By Alexis Haskett-Wood and Marisa Haynes

Johnny Earl’s brief visit for our class was excellent accompaniment to our Martin Luther King Jr. reading. Despite many political achievements and a presidential election underway, Martin Luther King Jr. chose to focus on the intersection of race and class oppressions exemplified through the striking of the Memphis Sanitation Workers of 1968. Echoed through Adolph Reed’s essay, “Black Particularity Reconsidered,” Martin Luther King Jr. believed that economic oppression was a fundamental barrier to the global liberation of people of color.

In his work to strengthen the SEIU, Johnny Earl  is also strengthening the voices and positions of all service workers of the University of Oregon. Working within an elite, historically white sphere, the trials of the SEIU serves as an allegory for working class people of color in the United States. Earl and his union peers used collective bargaining and the demand of a union contract to make crucial steps toward collective shared protection. Earl stresses the importance of lifting up the working poor and giving the power to the people. He emphasizes that working people shouldn’t have to rely on state-services in order not to struggle: “SEIU Local 503’s focus is to stop cuts to important services, create good jobs and achieve a better standard of living—including improved healthcare and retirement security—for all working people.”