NY Labor Unions Helping Fulfill MLK's Dream of Equality*Click above to listen to story
New York, NY - On the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination, a pair of new studies shows that unions play a major role in lifting black workers to positions of equality. The reports, by the Fiscal Policy Institute and the Center for Economic Policy Research, say unions raise the pay of African-American workers by 12 percent, and more than one-third of New York's black workers are union members.
David Dyssegaard Kallick with the Fiscal Policy Institute is not surprised by the study results. He says unionization was part of Dr. King's vision.
"Toward the end of his career, he began to speak out more frequently on how blacks needed to earn a decent salary to achieve real equality in America, and I think he saw labor unions as one of the key ways to make it into the middle class."
Kallick says King's support of trade unions was reflected throughout his life. King was in Memphis to support efforts to unionize the city's municipal sanitation workers when he was murdered, forty years ago on Friday. Kallick explains King supported their cause, and believed that unions stand for the dignity of workers.
"What King said was, 'All labor has dignity. You're reminding, not only Memphis, but the entire nation, that it's a crime for people to live in this rich country and receive starvation wages.'"
The CEPR report is available online at www.cepr.net. State-by-state unionization statistics can be found at www.fiscalpolicy.org.John Robinson/Don Mathisen, Public News Service - NY
Media Trends and PNSRead MoreToday six major corporations control the information in most media outlets. The trend is consolidation and cross-marketing – resulting not in more voices, but more of the same voices. Under these pressures, journalists are often overworked, underpaid and driven toward increasingly sensationalized content.
From our perspective, the ability of mainstream media to support a vibrant democracy is in jeopardy. Gaining access to the public airwaves is increasingly dependent on being able to relate to journalists in time-saving ways. Often this expertise comes with a hefty price tag, and those with fewer resources have a harder time being heard and taken seriously in the public arena.
In response, more independent and alternative media are being created, but most people still get their news from mainstream sources.
What we do …
To support democracy and promote public dialogue in a rapidly changing media
environment, Public News Service (PNS) is a member-supported news service
that advocates journalism in the public interest. PNS's network of
state-based news services distribute high quality public interest news and
information to both mainstream and alternative media on a daily basis.
Support comes from non-profit organizations, foundations, individuals and
businesses for social responsibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment