Fifty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis after marching with black sanitation workers on strike. Today, more than 2,000 UNITE HERE members and allies went to Memphis again. Click here to hear the stories about what coming to Memphis means to us.
In 1968, the Memphis sanitation workers were fighting to be treated like human beings. Wages were so low that full-time workers still had to sign up for welfare to feed their children. They carried leaky trash tubs on their heads that poured maggot-filled water down their backs. Working conditions were so unsafe that workers had been injured and even killed in the malfunctioning compactors of their old trash trucks.
But we’re not just here for a history lesson. We came to Memphis to carry on the legacy of Dr. King and the sanitation workers of the 1968 strike. Watch now to hear our stories.
When I first heard my coworkers were organizing in union at the hotel where I work in New Orleans, I was excited. I knew that we weren’t getting the pay or respect that we deserved, but I was worried about standing up. But now that my 573 coworkers and I are negotiating our first union contract, we know what the Memphis strikers knew—and what Dr. King died for—fifty years ago: being in union is one of the most powerful ways for people of color to win respect.
Dr. King came to Memphis in 1968 to stand for the idea that dignity at work is part of winning equality for all people. Today, we in UNITE HERE came to Memphis from New Orleans and New Haven, Atlanta and Alberta, Miami and Honolulu, and everywhere in between because we know what it means to struggle to win a union. In 1968, the sanitation workers wore signs that said “I Am A Man” to remind the world that they were human beings. Today, we demand better wages, better healthcare, better working conditions, and the dignity of our labor to say that we are human beings.
Fifty years later, we still fight for what our ancestors died for. I’m proud I went to Memphis to honor them all.
Willie Woods
UNITE HERE Local 23 Member
In 1968, the Memphis sanitation workers were fighting to be treated like human beings. Wages were so low that full-time workers still had to sign up for welfare to feed their children. They carried leaky trash tubs on their heads that poured maggot-filled water down their backs. Working conditions were so unsafe that workers had been injured and even killed in the malfunctioning compactors of their old trash trucks.
But we’re not just here for a history lesson. We came to Memphis to carry on the legacy of Dr. King and the sanitation workers of the 1968 strike. Watch now to hear our stories.
When I first heard my coworkers were organizing in union at the hotel where I work in New Orleans, I was excited. I knew that we weren’t getting the pay or respect that we deserved, but I was worried about standing up. But now that my 573 coworkers and I are negotiating our first union contract, we know what the Memphis strikers knew—and what Dr. King died for—fifty years ago: being in union is one of the most powerful ways for people of color to win respect.
Dr. King came to Memphis in 1968 to stand for the idea that dignity at work is part of winning equality for all people. Today, we in UNITE HERE came to Memphis from New Orleans and New Haven, Atlanta and Alberta, Miami and Honolulu, and everywhere in between because we know what it means to struggle to win a union. In 1968, the sanitation workers wore signs that said “I Am A Man” to remind the world that they were human beings. Today, we demand better wages, better healthcare, better working conditions, and the dignity of our labor to say that we are human beings.
Fifty years later, we still fight for what our ancestors died for. I’m proud I went to Memphis to honor them all.
Willie Woods
UNITE HERE Local 23 Member
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