful. That's why corporate interests have always attacked the labor movement. Join us on February 24th. If working people don't stand together for our interests, who else will?