Interview with organizer of Tampa We Are One Rally starts the Last Call conversation today

Tags: We Are One, Jason Smith, AFL-CIO, unions, Florida, public workers, labor, Martin Luther King Jr., 2011 legislative session

Good afternoon, welcome to the Last Call. I'm Rob Lorei. We'll start today's program with an interview with Jason Smith of the Florida AFL-CIO who is organizing a We Are One rally today at Al Lopez Park in West Tampa.

At the time of his death on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was marching in solidarity with 1,300 black sanitation workers in Memphis; the public employees were defending their right to collective bargaining for better wages, working conditions, respect and dignity. Forty-three years later, workers in Florida and numerous other states are fighting to keep their collective bargaining rights — the very rights for which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died.

Floridians are coming together today to honor Dr. King’s support for collective bargaining and the rights of working families.