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Dear LIUNA Brothers and Sisters,
Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, a leader who has great significance to America and the world, but particularly to LIUNA. Dr. King waged a heroic battle for equality among all men and women. In LIUNA, we strive for justice, for honor and for strength, but when all are not treated as equals, there can be no justice. Without equality, our honor and strength is undermined.
The legacy of Dr. King is one of remarkable strides toward equality in our country; strides that many generations never saw and could only imagine. Dr. King’s actions, life and death powered the ability to keep the faith that progress would come.
But our nation still has a distance to go to fully honor his legacy. Just days before he was gunned down in 1968 while standing with striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Dr. King said, “Do you know that most poor people in our country are working every day? And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation?”
Nearly a half-century ago Dr. King identified this critical flaw in our society, and as daily headlines show a half-century later, it is a flaw that remains. That is why the union movement was among his most fearless advocates and why he died standing with unions. That is why the union movement today must grow in numbers and strength.
Brothers and sisters, as we proudly honor Dr. King’s legacy, on behalf of General Secretary-Treasurer Armand E. Sabitoni and the entire LIUNA General Executive Board, I urge each of us to use his inspiration to re-dedicate ourselves to what we stand for – justice, honor and strength – and to his mission of equality of all and economic justice for all.
In Solidarity,
General President Terry O’Sullivan |