EDITOR'S NOTE: Gebre spoke at the 2013 state AFL-CIO convention in Louisville.
Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO
A Message on Black History Month
When we fight for workers’ rights, we fight for civil rights.
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the AFL-CIO Convention in December 1961, he said: “Our needs are identical with labor's need—decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community.”
Today, Black women are leading the fight at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, demanding the same economic justice and racial justice Dr. King talked about. If they win their union, it would give all Amazon workers more power to negotiate for better wages and job security benefits with a corporation that has a long history of mistreating working people.
The civil rights movement and the labor movement will define the future together with our shared struggle against oppression.
Join us.
In Solidarity,
Tefere