Tag Archives: Right To Work

Can You Feel It? Workers Standing Together In Strikes Across The Country

  By Liz Iacobucci | May 13, 2013 - 3:23 pm | , , , ,
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union_strike_by_blperk_viaFlikr

Fair Contract NowSomething’s happening out there.

  • Here in New England, the Brotherhood of Utility Workers reached a tentative agreement with National Grid just three hours before a strike was scheduled to start.  Members will vote on a tentative agreement next week.
  • More than 2,000 registered nurses at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center will hold a one-day strike later this month.
  • After a week-long strike in Iowa, Carpenters Union Local 308 just reached a new agreement with their local contractors.
  • Last month, fast-food workers in Chicago and New York walked off their jobs for a day.

So yes, down in Washington DC, Congress may be trying to emasculate the National Labor Relations Board.

And yes, in state capitals across America, corporate lobbyists may be pushing their so-called “Right to Work” laws.

And the political elite may think they’re winning this battle.

But out there, all across America, people are getting tired of watching corporate profits soar. Tired of waiting for the economic recovery to “trickle down”.  Tired of shrinking incomes and stagnant futures.  Tired – and scared – of rising workloads and lowered worksite safety standards.

All across America, something’s happening.  Workers are willing to go out on strike.  We’re willing to stay out on strike.  We’re even willing to go out on “sympathy strikes”.

Something’s happening, all around this great country of ours.

Something that’s bigger than the political elites.

Can you feel it?

The NH AFL-CIO Holds Bi-Annual Convention

  By Matt Murray | May 7, 2013 - 11:34 am | , , ,
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AFLCIO Convention Mark MacKenzie

On May 4th, the New Hampshire state federation of the AFL-CIO held their bi-annual convention at the Grand Hotel in North Conway, NH.  The event was attended by over 50 delegates, representing many different unions from around the state.  They were teachers from AFT, to film and sound techs from IATSE,  electricians from IBEW, to air traffic controllers from NATCA.  The focus of the convention was to talk about the great things that the NH AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have done in New Hampshire over the last two years. And to talk about how we need to change and grow to move into a new generation of unions and organizing.

Over the past two years the NH AFL-CIO and organized labor have fought back against the extreme right wing of the New Hampshire Legislature who were pushing every anti-union and anti-worker bill they could dig up from ALEC.  Most notably was the nearly two year battle over Right To Work.  Upholding Governor Lynch’s veto was the single greatest legislative accomplishment for the NH AFL-CIO and all working families.

AFLCIO Convention Mark MacKenzieAfter a short trip down memory lane by NH AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie, the tone shifted.  ”At no time has labor’s role been more important” said President MacKenzie.

Now we as organized labor need to work with our communities for real immigration reform.  We must ensure that every worker is treated fairly, is paid accordingly, and has the protections we fought so hard to get in place.

This theme also lead right into how do we begin to organize those places that have never been able to be organized before?  Places like Wal-Mart, Fast Food and Restaurant workers. These are the jobs that need help from organized labor the most right now.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler spent  most of her time talking about how we need to fight back against the attacks from the right wing extremists and expand our base.  This is a battle for all working people, not just those who are covered by a union contract.  We need to do everything we can to stop the austerity budget plans from Washington that are slowly pulling our country apart.  The Tea Party lead House is trying to continue this race to the bottom with more cuts to programs like Head Start and Meals on Wheels.  ”What about the children who have been kicked out of Head Start due to the Sequester” said Shuler.  ”Sequester is just a fancy word for stupid idea” Shuler continued.

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter knows all to well how the sequester is effecting people.  She hears about it every day.  People calling her office to get her to do something about it.  ”Can’t you just pass something to end the sequester” people would ask.  Yes, she told the crowd, if we could get our bills onto the floor of the US House.  Congresswoman Shea-Porter told the crowd, “there are three political parties in Washington right now.  The Democrats, the Republicans and the Republican study group also know as the Tea Party.”  The power of the Tea Party and their leader, Speaker John Boehner is what is creating this disfunction in Washington.

The NH AFL-CIO also welcomed State Senator Andrew Hosmer to speak. He talked of the current situation in the NH Senate.  He pushed for the passage of the expanded gambling bill to help create new jobs for the NH Building Trades.   That message was echoed by State Representative (and former AFGE member and Federal Marshal) Steve Shurtleff.  Rep Shurtleff reminded us how times have changed now that Speaker O’Brien is not in control.  He ws there every session waiting for the Speaker to pull Right To Work up for a vote.  Both Sen. Hosmer and Rep Shurtleff said they would do whatever was needed to stand up for working families and the workers rights to organize.

(More in-depth stories on each of the speeches at the NH AFLCIO convention later this week)

There Are No Free-Rides, The Fight Against Right To Work (For Less)

  By Matt Murray | March 28, 2013 - 2:01 pm |
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Union Video Image

The ‘Right To Work’ for less argument has been going on all across the country for many, many years.  The proponents say it will create jobs and give workers a choice.  These are great message points for them because they mean nothing and there is no basis in reality.

The fact is that, unions fought, worked, and died for the rights and privileges that many workers take for granted now.  The fact that we have weekends or vacations are just two of thedozens of examples (image here) of how unions fought for better working conditions for all.

Now unions are fighting back against anti-worker legislation and policies that are destroying the American (and Canadian) labor markets.  They are shipping good paying manufacturing jobs overseas and then blaming the workers for not having jobs.  They are creating policies that have one thing in mind, smash the unions!

This is the case with ‘right to work’ laws. This idea of a ‘right to work’ is inappropriately named.   It should be called the right to freeload.

Unions have always maintained that if you are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and that you benefit from that agreement, that you should have to pay for the representation provided to you by the union.  In non-’right to work’ states, unions are allowed to negotiated a clause in the contract to include an ‘agency fee’ or non-member fee for representation.  This fee is not used to better the union, it is only to cover the costs of drafting and maintaining the collective bargaining agreement.   In ‘right to work’ states unions are forbidden from incorporating this clause into an agreement, allowing non-members to benefit from the union without have to pay for it, aka freeload.

Right to work for less has been a national fight in the United States for many years, now the unions in Canada are starting to see it popping up in legislation in their country.  Many of the unions in Canada are part of U.S. Internationals like the UAW, IAFF or USW.    One of these unions took a moment to create a short video to explain that there are no ‘free rides’ when it comes to union representation.

The video is created by award winning Canadian director Bruce MacDonald and the Ontario Public Service Employee Union to send a message to the “Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak about that party’s plans for the province’s unions“.

Right to work is more that just a free ride for non-members.  It weakens the entire union process.  It weakens the unions collective bargaining rights, and that eventually hurts all workers.  Do you not see the correlation between the decline in union membership and the decline of workers wages?

If you want to see wages on the rise again, join a union.  If you want to see companies offering good healthcare options again, join a union.  If there is no union for your job, help to organize one, because there is always a union to fit your job.

Do You Still Believe That ALEC Is Not Influencing Our State Legislatures To Break Our Unions?

  By Matt Murray | March 16, 2013 - 11:29 am | ,
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Got Union Rights?

For at least two years the Center for Media and Democracy and hundreds of other progressive media outlets (like the NHLN and Granite State Progress) have been working to show the connection between legislation in our local state houses and ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council).

After nearly two years of intense scrutiny ALEC has finally decided to come clean.  ALEC release all of their model legislation, which can be viewed here.  The list of legislative topics is to long to show here but I want highlight some very significant labor related model legislation.

All of these model legislations, ironically labeled ‘worker freedom’, are designed to reduce workers rights, reduce safety, and bust unions.  Some of these have made national headlines lately, including the ‘Right To Work’ for less bill and the ‘Paycheck Protection’ bill.

We must continue to pressure our legislators until ALEC is completely debunked. Organizations are leaving ALEC as fast as they can, which is good.  Until the entire organization is gone, I will continue to expose this corporate funded lobbying group for their union busting actions.

(More information can be found on PR Watch.ORG)

Former Speaker Considers A Run In NH CD 02

  By New Hampshire Labor News | February 11, 2013 - 2:32 pm | ,
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From Concord Monitor
From Concord Monitor

From Concord Monitor

Can you believe it. The elections were only four months ago and we are already talking about the 2014 elections.

I did hear the funniest thing this week.  Former Speaker of the NH House, Bill (the bully) O’Brien is considering running for the US House against Rep Annie Kuster.    Stop laughing, he is serious.

“I’m concerned for the country, I really am. I think we need another fiscally responsible voice down in Washington.” (National Journal)

Could you just imagine that campaign?  I mean everyone would have something to say about Candidate O’Brien.  The women’s organizations would cite his extreme views on women’s health.  The LGBT community would bring up his extreme views on gay marriage and gay rights.  Then the unions would have a field day highlighting his extreme stance against unions by trying to repeal collective bargaining in New Hampshire.

How do I know what they would say? Because that is exactly what they said this election. Speaker Bill O’Brien was the TEA Party leader who led the Republican party into the dumpster this election.  Literally everything that went wrong in the last legislative session could be blamed on Bill O’Brien.

I find it absolutely hilarious that he thinks he could win in CD2 when he could not even win both towns in his own district.  I wish I had an ego that big.

Since we are already talking about NH CD2, I will go ahead and say it.  I think that former Senator Lambert should also hang up his political shoes.  He would have been crushed in Nashua if he would have ran.  He is an unknown.  He rode the TEA Party revolution to the NH Senate (I am still scratching my head over that).  He had no real political experience.

I actually met Sen Lambert at a legislative event in Nashua.  We asked him questions about legislation being pushed through the NH Senate.  He would respond, I will have to look into that because I am not really familiar with that bill.  My response was, “Really, you are the prime sponsor of the bill.”  I would never in a million years vote for former Senator Lambert.

If these are the people that the NH GOP plans to put up against Annie Kuster in 2014, I feel pretty secure in Rep Kuster’s reelection.

Testimony of NH AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie on HB 323 (Right To Work for Less)

  By New Hampshire Labor News | January 31, 2013 - 11:16 am | , ,
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NH AFL-CIO Logo

Chairman White and members of the committee,

My name is Mark MacKenzie and I am the President of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO. We represent over 40,000 union members in the state of New Hampshire in the private, public and federal sectors. We appear today in opposition to House Bill 323.

First of all, it is clear beyond any doubt that based on the economic data alone, this bill is bad policy for our state.

The Economic Policy Institute’s report, Right to Work: Wrong for New Hampshire, by University of Oregon economist Professor Gordon Lafer, found that the impact of adopting a RTW is to lower wages and benefits by about $1,500 per year – for both union and non-union workers – and to lower the odds of getting health insurance or a pension through one’s job, while having no impact at all on job growth.

Professor Lafer’s study was updated in 2012 and will be distributed to the committee today.

I would like to highlight some of the more compelling findings in the report that merits the committee’s attention.

To a large extent, globalization has rendered RTW impotent. In the globalized economy, companies looking for cheap labor are overwhelmingly looking to China or Mexico.

The most important case study for any state considering RTW in 2013 is that of Oklahoma, the only state to have newly adopted RTW in the post-NAFTA era (Indiana and Michigan have just recently implemented their new laws).

When Oklahoma was debating RTW in 2001, a series of corporate location consultants told legislators that the state was being “redlined” because up to 90% of relocating companies “won’t even consider” locating in a non-RTW location. If Oklahoma adopted RTW, these consultants promised, the state would see “eight to ten times as many prospects.”

But instead of growing, the number of new companies coming into Oklahoma has actually fallen by one-third in the eleven years since RTW was adopted.  The state’s manufacturing employment has also decreased by 30%, and Oklahoma’s unemployment rate in 2010 was twice as high as when the law was passed.  Every promise made by RTW boosters has proven false.

Employer surveys confirm that RTW is not a significant draw; in 2009 manufacturers ranked it fourteenth among factors affecting location decisions. It slipped even lower as a factor in 2011 to 16th.

In addition, the report found that New Hampshire’s economy is far superior to the right-to-work average. New Hampshire has seen significant growth in the number of new companies incorporating in the state, including both local startups and out-of-state companies opening locations in New Hampshire.

Partly due to its economic success, New Hampshire’s quality of life is far superior to that in RTW states.  In 2010, New Hampshire ranked among the top 10 states in median household income; share of population with health insurance; share of population receiving dental care; number of primary care physicians; low violent crime rate; and low incidence of heart attacks, strokes, infectious disease, diabetes, low birth weight babies; and occupational fatalities.  New Hampshire’s school system performs above national standards, with math and reading scores significantly above the national average in 2009. The median weekly earnings of New Hampshire employees are not only higher than the average of RTW states, but higher than every single one of the RTW states. So too, New Hampshire’s median household income is higher, and its poverty rate lower, than all of the 23 states with right-to-work laws passed before 2011.

For all these reasons, New Hampshire would do far better maintaining our existing system rather than imitating the RTW states.

Over the course of the last two years, significant new information has come to light, all of which confirms the negative impact of RTW legislation.

·         A new study by independent economists from the University of Nevada and Claremont McKenna College confirms RTW results in lower wages for non-union workers.

·         An Oklahoma corporate think-tank admitted RTW has failed to create jobs.  The Oklahoma Council on Public Affairs – a think tank affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, that played a leading role in promoting that state’s 2001 RTW law – now admits that “manufacturing is lower today than it was before RTW.” Furthermore, the same organization reports that Oklahoma has become a net job exporter.

·         RTW has been shown to increase construction fatalities.  A new study shows that, in addition to its negative impact on wages and benefits, RTW also makes for less safe workplaces, including increased fatalities for construction workers.

·         New Hampshire continues to outperform RTW states.  As of December 2011, unemployment in New Hampshire was lower than in all but three of the 23 RTW states. 

The South Carolina Model:

In the past year, South Carolina has frequently been promoted as a model of economic development due to its RTW law. But at the end of 2012, South Carolina’s unemployment rate was 8.4 percent; While New Hampshire’s was 5.4 percent. South Carolina’s poverty rate is also double that of New Hampshire; while its median income is $23,000 lower.  The rate of new business openings was 25 percent faster in New Hampshire than in South Carolina. When it comes to “new economy” firms – the high-tech, high-wage employers that every state seeks – New Hampshire is ranked much higher than South Carolina.  By any measure, South Carolina should be trying to figure out how to be more like New Hampshire — not the opposite.

The past two years have also produced evidence that shed light on some misleading claims that had been put forth on behalf of RTW.

Texas’ growth was entirely in the public sector, unrelated to RTW. For the last four years, job growth in Texas has come entirely through government jobs, while the private sector shrank—clearly a trend that cannot be credited to RTW.

Evidence presented as current was actually thirty-five years old.  The National Right to Work Committee produced a Powerpoint presentation in 2011 that quotes an executive of Fantus, a site-location firm, warning that “approximately 50 percent of our clients … do not want to consider locations unless they are in right-to-work states”. The Committee neglected to mention that the quote is based on a report from 1975, and that by 1986, the firm’s executive vice president reported that the figure had fallen to 10 percent.

With all this evidence it would seem that those advocating in favor of this bill are actually driven by an Ideological belief system with no real regard for the true impact this bill will have on New Hampshire’s middle class working families and our state’s economic future.

I urge the committee to reject this legislation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Right To Work To be Reviewed by the NH House Labor Committee, by Rep Schmidt

  By Representative Jan Schmidt | January 26, 2013 - 7:00 am | , ,
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Representative Jan Schmidt

Editors Note: This is the first (of hopefully many) posts from NH House Rep Jan Schmidt.  She is currently serving on the NH House Labor Committee.  She is going to provide some insight about what is going on with the labor committee.   This week she talks about Right To Work.

Right To Work To be Reviewed by the House Labor Committee

Wednesday January 30th the House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilative Services Committee will be addressing an issue this same committee has been addressing every session for years. This bill isn’t something any company has asked for, it wasn’t developed to deal with a problem we have in NH, and it isn’t something that will improve the economy or bring high-paying jobs into our state, it’s another out of state creation, with a name that doesn’t actually tell us what it would do, its the O’Brien Right to Work bill – HB323.

We’ll be told its all about worker’s rights, proponents will use that buzz word “Freedom” as if they invented it, and we’ll be promised it’ll bring in companies, jobs and happier workers. However with just a little research we know that RTW states suffer from lower wages which depress the entire economy, we know there are more accidents in the workplace, and the rights our parents worked so hard for become a thing of the past. In other words, this law is designed not for ‘We the People’ but for corporations, and not to make our state a better place to live but its designed to take even more money out of NH’s economy. We can’t afford RTW, and once again it won’t be passed by our Legislature.

With RTW having failed every year, people have been questioning why O’Brien’s bothering with supporting another failed attempt.

The answer is two-fold, and rather simple.

1) Representative O’Brien has received substantial incentives from the RTW organization and from ALEC to push this and other corporate-centric model bills though to law.

2) And he will be using the data collected from the vote to fuel attack mailings for the next election. First to purify his party with primary attacks on those who vote against this, then again in the general election against Democrats.

O’Brien spends his time playing dirty politics, wasting NH’s time, energy and money. And next Wednesday I’ll have to watch him do this in person.

The Bully Is Back In Town: Rep O’Brien Pushes Right To Work For Less In NH (AGAIN)

  By New Hampshire Labor News | January 23, 2013 - 7:18 pm | , ,
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Obrien4

Welcome to Nightmare on  Main Street.  Instead of Freddy we have Bill “the bully” O’Brien.

As he told us at the end of last year, Right To Work is once again going before the NH House Labor Committee. Bill O’Brien’s Right To Work bill will be brought up for a committee hearing on January 30th.  As of right now it is scheduled to be held in LOB Room 307 at 9:30am.

Even after strong bi-partisan support to hold Governor Lynch’s veto, former Speaker O’Brien is pushing this bill again!

The New Hampshire Legislature has shown time and time again that NH does not want a Right To Work for less bill.  This bill comes up every couple of years. With the exception of 2011′s super majority in the House and Senate, RTW has never even gone to the Governor before.

O’Brien is no fool.  He knows that Right To Work has a snowballs chance in hell of passing with a Democratic House and Governor.  He wants to use this bill to put giant targets on the Republicans in the House who oppose RTW and the go after them in 2014. It is truly sad, that he is putting RTW for less above everything, even his fellow Republicans.

The NH AFL-CIO will be there opposing the bill.  If you would like to join them, just follow the link and RSVP.

Lets show O’Brien that he does not represent us, and we do not want or need Right To Work here in NH.

 

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Obrien4

Today We Remember The Man and The Labor Leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

  By The New Hampshire Labor News | January 21, 2013 - 9:30 am | ,
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Martin Luther King 2

“History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.” Dr Martin Luther King Jr

In our current time of great struggle we should look back at history to see how far we have come as humans, as Americans, and as labor unions.  This weekend we will celebrate the birth of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, a man who moved a nation.  While most people remember Dr King as the great human and civil right advocate, many also remember the impact he made on the labor movement.  While they may seem very different, they are in fact the same.Dr King realized that both labor unions and civil rights advocates were fighting for the same thing.  Fair and livable wages for all.  So together Dr King and unions like AFSCME came together to help each other.  This was evident in the Sanitization Workers Strike in Memphis in 1968.  The strike took on more than just labor issues, it became a symbol of the civil rights movement.  Dr. King lead over 20,000 people through the streets of Memphis in solidarity of the AFSCME Strikers.


You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.  AFSCME Memphis Sanitation Strike, April 3, 1968

The next day, April 4th 1968, Dr King was assassinated in on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

On 8 April, an estimated 42,000 people led by Coretta Scott King,  SCLC, and union leaders silently marched through Memphis in honor of King, demanding that Loeb give in to the union’s requests. In front of the City Hall, AFSCME pledged to support the workers until “we have justice” (Honey, 480). Negotiators finally reached a deal on 16 April, allowing the City Council to recognize the union and guaranteeing a better wage. While the deal brought the strike to an end, the union had to threaten another strike several months later to press the city to follow through with its commitment. (1)

The demands of the AFSCME Workers in 1968 were not that different that what we ask for today.  We want a fair and livable wage, security and safety in our jobs, and the right to negotiate with our employers.  Today we remember the Man, the Labor Leader, the Civil Rights Advocate….  Dr. Martin Luther King JR.

King’s Legacy: Workers Rights, Leader Fought Anti-Union Efforts, From Arnie Alpert

  By Arnie Alpert | January 21, 2013 - 8:00 am | ,
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Dr Martin Luther King

This is an Op/Ed from Arnie Alpert. The Op/Ed first ran in the Concord Monitor on January  16, 2012

 

Dr Martin Luther KingKing’s legacy: workers’ rights

Leader fought anti-union efforts

By Arnie Alpert

At a time when workers are struggling to find decent jobs and local legislators are debating whether to strip public sector workers of their rights to form unions, we would do well to consider that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life standing up for better jobs and workers’ rights. As was entirely consistent with his stand for peace and justice, he roundly condemned “right-to-work” laws like those now being pushed in New Hampshire.

Now branded a “civil rights leader,” King always tied the black freedom agenda to economics. At the 1963 March on Washington, formally known as the “March for Jobs and Freedom,” King explained that 100 years after slavery had been abolished, “the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

Throughout his 13-year public career, from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Poor Peoples Campaign and the Memphis sanitation workers strike, King “consistently aligned himself with ordinary working people, supporting their demands for workplace rights and economic justice,” writes historian Michael Honey in the introduction to a new collection of King speeches.

For a timely example, King spoke out consistently against “right-to-work” laws like the one adopted in last year’s legislative session and vetoed by Gov. John Lynch. “Right-to-work “provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works,’ King said. “Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining.”

Last week, the New Hampshire House approved HB 383, a version of “right to work” limited to state employees, by a vote of 212-128. A similar bill is up for a hearing this week.

King said of such proposals in 1961, “It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. It is supported by Southern segregationists who are trying to keep us from achieving our civil rights and our right of equal job opportunity. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone. Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights.”

“Segregationist” may be a label that no longer applies to anti-union lawmakers, but the connection between race and the impact of unions is not just a matter of history.
“The lingering effects of discrimination, the educational attainment gap, and economic segregation are among the causes of the stubborn racial divide in employment,” reports United for a Fair Economy in its annual “State of the Dream” report, released Friday.
“The erosion of manufacturing jobs in recent decades, coupled with the anti-government attack on public sector workers and labor unions, have exacerbated racial inequalities in employment,” the report says.

With blacks 30 percent more likely than the overall work force to work for the government, the attack on public sector workers reinforces dynamics that keep black poverty rates twice that of whites and keep the net worth of black families one-fifth that of white ones.

It was arithmetic like that that brought King to Memphis in 1968.

Working in dismal conditions at poverty level wages, more than 1,000 sanitation and sewage system workers had walked off the job on Feb. 12 that year. As they held daily meetings and marches over the next eight weeks, the fundamental issues in their struggle were the right to negotiate a union contract and the right to have union dues deducted from paychecks. The very same issues are at stake here.

This week the New Hampshire House Labor Committee is considering HB 1163, which “prohibits employers from withholding union dues from employees’ wages” and HB 1206, which does the same thing, but limits the restriction to public state workers.
More serious, perhaps, is HB 1645, “prohibiting all public employees from participating in collective bargaining.” Teachers, firefighters, police officers, the people who plow our roads and make sure our drinking water is safe, and the entire state workforce would lose the protection of their union contracts should this radical proposal become law.

After King’s assassination, the Memphis workers finally won an agreement with the city.
“In its wake,” writes Michael Honey, “public employees became the leading force for union expansion in America.”

New Hampshire’s public employees did not secure the right to unionize until 1975, which means they owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. King and the Memphis workers.

King was acutely aware of history, and often quoted Theodore Parker’s statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

But as a scholar who understood the role played by organized labor in ending sweatshops and creating the American middle class, he knew someone had to do some active bending for justice to result.

“Social progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals,” he said in a 1961 speech to the United Auto Workers union.

If we want to be on the side of King’s dream of economic justice, we’ve got some work to do.