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Happy Wednesday!
Many of the topics we cover at the Anti-Racism Daily are a tale of history repeating. I don't think anything is more evident of this than today's topic. As we watch essential workers be celebrated in the press, it's critical we rally for their health and well-being, too. The liberation of all people, especially those most marginalized, depends on equal rights re: workers protection and fair pay.
I'm grateful to the work of Daytrian Wilken and Emily Yellin, and the time they spent answering questions for today's newsletter. Let's use the actions they recommended for today to carry their work forward in our communities.
This newsletter runs on donations from our community. Consider giving one-time on our website, (or Venmo @nicoleacardoza), or pledge $5/month on our Patreon to keep this work growing. Many thanks to all that have supported so far!
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Sign the petition to support the New Orleans Sanitation Workers
Donate to the GoFundMe to support the New Orleans Sanitation Workers
Support local journalism in your community
Honor and recognize the work of the sanitation workers in your neighborhood
GET EDUCATED
Essential workers are being celebrated as “heroes,” but they are systematically disadvantaged from fair and equitable employment. This dichotomy is well-illustrated in the New Orleans Sanitation Strikes, where, since May, dozens of workers, or “hoppers,” have walked off the job to fight for their rights. According to their strike flyers, each worker carries 250,000 lbs of waste a week and is paid only $10.25/hour, without benefits (Strike Flyer). In contrast, a living wage in New Orleans for a family of four is $26/hour (nola.com).
Their demands are simple: $15/hour wage, weekly hazard pay of $150, proper PPE equipment (necessary for both general work and working through a global pandemic), and fair representation with management. The New Republic points out that this sanitation is the fifth-deadliest profession in the U.S. In 2019, 37 sanitation workers were killed on the job, and nearly 1,500 were injured (CNBC).
Our nation has been fighting for the rights of sanitation workers throughout history. In fact, the 1968 Sanitation Strikes in Memphis changed the trajectory of the Civil Rights movement. It began in February of 1968, when two workers, Robert Walker and Echol Cole, were killed in a faulty garbage truck, one of six trucks that should have previously been phased out of the fleet (The Root).
The city refused to compensate the families of the victims, which sparked outrage. At the time, sanitation workers (who were overwhelmingly Black men) were already working long hours for low wages, many making as little as 65 cents an hour. There was no overtime or paid sick leave, and injuries on the job could result in the employees’ termination (Washington Post). Eleven days after these deaths, 1,300 black sanitation workers walked off the job demanding that the city recognize their union, increase wages, and improve inhumane conditions (Stanford).
The strike gained national recognition when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent advocate for the working class, joined the fight in March of 1968 (The New Republic). It was here that King delivered his famous “Mountaintop” speech (AFSCME) and was assassinated the following evening (Washington Post). Days later, Coretta Scott King led over 40,000 people in a silent march, and finally, on April 16, the Memphis City Council agreed to meet the workers’ demands (Washington Post). Please read the full timeline of the events that happened during this strike over at the AFSCME website.
“One day, our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive, for the person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician, for if he doesn’t do his job, diseases are rampant. All labor has dignity”.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to sanitation workers on strike in Memphis in 1968
Interview with Daytrian Wilken and Emily Yellin
The 2020 Sanitation Strikes garnered national recognition in a NYTimes op-ed. The piece was written by Daytrian Wilken, the spokesperson for the City Waste Union in New Orleans, in collaboration with Emily Yellin, who produced the video series “1,300 Men: Memphis Strike ’68” for The Root.com. I asked them how the community can rally to support these workers – and sanitation workers in our own neighborhoods.
How can community engagement help to create lasting change on these issues?
Emily: During the 65-day Memphis strike in 1968, the Black community rallied around the sanitation strikers, even as the white community essentially ignored their needs. Black churches, businesses, and neighborhood groups set up food drives and raised money to support the men and their families on strike. Without that, the men would not have been able to stay on strike long enough to get most of their demands met. The GoFundMe for the New Orleans hoppers today is the 2020 equivalent of that and can gather support from the whole world.
Also, the reasons for the strike need to be spread to customers of the sanitation department, who are also the constituents of the city's political leaders. If citizens are outraged at the way the men who pick up their garbage are treated, that will go a long way toward supporting the needed systemic change. Only then will the community help ensure that the men get what they are demanding, now and for future generations of workers.
Daytrian: Community engagement can help us because the community is who we serve. We can't do this alone so, it's gonna take the community to support us in a way they never have before. After all, we are the community too.
How can we advocate for the rights of the sanitation workers in our own community?
Daytrian: Advocacy truly only requires support. Support the people in your community. Show them you love them. If it's raining outside, offer some towels. If you see them passing, you can offer something cold to drink.
This work is grueling and daunting and is truly hard work - these guys just want to be cared for. Also, ask what they make an hour. Here's an example of something I do in my own neighborhood: In a container there are 10 disposable masks, 3 Powerades, 3 towels because it was a rainy day, and a bottle of hand sanitizer.
Emily: As a journalist, I think it is very important to support local journalism, through subscriptions, local papers, or donations to nonprofit news outlets that are covering this strike fairly, and giving voice to the men and their communities. One of the problems in Memphis 52 years ago was that not enough people were aware of the conditions the men were enduring because the white-dominated press didn't cover that part of the story. So when the men went on strike, the white community, in particular, had very little empathy for them.
In 2020, Individuals have more power to share messages directly from the men and the union to their neighbors and friends over social media. So awareness is the first step. But once you are aware of injustice, it is important to act to change things. Spreading the word and showing up to support the men are good ways to start advocating for their rights. Letters, petitions, and even tweets to politicians and business leaders do mean something now. Those kinds of small acts of advocacy add up. And when they reach critical mass, that is part of how change usually happens.
Everyone pitching into the sanitation worker's fight is a way of realizing how we are all connected as humans living together on this planet. And I think this is where it is important to remember to act in the name of Fannie Lou Hamer's famous saying, ‘Nobody's free until everybody's free’. That is as true in New Orleans in 2020, as it was, up the Mississippi River, in Memphis in 1968”.
The Anti-Racism Daily branding is rooted in this story. The typeface you see in our brand name, the headers of this email, and throughout the website is inspired by the protest signs from the 1968 sanitation strike. Protestors carried posters with the statement “I AM A MAN,” a phrase from the 18th-century abolitionist movement, at a time Jim Crow South still referred to Black men as “boys”. And signs with the same statement have been carried by the protestors in 2020 New Orleans Sanitation Strike. Read more on our website >
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Since May, the City Waste Union in New Orleans has been on strike advocating fair wages and job protection for sanitation workers, or "hoppers"
Their efforts mirror the 1968 Sanitation Strike in Memphis, which changed the trajectory of the Civil Rights Movement
Both then and today, the liberation of Black people and other people of color is tied to fair and just labor practices for public workers
RELATED ISSUES
June 22 | Talk about our right to protest
June 21 | Protect essential workers: Racial Disparities of COVID-19
June 11 | Support black-owned businesses
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