1977 Atlanta sanitation strike

Wages dispute April 2020 April 2020 Atlanta, Georgia, United States Atlanta sanitation strike of 1977 the post–civil rights era in African-American history March 28 – April 29, 1977 *Sanitation workers American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) *City of Atlanta *$0.50 hourly salary increase The Atlanta sanitation strike of 1977 was a labor strike involving sanitation workers in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Precipitated by wildcat action in January, on March 28 the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) agreed to strike. The main goal of the strike was a $0.50 hourly wage increase. With support from many community groups, Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson resisted the strike, firing over 900 striking workers on April 1. By April 16, many of the striking workers had returned to their previous jobs, and by April 29 the strike was officially ended. Background During the late 1960s and early 1970s, several major cities in the United States, and in particular the Southeastern United States, experienced strikes by sanitation workers, including the Memphis sanitation strike and the St. Petersburg sanitation strike, both in 1968. Many of these labor disputes were also seen as a part of the larger civil rights movement, as many of those striking tended to be African Americans, and the fundamental issue behind many of the strikes was income inequality and difference in working conditions between the African Americans and white American workers.Mantler 2013 116 : "...the Memphis strike appeared to King as a simpler black-white affair rooted in a long tradition of grass-roots activism."Due Due 2003 In 1970, sanitation workers in Atlanta went on strike, demanding an increase in pay.Colburn Adler 2001 186 Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell opposed the strike and fired the workers, replacing them with prison labor.Shirley Stafford 2015 However, Maynard Jackson, then Vice Mayor of Atlanta, steadfastly supported the strikers, calling their wages "a disgrace before God".Shirley Stafford 2015Prescod 2020 Ultimately, Jackson's support contributed to the mayor rehiring the fired workers and renegotiating a pay increase for the workers.Shirley Stafford 2015 Several years later, in 1973, Jackson was elected the first black mayor of Atlanta, in an election where he had received endorsements from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).Hobson 2017 86 By the mid-1970s, sanitation workers in Atlanta had become more vocal about a pay increase. In July 1976, AFSCME Local 1644 had voted to go on strike, but this was called off after Jackson instituted a temporary $200 annual raise and promised to find additional funds for the workers.Hobson 2017 86Scott 1977 However, by 1977, the situation had worsened. In January, a wildcat walkout occurred.Hobson 2017 87 Workers cited an agreement that said they didn't have to work in temperatures below 25 degrees, but many of those who walked out were docked half their pay.Prescod 2020 Additionally, workers had been calling for a $0.50 hourly raise that would have increased their annual earnings about $1,000 to a yearly income of $7,000.Prescod 2020Hobson 2017 86Scott 1977 Presented to the city on March 10, the demand for a raise was, according to Jackson, "a package equating almost $10 million" that the city could not afford. The AFSCME refuted this by pointing out how the city government had a $11.4 million dollar contingency fund and had a $9.3 million surplus carried over from 1976.Scott 1977 As an agreement could not be reached, a strike appeared eminent. On March 27, the AFSCME ran advertisements in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Star criticizing Jackson and accusing him of cronyism. The next day, members of AFSCME Local 1644 voted to go on strike.Scott 1977 Course of the strike On March 28, the approximately 1,300 members of AFSCME Local 1644 went on strike, demanding a $0.50 hourly raise.Shirley Stafford 2015 The next day, Jackson announced that strikers not returning to work within 48 hours would be permanently replaced.Hobson 2017 85 On April 1, following through on this, he fired 900 workers and began immediately hiring replacement workers.Scott 1977 Over the course of the strike, the strikers picketed, dumped garbage on the grounds of Atlanta City Hall,Suggs Ernie Bentley Rosalind May 31, 2020 'Atlanta Way' challenged after violent night of protests https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-way-challenged-after-violent-night-protests/HWsEwkX0ZN6xD4kesoElSO/ live February 28, 2021 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Cox Enterprises English https://web.archive.org/web/20200604073712/https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-way-challenged-after-violent-night-protests/HWsEwkX0ZN6xD4kesoElSO/ June 4, 2020 and, during a nationally televised Atlanta Braves game at Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, unfurled a large banner that said "Maynard's Word is Garbage".Shirley Stafford 2015Prescod 2020 The strikers also had the support of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, which criticized Jackson for using "black workers as political pawns".Prescod 2020 Additionally, James Farmer, cofounder of the Congress of Racial Equality, and civil rights activist James Lawson supported the strike.Hobson 2017 89 Despite this, Jackson had broad support in his opposition to the strikers. The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, and the Urban League all supported Jackson.Shirley Stafford 2015Hobson 2017 88 Additionally, Martin Luther King Sr., father of deceased civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., supported Jackson.Shirley Stafford 2015 On April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., two memorials were dedicated to King in the city, with both dedications featuring demonstrations regarding the strike. At one, protestors drew parallels between their own movement and the Memphis sanitation strike that King had been protesting in favor of when he was assassinated. At the other, King Sr. defended Jackson's actions against the strikers and recommended that the mayor "fire the hell out of them".Shirley Stafford 2015 Coincidentally, the Memphis sanitation strike from nine years earlier was conducted by that city's chapter of the AFSCME.Prescod 2020 Again drawing parallels to the Memphis sanitation strike, Lawson, who had participated in the strike, compared Jackson's actions to those of Memphis mayor Henry Loeb.Hobson 2017 89 The strikes divided the opinion of Atlanta's black population, as it essentially pitted the city's first African American mayor against a group of workers who were predominately African American. The Atlanta Daily World, Atlanta's major African American newspaper, was sympathetic to Jackson in its editorials.Prescod 2020Hobson 2017 88 Expressing the sentiment of the middle and upper class black citizenry, they questioned the AFSCME's rationale for attacking a black mayor during a time when African Americans were beginning to gain more political power in the region.Hobson 2017 88 In another editorial, they asked, “Why stir up a virtual racial civil strike, when we are striving to get a black elected to Congress?”Prescod 2020 Two weeks after the firings of April 1, trash pick-up was back to 79% of its pre-strike level.Prescod 2020 By April 16, 737 new employees had been hired to replace the strikers, and 459 of those who had been fired reapplied for their previous jobs at lower pay under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act.Hobson 2017 89King 1977 That day, The New York Times reported that the mayor had "crushed" the strike.King 1977 The union acquiesced on April 29, officially ending the strike.Hobson 2017 89 By the end of the year, many of the workers involved in the strike had returned to their original job.Hobson 2017 89 Aftermath and legacy Labor historian Joseph A. McCartin, writing about the strike in the academic journal Labor many years later, argued that Jackson's actions during the strike, including his mass firing and replacing of the workers, set a precedent for striker replacement that was later seen in the 1981 air traffic controllers strike. He argues that Jackson "had made it permissible to use a tactic that AFSCME had once associated only with white 'southern-type city officials'".Shirley Stafford 2015 McCartin also alleges that Jackson's staunch opposition to the strike was a way of appeasing white civic and business communities, helping with his chances in that year's mayoral election, which Jackson won with 63.6% of the vote.Hobson 2017 89 See also 2018 Atlanta sanitation strike St. Petersburg sanitation strike of 1968 References Bibliography 30em yes https://books.google.com/books?id=AM_cle1fRh4C&q=sanitation+strike+atlanta&pg=PA186 African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City University of Illinois Press 2001 978-0-252-02634-8 Colburn David R. en Adler Jeffrey S. Google Books Due Tananarive https://books.google.com/books?id=teNU8WWzAm8C&q=sanitation+strike+st.+petersburg&pg=PT452 Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights Due Patricia Stephens Random House 2003 978-0-307-52534-5 en Google Books Hobson Maurice J. https://books.google.com/books?id=2U84DwAAQBAJ&q=atlanta+sanitation+strike&pg=PA85 The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta University of North Carolina Press 2017 978-1-46963-536-1 Google Books King Wayne https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/17/archives/mayor-appears-to-have-crushed-strike-by-atlanta-sanitationmen-mayor.html Mayor Appears to Have Crushed Strike by Atlanta Sanitationmen April 17, 1977 The New York Times April 1, 2020 live https://web.archive.org/web/20201107160011/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/17/archives/mayor-appears-to-have-crushed-strike-by-atlanta-sanitationmen-mayor.html November 7, 2020 en-US 0362-4331 Mantler Gordon K. https://books.google.com/books?id=BUsVHJuICYUC&q=sanitation+strike&pg=PA273 Power to the Poor: Black-Brown Coalition and the Fight for Economic Justice, 1960-1974 University of North Carolina Press 2013 978-1-4696-0806-8 en Google Books https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/atlanta-sanitation-workers-strike-maynard-jackson When the Black Political Class Betrayed Black Workers Prescod Paul April 1, 2020 Jacobin en-US live https://web.archive.org/web/20200828085805/https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/atlanta-sanitation-workers-strike-maynard-jackson August 28, 2020 April 1, 2020 Scott Austin https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/17/sanitation-workers-strike-in-atlanta-loaded-with-ironies/31000222-4282-49b4-b096-8b4fba0bd3bb/ Sanitation Workers' Strike in Atlanta Loaded With Ironies April 17, 1977 The Washington Post April 1, 2020 live https://web.archive.org/web/20201114185041/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/17/sanitation-workers-strike-in-atlanta-loaded-with-ironies/31000222-4282-49b4-b096-8b4fba0bd3bb/ November 14, 2020 en-US 0190-8286 Shirley Neal https://books.google.com/books?id=O2FhCgAAQBAJ&q=atlanta+sanitation+strike&pg=PT180 Dixie Be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South Stafford Saralee AK Press 2015 978-1-84935-207-9 en Google Books Further reading McCartin, Joseph A. (Fall 2005). " "Fire the Hell out of Them": Sanitation Workers' Struggles and the Normalization of the Striker Replacement Strategy in the 1970s". Labor. Duke University Press. 2 (3): 67–92. Category:1977 labor disputes and strikes Category:1970s in Atlanta Category:Labor disputes in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1977 in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:March 1977 in the United States Category:April 1977 in the United States Category:American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Category:Sanitation labor disputes in the United States Category:1970s strikes in the United States