MARTIN LUTHER KING:
A CHAMPION OF LABOR

 By Dick Meister

"I AM A MAN!" the signs proclaimed in large, bold letters. They were held high, proudly and defiantly, by African American men marching through the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, in the spring of 1968.

They were striking union members, sanitation workers demanding that the city of Memphis formally recognize their union and thus grant them a voice in determining their wages, hours and working conditions. Hundreds of supporters joined their daily marches, most notably Martin Luther King Jr. He had been with the 1,300 strikers from the very beginning of their bitter struggle.

The struggles of workers for union rights often are considered to be of no great importance. Dr. King knew better. He knew that the right to unionization is one of the most important of civil rights. Virtually his last act was in support of that right, for he was killed by an assassin's bullet as he was preparing to lead strikers in yet another demonstration.

There are of course many reasons for honoring him on Martin Luther King Day Jan. 15. But don't forget that one of the most important reasons, one that's often overlooked, is King's championing of the cause of the Memphis strikers and others who sought union recognition.

His assassination brought tremendous public pressure to bear in behalf of the strikers in Memphis. As a consequence, they soon were granted the union rights they had demanded.

For the first time, the workers' own representatives could sit across a table from their bosses and negotiate. They got their first paid holidays and vacations. They got substantial raises in wages that had been so low 40 percent of them had qualified for welfare payments. They got agreement that promotions would be made strictly on the basis of seniority, without regard to race, assuring the promotion of African Americans to supervisory positions for the first time. The strikers, in fact, got just about everything they had sought during the 65-day walkout.

William Lucy, secretary-treasurer of the strikers' union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, "saw King bring tears to the eyes of strikers and their families just by walking into a meeting .... the surge of confidence he inspired in the movement in Memphis."

The strikers' victory in Memphis led quickly to union recognition victories by black and white public employees throughout the South and elsewhere. They had passed a major test of union endurance against very heavy odds, prompting a great upsurge of union organizing and militancy among government workers.

As Lucy said, it was "a movement for dignity, for equity, and for access to power and responsibility for all Americans."