AFSCME, Reuther Library Commemorate 1968 Sanitation Strike
Union looks back on 50th anniversary
The Walter Reuther Library observed a moment of silence this week to honor two men who died during the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed inside a garbage truck. Their union blamed an electrical malfunction and said the City of Memphis did not maintain its trucks.
“The tragedy became the final straw for Memphis sanitation workers,” said Stefanie Caloia, the archivist for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) at the Reuther Library. “[They] for a long time had been trying to get recognition of their union and to have better working conditions.”
AFSCME is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the strike. The campaign name — “I AM” campaign is a nod to the 1968 strike slogan, “I AM A Man.”
“While these workers were on strike for better wages and union recognition, what the strike was really about was a demand for respect and dignity and to be treated as if their lives mattered,” Caloia said. “These men had died and the city didn’t seem to care.”
The campaign also remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated while in Memphis to support the strike.
