AFSCME’s Saunders Calls for Voting for Pro-Labor Candidates

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AFSCME President Lee Saunders Highlights Civic Activism at NAACP Convention

LAS VEGAS – During a labor luncheon at the NAACP’s national convention, AFSCME President Lee Saunders emphasized the importance of civic activism, especially in this critical election year.

Bill Lucy, a key organizer of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation strike, received the Legacy Award via video. Saunders praised Lucy's historic work in bridging civil rights and labor rights:

“At age 34, [Bill Lucy] was AFSCME’s representative during the 1968 Memphis Sanitation strike. Thirteen hundred Black men from AFSCME Local 1733 protested poverty wages and degrading conditions. This was about dignity and respect. Their iconic slogan, developed by Bill, was: I AM A MAN.”

Saunders also honored the late Rev. James Lawson, who persuaded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to join the striking workers in Memphis:

“Thanks to visionaries like Bill and Rev. Lawson, we’ve made progress on civil rights, labor rights, and human rights. But structural racism remains in America, and the system often works against working people.”

Saunders closed by urging continued organizing and mobilizing to honor Bill Lucy and Rev. Lawson:

“We must vote for candidates who believe ‘all labor has dignity,’ support unions, and advocate for diversity. That’s what Rev. Lawson would ask us to do now. Bill Lucy would urge us to do the same.”

The NAACP National Convention brings together civil rights leaders, change-makers, and more to exchange ideas. Lee Saunders, AFSCME's first African American president of a 1.4-million-member public service union, proudly identifies as an NAACP member.

Learn more about the NAACP National Convention and AFSCME.

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