Sanitation Workers’ Strike

Sanitation Workers’ Strike
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Sanitation Workers’ Strike
Article Summary
Hamilton Nolan's "Sanitation Strike Not a Waste" shows how sanitation workers in New Orleans went on a strike demanding a raise in wages due to the increasing workload in the city emanating from people's confinement at home. Rahman Brooks, a 40-years-old worker, was among the strikers. Brooks grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and heard stories about the popular sanitation strike that took place in 1968 (Nolan, 2022). Martin Luther King Jr. supported the workers, and it was during that fateful day that he was assassinated. Brooks says he never thought he would hold a sign with the same slogan, "I Am a Man," protesting for a similar cause (Nolan, 2022). New Orleans' non-union sanitation workers named themselves the City Waste Union. They picketed for months demanding wages increment since their workload had increased due to numerous people staying indoors and trashing the city because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Sanitation workers were subcontracted by the Metro Service Group, which was a firm contracted for garbage collection in the city. Brooks was among Metro hoppers and earned below $11 per hour. He worked at least 100 hours per week (Nolan, 2022). Although the strike went viral nationally and sanitation workers garnered support from many people, no significant change occurred. Even despite countless news reports and over 20,000 individuals signing a petition to raise the hourly wage for sanitation workers to $26, Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans did nothing about it. In particular, a GoFundMe raised over $250,000 (Nolan, 2022). However, the primary thing that made it challenging for a raise in hourly wages was that sanitation workers were not members of any union. In October 2021, New Orleans passed an ordinance to increase the minimum wage for city contractors to $15, sta...