Northwest labor press., January 15, 2021, Page 7, Image 7

NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 15, 2021 | PAGE 7
“We've got some difficult
days ahead. But it really
doesn't matter with me
now, because I've been to
the mountaintop. And I
don't mind. Like anybody, I
would like to live a long
life; longevity has its place.
But I’m not concerned
about that now. I just want
to do God’s will. And He’s
allowed me to go up to
the mountain. And I’ve
looked over. And I’ve seen
the Promised Land. I may
not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight,
that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So
I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m
not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of
the coming of the Lord.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis in
support of striking public-sector workers,
the day before his assassination
Martin Luther King Jr. 's birthday was approved as a fed-
eral holiday in 1983, and all 50 states made it a state gov-
ernment holiday by 2000. Officially, King was born on
January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, but the King holiday is
marked every year on the third Monday in January.
The unfinished labor of the
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
The United States honors and
celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.
the third Monday every January,
but the version of King we hear
most about has been sanitized.
We hear a lot about King the
dreamer, King the integrationist,
King the civil rights icon.
Too often neglected is the
King who hungered for eco-
nomic justice, who stood with
Black workers in union strug-
gles, who called for a massive
government jobs program. That
King, in the final days of his life,
was organizing a Poor People’s
Movement — to march on
Washington, D.C., and set up a
tent city there until the govern-
ment got serious about ending
poverty. That King was the target
of dismissive newspaper editori-
als and surveillance by a para-
noid FBI.
Even when we hear about the
1963 March on Washington —
at which he made the “I Have A
Dream” speech — it’s too often
forgotten what they were march-
ing for. The march — the largest
demonstration in U.S. history up
to that point — wasn’t just for an
end to racial discrimination. It
was the “March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom.” Not just
freedom, but jobs. Not just an
end to racial discrimination in
housing, but a guarantee of de-
cent housing for all Americans.
Not just an end to racial discrim-
The 10 demands of the
4. Enforcement of the Fourteenth
Amendment, reducing Congressional
representation of states where citizens
are disfranchised.
5. A new Executive Order banning
discrimination in all housing supported
by federal funds.
6. Authority for the Attorney General to
institute injunctive suits when any
Constitutional right is violated.
7. A massive federal program to train and
place all unemployed workers — Black
and White — on meaningful and
March on Washington
1. Comprehensive and effective civil rights
legislation from the present Congress,
without compromise or filibuster, to
guarantee all Americans access to all
public accommodations, decent
housing, adequate and integrated
education, and the right to vote
2. Withholding of federal funds from all
programs in which discrimination exists.
3. Desegregation of all school districts in 1963.
Environmental groups
say green jobs need to
pay a living wage
At least 16 environmental
groups have signed a letter to
Oregon legislators in support of
a call by the Oregon State
Building Trades Council and af-
filiates to require developers
benefiting from state tax subsi-
dies to meet labor and work-
force standards.
It started when members of
Climate Jobs PDX, a project of
Portland Jobs with Justice, read
in the Labor Press that most re-
cent renewable energy projects
in Northeastern Oregon have
been built by nonunion, out-of-
state firms with nonunion crews
from outside Oregon—despite
receiving generous tax breaks
from the state.
ination in employment, but an in-
crease in the minimum wage to
$2-an-hour — which would be
over $17 in today’s dollars. Not
just an end to voting restrictions,
but a comprehensive program to
train and employ all unemployed
Americans.
Those were King’s goals in
1963, and they remained his
goals in 1968 when he was as-
sassinated. Too many of them to-
day remain undone.
So this MLK Day, let’s not
congratulate ourselves on all that
he and we achieved. Let’s take
up his unfinished labor. Let’s de-
mand that government intervene
to reverse growing economic in-
equality.
dignified jobs at decent wages.
8. A national minimum wage act that will
give all Americans a decent standard of
living.
9. A broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to
include all areas of employment which
are presently excluded.
10. A federal Fair Employment Practices Act
barring discrimination by federal, state,
and municipal governments, and by
employers, contractors, employment
agencies, and trade unions.
As of 2019, about a dozen
utility-scale wind and solar proj-
ects in Northeastern Oregon
were saving over $30 million a
year total thanks to the Oregon’s
Strategic Investment Program
(SIP) property tax break, a 15-
year property tax exemption.
Climate Jobs PDX ap-
proached other environmental
groups to sign a letter calling for
companies that benefit from
state tax subsidies to be required
to meet high road labor and
workforce standards, including
paying prevailing wages, taking
part in registered apprenticeship
training, and hiring locally and
hiring women, people of color,
and veterans. Groups signing
the letter to lawmakers include
Sierra Club, Oregon League of
Conservation Voters, Sunrise,
350PDX, OPAL, and Verde.
“UNIONS HAVE BEEN THE ONLY POWERFUL
AND EFFECTIVE VOICE WORKING PEOPLE
HAVE EVER HAD IN THE HISTORY OF THIS
COUNTRY.”
— BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN