Teresa Casertano in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department sends us this report.

Next week, 285 Brooklyn employees of Cablevision Systems Corp. will vote on whether to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Faced with low salaries and inadequate protections on the job, Cablevision installers in Brooklyn decided to join together to seek changes at work. The cable installers, who complete eight installations per day, carrying heavy ladders and climbing poles, earn a third less than their unionized counterparts. In contrast, Cablevision CEO James Dolan received $13 million last year. Dolan is also the executive chairman of the Madison Square Garden Corp., where he received another $2 million in compensation.

James Parks, communications director at the D.C. Office of Interfaith Worker Justice, sends us this.

More than 500 people packed the Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., Jan. 16 for an Interfaith Service for Jobs. The service was sponsored by Faith Advocates for Jobs to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and to call on our nation’s government to make King’s dream of economic justice and good jobs a reality.

More than 550 activists from the labor and civil rights communities wrapped up the AFL-CIO Martin Luther King Jr., Observance in Detroit this weekend after taking part in community service, workshops and worship. The events honored King’s vision that collective action is the key to ensuring freedom—whether at the voting booth or at the workplace, and energized participants to continue their work in making King’s dream a reality.

Forty-nine years ago, on June 23, 1963, tens of thousands of people gathered here in Detroit, only weeks before hundreds of thousands went to Washington to march for jobs and freedom.

Tonight in Detroit, where hundreds of activists are gathered for the annual AFL-CIO Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance, participants will honor several individuals for their outstanding contributions to working people. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will receive the top honor for her extraordinary dedication and commitment to improving the lives of workers throughout her lifetime. The At the River I Stand award is given to a national leader who has demonstrated an unyielding commitment to civil rights and workers’ rights.

Most people remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legendary 1963 Washington, D.C, “I Have a Dream” speech. But what most don’t know, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said at the AFL-CIO’s Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference in Detroit, is that “the seeds of Dr. King’s dream were sown first,” in the Motor City.

In Detroit—a historic crossroads for both the labor and civil rights movements—more than 550 activists and leaders of those movements will honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the AFL-CIO’s  annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference.

AFSCME is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a special website, a brand new video on the union’s history and a yearlong series of events.

AFSCME is celebrating its 75 anniversary with a yearlong series of events. The observances include a traveling exhibit of the union’s 75 years of fighting for workers’ rights and the middle class from its founding in Wisconsin in 1936 to today.

This is an excerpt of a cross-post from the American Constitution Society Blog by Angelia Wade, associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO. The post coincided with the recent opening of the King National Memorial.

When he was assassinated in April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis lending his support to striking garbage sanitation workers who were seeking to have their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), recognized so they could negotiate a contract that raised their standard of living.