Milwaukee Labor Council confronts white supremacist

Milwaukee, WI – On Dec. 11, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, led by its Young Workers Committee, held a press conference along with allies in response to a construction worker displaying a Ku Klux Klan sticker in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Carrying the banner, “No Nazis in the house of labor,” 75 people gathered in celebration after American Sewer Services agreed to fire the employee for his show of support for the terrorist organization.

“As trade unionists, we don’t usually like to see a union brother get fired,” said Jacob Flom, vice president of AFSCME Local 526, and Chairperson of the Young Workers Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, “But, if you’re a Klansman and you’re a threat to our fellow workers, you’re not our union brother.”

The Young Workers Committee offered this further statement, “No worker can be both a unionist and a fascist; white supremacists are the enemy of organized labor and the entire multinational working class. The KKK is a white supremacist terrorist group responsible for killing African Americans, LBGTQ people, trade unionists, and others.”

As a result of this action and public outcry, the owner of American Sewer Services is being called to appear before Milwaukee’s Common Council’s Steering and Rules Committee to answer questions regarding their employee’s terrible behavior. This hearing will take place Dec. 14.

The event was cosponsored by the Young Workers Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, NAACP, AFL-CIO, Voces de la Frontera, LULAC, Jewish Community Relations Council, the Milwaukee Dr. Martin Luther King Justice Coalition, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and the Young People’s Resistance Committee.