Labor Rights are Civil Rights: Campus Unions and Students to Rally at Bascom Hall

At 4:00pm on Monday, April 4, 2011, students and members of three campus unions – Teaching Assistants’ Association (TAA), AFSCME 171, and AFSCME 2412 – will be rallying in front of Bascom Hall. The rally will include speakers from the Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC), members of the award-winning spoken word performance group First Wave, and remarks by Rev. Jesse Jackson, followed by a march to the Capitol.

“This rally is not only a reminder to our legislators that we are still concerned with the attacks on education, healthcare, collective bargaining, and other public services, but also that these issues and these demonstrations are part of the ongoing civil rights movement,” said TAA co-president Kevin Gibbons. He continued, “Dr. King would be proud of the citizens of Wisconsin for standing up for our people and our rights.”

At 5:00pm at the Capitol, students and campus workers will join up with thousands of other workers for a rally in commemoration of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers, and continuing the struggle for social and economic justice for all. Jesse Jackson will speak at the rally, along with two of the sanitation workers who marched with King in Memphis.

The events in Madison are is in solidarity with more than 100,000 people around the country taking part in a national day of action commemorating King’s assassination while in Memphis. “April 4th and other actions around the country make it clear that this is a national progressive movement advocating for workers’ rights and public services and opposing the politicians who propose to take those away from us,” said Gibbons.

The Teaching Assistants’ Association represents nearly 3,000 graduate employees at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and is the oldest graduate employee union in the world.

For immediate release

April 4, 2011

Contact:

Kevin Gibbons, TAA Co-President: 608-520-3560

Alex Hanna, TAA Co-President, 765-404-6996

Scot McCollough, Student Labor Action Coalition, 414-403-1137