All photos from the City Waste Union Facebook page.

Scalawag

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. met with sanitation workers in 1968 in Memphis, they told him that Black workers were essential to keeping the city running—but were treated as if their work and their humanity were disposable. “All labor has dignity,” King thundered in a speech to the workers in Memphis and to the nation, just two weeks before he was assassinated. Today, Black sanitation workers in New Orleans are holding on to King’s message, and the resolve of the Memphis sanitation workers—who went on strike for over two months, until they won.

Sanitation workers in New Orleans have been out on strike for over a month now. On May 5, a group of sanitation workers, also known as “hoppers” (because they hop on and off the trucks to empty trash cans), walked off the job after frustrations around low pay and lack of safety equipment boiled over. They have held firm to their demands and to their brothers on the strike lines for over a month now. “All we’re trying to do is to get what we’re asking for, and then get back to work. We just want fair treatment,” Jonathan Edward, who’s been a hopper for over a decade, said.

They receive no benefits while making only $10.25 per hour to pick up garbage in the hot sun.

They are not alone—workers around the country have taken bold action in response to the COVID-19 crisis, winning hazard pay, personal protective equipment, and even unions—all in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis. This surge in labor militancy comes in the midst of heightened unrest around the country, including in New Orleans […]

Via https://www.scalawagmagazine.org/2020/06/new-orleans-hoppers-strike/