AFSCME Family,

It was one of the defining moments of our union when 1,300 sanitation workers took to the streets of Memphis to demand they be treated with dignity, respect and fairness. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech before his death on April 4, 1968, was in Memphis supporting the striking workers. And the I AM A MAN signs held by strikers created one of the most enduring symbols of the power of working people.

Use our filter to honor the anniversary of the 1968 strike and upload your own I AM UNION VIDEO on TikTok.

The lesson we learned during the Memphis strike still resonates 57 years from the date it happened: working people have power when we stand together.

Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb and the city’s leaders didn’t believe the people who picked up their garbage were worth worrying about. They didn’t care that two sanitation workers had died due to faulty equipment, or that the Black workforce of the sanitation department was being paid poverty wages.

But the workers fought back, and they won because of the power of joining in a union and fighting as one.

Use our filter to celebrate the men who took to the streets of Memphis and showed working people everywhere how to build power and fight back!

In solidarity,
AFSCME