American labor history is full of brutal and heartbreaking episodes such as the Homestead Steelworks Strike & Riots of 1896.
The General Motors strike at the River Rouge Plant in Detroit 1941 was another tragic episode, as was the massacre of World War I veterans in Washington, DC when they were demonstrating for full compensation from their military service in 1932. America’s labor history was impacted by the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike of 1968 as much as any episode, for the gains and accomplishments that brought.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t make the sacrifices he did so that people like Phil Kamlarz, the recent Berkeley City Manager, could retire with a $265,000 pension.
I look forward to the day I hear about a union steward telling a worker, “Hey man, you really crossed the line and I can’t defend your position. But I’ll help you get a decent severance package and that’s it.”
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