We’re Reaching for that Mountaintop: The Working People Weekly List

Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s this week’s Working People Weekly List.

Honoring the Life and Preserving the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.: “By recognizing social and economic justice as one and the same, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the immense power working people have when they come together. He saw union representation as the clearest path out of poverty and into the middle class, and fought for the rights of all people to have good jobs and a voice at work.”

Trumka in Memphis: We’re Reaching for that Mountaintop: “At the 1961 AFL-CIO Convention, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature. He spews racism from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other.”

King’s Agenda for Working People Resonates 50 Years Later: “Fifty years ago this week, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee. In the decades since his assassination, much of the focus on King’s life has centered on his civil rights legacy. But his final days in Memphis are a reminder that he was also a relentless champion for the dignity of work.”

FLOC Calls for Convenience Stores to Stop Selling VUSE E-Cigarettes: “On April 9, 2007, Santiago Rafael Cruz was assassinated in the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) office in Mexico. The organizer gave his life in service of trying to improve the lives and workplaces of farm laborers. In his honor, FLOC will picket nationally outside 7-Eleven, Circle K, Kangaroo Express and Wawa convenience stores, calling on the corporations that run these stores to stop selling VUSE e-cigarettes.”

Caution: Your Right to a Timely Vote May Be at Risk: “Three years ago, the National Labor Relations Board took modest steps to streamline, modernize and improve the process by which workers petition for an election to vote on forming a union at work. The rules reduced unnecessary delay caused by management lawyers litigating issues in order to slow down elections and deprive workers of their right to vote.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Championed Civil Rights and Unions: “Kentuckians, including many union members, will march Wednesday in Frankfort in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered April 4, 1968, in Memphis.”

It Is Always About the People: In the States Roundup: “It’s time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations and central labor councils on Twitter.”

Organizing Leads to Prosperity: What Working People Are Doing This Week: “Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here’s a look at the broad range of activities we’re engaged in this week.”