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Labor & Worker Rights Mon Jan 18 2010
"I Am a Man": The Sanitation Workers Strike, Dr. King, and Public Employees
Public sector workers were once among the most abused members of the labor force. It was when Dr. King turned his attention to the working class--to fighting on behalf of the working classes of all races--that he became intolerable to the status quo.
He was standing with AFSCME workers in Memphis when he was murdered. Today the constant assault on the public sector workers is just an echo of the eternal assault by the right wing against the rights of the working class. Back then, it was the public sector workers that were dragging down the working conditions and wages of the heavily unionized private sector; today, the situation is reversed. Ignore the crocodile tears of the right wing ideologues about taxpayers' money. Breaking the back of workers' organizations is the ultimate goal of the right wing, wherever those organizations exist.
