Labor Dept. honors 1968 Memphis sanitation strikers
WASHINGTON (AP) - The strike was the scene of Martin Luther King Jr.'s final campaign before an assassin's bullet took his life...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is honoring the 1,300 black workers who took part in the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968 with a place in the agency’s Labor Hall of Fame.
The strike was the scene of Martin Luther King Jr.’s final campaign before an assassin’s bullet took his life. Solis praises the workers for their contribution to the civil rights movement and the fight for social and economic justice.
The public workers who went on strike for 63 days were seeking higher wages, better working conditions and the right to form a union.
Eight of the men who took part in the strike attended a ceremony at Labor Department headquarters. The men also met earlier with President Barack Obama at the White House.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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