This past summer I attended a “We Are One” rally in Chicago and several of the speakers mentioned Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s support of the Memphis Sanitation Strike in 1968. Indeed, one of the highlights of the event was the video — played on large screens — of MLK stressing his support for civil rights, equal opportunity, and collective bargaining.
These parts of MLK’s vision are well known and much celebrated, as they should be. However, I think that in order to fully portray MLK’s vision, we need to remember the speech he gave a few months earlier:
“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”
I love this message and it takes me back to my days (1979-1993) as a union laborer. I took pride in working hard and exceeding all expectations. Unfortunately, some of my union brothers took a dim view of my efforts.
Most of the negative reaction came from a somewhat legitimate concern that young, healthy guys like me would set the bar too high for older workers. However, there was also a small but noteworthy group of folks who seemed to take pride in the power of the union to keep them employed … regardless of how little they did to contribute to the company’s success.
When I am out talking to voters, I sometimes hear anti-union sentiments that largely stem from a misplaced belief that today’s union shops have the same issues that I faced many years ago. When I encounter this belief, I do my best to explain how much things have changed since 1979 — including the fact that some of today’s unions are leading efforts to improve quality and productivity; e.g., the contributions of Illinois teachers’ unions toward education reform.
I will do everything I can to promote and encourage these efforts because I believe that quality and productivity are essential to our ability to compete for good jobs in a global marketplace. As we celebrate MLK Day, it’s important to remember that MLK’s vision for worker dignity was collective, in the sense of the important fight for reasonable pay and benefits, but individual in the sense of taking a craftsman’s pride in our own work.
Happy MLK Day,
Greg
P.S. I thought of the MLK quote above about a week ago when I came across a guy who is about my age doing a job that many teenagers would reject. Surprisingly, he had a smile on his face and seemed to be fully embracing the role. In other words, he was heeding the more difficult part of MLK’s message. I honestly don’t know if I could meet that standard but I believe that any honest work that we do to support our families is honorable and worthy of our best effort.
