By Bob Hennelly

In this special Martin Luther King Jr. Day edition of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour we examine the essential role that MLK played in the American labor movement, and how his 20th century campaign based on disciplined non-violent collective action laid the  foundation for the 21st century revival of the American labor movement.

King’s last address in April of 1968 was to striking sanitation workers in Memphis who went out in part because two of their co-workers — Echol Cole and Robert Walker — were crushed to death on the job. Throughout King’s career, it was unions like the United Autoworkers, the Transport Workers Union, SEIU 1199, AFSCME and others that he saw as essential allies in the campaign for  civil rights, peace, and social justice.

We speak with George Gresham, president of 1199 SEIU, Nancy Hagans, RN, president of the New York State Nurses Association and a member of the National Nurses United Council of Presidents, and Brandon Mancilla, director of UAW Region 9A — who discuss the essential MLK union linkage more than a half-century after his assassination.

It's this vital labor-King linkage that’s so often lost or marginalized in the corporate news media’s coverage of Dr. King’s life.

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day comes just weeks after a year that’s been dubbed “The year of the strike” because in 2023 there were well over 300 such work stoppages involving 450,000 union workers willing to take the risk of walking out on their employer — a 900 percent increase from just a few years earlier.

In the second half of the program, we speak with Marianne Pizzitola, retired FDNY EMT and president of the New York City Organization of Retired Public Service Employees and Michelle Keller, representing AFSCME’s DC 37 Retirees Association and the New York City Coalition of Labor Union Women. Marianne and Michelle will discuss their ongoing battle on behalf of 250,000 New York City retired civil servants to hold on to their Medicare and avoid being forced into a profit-driven Aetna Medicare Advantage plan — which is neither Medicare nor an advantage.

Listen to the entire show below:

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