1199 was one of the main organizers of the original 1963 march and says many of the same issues still need to be addressed today – income inequality, jobs, voting rights, & racial profiling

On Saturday, August 24th, thousands of healthcare workers up and down the East Coast will be boarding buses and travelling to Washington, D.C. to participate in the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Healthcare workers say they will be celebrating the accomplishments of the civil rights and union movements, but also building a new movement to fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. Dr. King called 1199 the “authentic conscience of the labor movement”, and the union was one of the main organizers of the original 1963 march.

“I grew up in a family where I was raised to stand up for basic rights, it’s in my blood, and that’s why I attended the original march in ’63 with my husband and two young children,” said 87 year-old Monnie Callan, a retired social worker and 1199SEIU Retiree Board member. “I’m participating in the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington because no one’s talking about poverty, our prison system unjustly locks up young people of color, and states are taking away people’s right to vote.”

For the 1963 march, 1199 chartered a special train that carried a thousand members from New York City to Washington, D.C. This Saturday, buses with thousands of healthcare workers, retirees and their families will be leaving from throughout New York State, New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina.

“We have accomplished a lot, but we need to fulfill Dr. King’s dream of racial and economic justice, both of which are under assault in America today.” said 1199SEIU President George Gresham. “America has one of the worst rates of income inequality in the industrialized world, and the top 1% is hording more and more wealth while working people can barely make ends meet. The recent Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act and the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer have shown that we are not living in a ‘post-racial’ society, and the national conversation about race urgently needs to move forward. All these issues are interconnected, and that’s why thousands of 1199SEIU members will be marching for good jobs, voting rights and justice.”