OLYMPIA, Wash. — Union members across the country are honoring two sanitation workers killed in Memphis 50 years ago today with a moment of silence.

Leading up to the deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, workers had complained about unsafe conditions, but were ignored. Their deaths led to the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968, sparking a movement that attracted national attention, and even the support of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In April 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the strikers. After months of mobilizing, the city settled with strikers, recognized their union and increased wages.

Judy Kuschel is vice president of the Washington Federation of State Employees.

"You look at what fights they were undertaking 50 years ago and it's very similar fights that we have today,” Kuschel said. “We still have people injured and killed on the job. We still have economic injustice. We still have housing that's not affordable for working people. We still have racial inequality."

The nationwide moment of silence will take place at 2:20 p.m. pacific time. But Kuschel said she encourages people to take a moment of silence whenever they are able.

The Washington State Labor Council will hold a moment of silence at their Legislative Conference on Friday in Olympia.

Today, the nation's largest public employee union, AFSCME, is also launching the "I AM 2018" campaign to mobilize union members and educate voters. The campaign draws its name from signs held during the Memphis strike that read "I am a man."

Kuschel said unions are working people's vehicle for representation. She used a recent example in Washington state where public employees wanted their private information protected.

"I as one person trying to go to a state legislator and say, 'Hey, I want my birth date to be private,' is probably not a very successful fight,” she said. “But if I, together with my coworkers, ask the union to represent us and help us in that fight, then I have a group that is going to be heard versus one person."

The I AM 2018 campaign will also be holding events nationwide leading up to the 50th anniversary of King's assassination on April 4th.


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By Hevin Wilkey / Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi reporting for the Kent State NewsLab-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

Ohio students are urging their universities to increase campus wages. Earlier this year, Ohio raised the minimum wage from $10.10 to $10.45 an hour, and it will be raised to $10.70 on Jan. 1, 2025. Some students say they need more to better support themselves.

"It would relieve a lot of stress to not have to worry about what is going to happen if you buy one too many cups of coffee that week, or if you change your Spotify subscription, or you need a new backpack and you just don't have to worry about counting the pennies in your wallet to make sure that it's something you can afford," said Nica-Emmanuel Delgado, vice president of Kent State's chapter of the Ohio Student Association.

OSA is a political student organization that advocates for accessible and affordable higher education, along with other issues of interest to college students in the state.

Not only has Delgado worked multiple on-campus jobs, the senior anthropology major also works off campus. Despite all the jobs and splitting rent with their partner, Delgado said they sometimes struggle to afford everyday necessities like gas, rent and groceries.

Efforts to raise wages for student workers at some schools have been somewhat successful. For example, in winter 2022, students at Ohio State University protested on-campus wages, demanding $15 an hour. By the start of 2024, the university decided to raise its minimum wage to $13 an hour after researching market rates and setting a goal to retain student employees.

This summer Kent State's United Students Against Sweatshops succeeded in getting the university to raise wages for resident assistants from $500 to $1,730 per semester through campaigning and meeting with administrators.

Every year MIT produces a living wage calculator for the entire United States. For Ohio, one adult with no children should make at least $19.40 an hour to live, nearly $9 above the minimum wage.

OSA's Delgado said they aren't asking for something as high as the $19 an hour livable wage, but the goal is for students to feel less stressed.

As much as students fight for livable wages, sometimes it isn't in university budgets, said Sandy Baum, higher education economist and senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

"They have to figure out where the money is going to come from and they have to make choices about how to allocate their budgets," Baum said. "I think taking all of those things into consideration is really important in terms of figuring out what the solutions are to make students better off."

She also said that universities might have to choose between lower wages for more workers or higher wages for fewer workers, ultimately increasing each employee's workload.

In United Students Against Sweatshops Kent State chapter chair Madison McCartha's opinion, the overall workload is already too intense. She has talked with various professors and Faculty Senate about the correlation between student grades and the burden of working one or several jobs. The students who are most impacted by their finances also struggle with academics.

"Students who come from better-off backgrounds or have higher paying jobs sometimes are able to allow themselves a little bit more grace to work, because if they have to miss a shift or any of these different things, it's not the end of the world for them," McCartha said. "We see that that stress really reduces your academic performance, and again, as an institution of higher learning, we want to prioritize learning."

Despite potentially lower wages, there is still a major appeal for students to work on campus.

Many campuses offer flexibility for their students' jobs based around their schedule and time of year. Universities understand that students should only work a certain number of hours to make sure they can still focus on studying while also being able to give them breaks according to the calendar. Not working during breaks or holidays is another plus for many students. And students without their own transportation don't have to travel far to work.

When McCartha worked on her campus, she was making around 40 cents more than the state minimum wage at the time, which was $10.10, and eventually switched to another campus job that paid her around $11.

She said even with the aid of the higher wages, which she appreciated, her funds were still lacking.

"Myself and my colleagues were, and some of them still are, donating plasma to make their bills and pay for food," McCartha said. "It was still not quite enough for the things that I needed at times."


This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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Montana's wildland firefighters face a drastic pay cut at the end of this week without congressional action.

Nationwide, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law made $600 million available to boost wages for more than 11,000 firefighters. The law gave Interior Department or Forest Service employees an annual raise of either $20,000 or a 50% base salary increase.

Wildland firefighters can make as little as $15 an hour doing one of the country's most dangerous jobs.

Jonathon Golden, legislative director for the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, described the pay raise as a game changer.

"That really sent a message and a signal to the workforce that they were acknowledged for their hard work, their dedication, their sacrifice," Golden explained. "That hard work also includes the off season when they are recovering."

Federal spending is set to expire at the end of this week. Congress could pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded into the new year, which would cover the firefighter pay raise.

Golden's group said rather than needing biennial approval, Congress should make the federal wildland firefighting increases permanent. In addition to pay raises, more permanence would also allow crews to prepare and budget for future fire seasons, which Golden pointed out are becoming longer and more costly to fight.

"We need those preparedness budgets and the wages, salaries and expenses budgets as well to also increase," Golden urged. "Because that's the stuff that gets those firefighters out on the line, prepared and ready to go to fight the increasingly dangerous fires."

Golden and other advocates are pushing to bring federal wildland firefighter pay closer to the wages of state fire personnel, which in some cases are much higher.


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Kentucky's 33,000 state employees face challenges taking time off from work after giving birth to a child or adopting, and many are forced to use sick leave or take unpaid leave through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act because they don't have paid parental leave.

Dustin Pugel, policy director at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said implementing a policy for state workers would put the Commonwealth more in line with other states, especially surrounding ones such as Ohio, already offering paid parental leave.

"Younger workers who are considering starting a family, who are also looking at other state sectors to decide where they want to work, it's really important that we attract them by offering this benefit."

Across Kentucky an increasing number of large private companies such as Norton Healthcare, along with public entities such as Louisville Metro Government and Fayette County Public Schools provide paid parental leave to employees.

Mothers who use paid parental leave have stronger bonds with their child and have better physical and mental health. Pugel added, dads also benefit from paid time off to help nurture new life.

"It's shown to increase brain activity in the part of the brain that's associated with empathy," Pugel outlined. "For kids whose parents use paid parental leave, there's a whole host of benefits as well, social, emotional, cognitive"

As of the beginning of 2024, 38 states had a paid parental leave policy for state government employees, with Kentucky remaining one of the 12 states without a policy.