Local 100 – United Labor Unions held a panel discussion at Mount Olive Lutheran Church on July 17, 2010, concerning City of Dallas sanitation workers being forced to make ends meet on the minimum wage of $7.25. During the panel discussion, the workers made clear they need a Living Wage (which is nowhere near $7.25 an hour). The solution is getting the mayor and City Council of Dallas to understand these workers are humans doing a very difficult job in 100 degree weather. But the job must be done to make the City function. As one of the signs at the rally said “I AM A MAN” which is the same sign used in 1968 in Memphis when garbage workers went on strike trying to get paid above the minimum wage. It is hard to believe that workers are fighting the same struggle in Dallas in 2010, over 40 years later. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis in 1968, speaking up for garbage workers when he was assassinated. After the panel discussion, Local 100 marched to the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue for a rally in memory of the Memphis struggle--in hope that someday the City of Dallas garbage workers will go to “the mountain top” and finally earn a salary that will enable them to provide for their families and live with dignity and respect in their community.

Waving signs and chanting loudly, a group of disgruntled janitors staged a small demonstration Friday outside the main office of the Algiers Charter Schools Association, questioning the association's decision to ditch their company and hire a more expensive one for maintenance and janitorial work next year.

The dozen or so picketing janitors, who work for the custodial and maintenance company GCA Services Group, said they didn't understand why ACSA had refused GCA's bid of $2.168 million for the upcoming year of service, thereby putting about 60 employees out of work. Instead, ACSA hired commercial cleaning company Jani-King, which submitted a bid of $2.257 million.

"To me, it's a very underhanded thing," said Helen White, 68, who until last week worked as a custodian at Edna Karr High School in Algiers. "Nobody even let me know. I had to find out through my co-workers."