Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., where he was standing with sanitation workers demanding their dream of a better life. Today, the right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a middle-class life are under attack as never before.

In his latest book, All Labor Has Dignity, historian Michael Honey brings together 16 of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches on economic justice, many of them unpublished until now. Honey, a professor at the University of Washington Tacoma, edited the speeches and wrote an introduction for the book. AFL-CIO Now senior writer James Parks interviewed Honey about King and his legacy of economic justice.

Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich and his allies are attempting to blame and punish low-income workers for the state of the economy. Ohio Field Communications Coordinator Andrew Richards reports on a candlelight march and rally in support of the workers’ right to bargain. 

The light from hundreds of candles lit up the facade of Cincinnati’s City Hall tonight as workers and community members came out to support home health care and child care providers and to protest Gov. John Kasich’s plan to strip away their rights to bargain for a better life. .

Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate this weekend, died fighting for the freedom of Memphis sanitation workers to form a union with AFSCME. For King, economic justice went hand in hand with civil rights and the right to join a union was critical to gaining economic justice.

When Teresa Laws takes the bullhorn this evening, she will raise her voice to speak out for some of our most vulnerable citizens: children and those who need constant home care.