"The labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it," Martin Luther King Jr. said.In the years following King's death, union membership dropped sharply, despite research showing industries with strong union membership have higher average wages.
But collective bargaining might be reviving. Last year was a record year for labor strikes, and non-union groups are leading the new labor movement.To some extent, Martin Luther King Jr. was a union supporter. Many Americans remember the civil rights leader for his peaceful protests against segregation and racism, but fewer know his stance on workers rights.
"The labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it," King said at the keynote address at the. "Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them." King also said America's "right to work" employment laws — which means employees can work at a company without joining its union — were a "false slogan" in a 1961
A man very much ahead of his time. Greatness in its purest form.