New Orleans, LA
In response to over-reaching corporate greed and the resulting job crisis, a new generation of student activism has surged on and around college and university campuses. Campus activism in support of workers' rights and economic justice is on the rise. Whether supporting worker organizing on their campuses and in their communities or fighting for living wages and an end to sweatshops, students are organizing on campus and building coalitions with local labor unions, central labor bodies, community and religious organizations.
Many affiliates of the AFL-CIO have helped support this resurgent movement of campus labor activists. AFL-CIO programs such as Union Summer and the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute have also nurtured a new generation of organizing and activism for workers' rights.
On April 4, 2000, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) of Jobs with Justice, United States Student Association (USSA), National Student Labor Alliance (NSLA), and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) are calling for a National Student Labor Day of Action. April 4 marks the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Day of Action will bring students from coast to coast together with labor, community, and faith-based organizations to fight for workers' rights and economic justice in the spirit of the Memphis sanitation workers' (AFSCME members) struggle in 1968.
Resolved: That the AFL-CIO supports the National Student Labor Day of Action and urges its affiliates to participate in the April 4, 2000, events.