Action Motown '97
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ACTION MOTOWN '97, the giant AFL-CIO demonstration in Detroit on June 21, 1997 for the locked out workers of the Detroit News and Free Press, was the subject of an hour long radio program on WBAI's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report in New York City. The program includes sound from the demonstration and excerpts from speeches of locked out workers Sandra Davis and Josephina Espinosa, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Tumpka, Teamster President Ron Carey, Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley, and Southern Christian Leadership Conference Director Joseph Lowery. It features an interview with locked out newspaper worker Susan Watson and Teamster organizer Michael Zielenski.
Action Motown '97 exceeded everybody's expectations. The tone was set Friday, June 20th when an NLRB Administration Judge ruled that the newspapers were guilty of unfair labor practices. This victory produced a mood of optimism flowing into Saturday's demonstration which the Detroit police estimated at 125,000. 60 years ago Detroit set the pace for the revival of the labor movement. Action Motown '97 may well represent a turning point for labor in the '90's.
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