Today’s labor quote is by Angel Rodriguez, former president of Morenci Miners Local 616 at Phelps-Dodge
“The union became the vehicle for Mexican Americans to run for political office...Membership in the union was an empowering experience that gave the miners and their families the ability to standup and fight for the right for their children to speak Spanish without being punished. They fought for the right to walk into the movie theater and sit in any area other than designated/segregated area. They fought for the right for their children to go to the swimming pool on any day of the week, not only on the day before the pool was to be drained, so the Anglo kids could go swimming in, quote, ‘clean’ water the following week. The union empowered the miners to desegregate the restaurants that didn’t serve ‘Mexicans.’ The miners’ families fought for the right to use the public library in Morenci. What workers could accomplish once they felt the power a union could bring them!”
“The union became the vehicle for Mexican Americans to run for political office...Membership in the union was an empowering experience that gave the miners and their families the ability to standup and fight for the right for their children to speak Spanish without being punished. They fought for the right to walk into the movie theater and sit in any area other than designated/segregated area. They fought for the right for their children to go to the swimming pool on any day of the week, not only on the day before the pool was to be drained, so the Anglo kids could go swimming in, quote, ‘clean’ water the following week. The union empowered the miners to desegregate the restaurants that didn’t serve ‘Mexicans.’ The miners’ families fought for the right to use the public library in Morenci. What workers could accomplish once they felt the power a union could bring them!”
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