Union Voice: Readers Write

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Nick Unger at the AFL-CIO’s Strategic Campaign Center sent along a few more details about our January 4 labor history item about the 1966 NYC transit strike, led by Transport Workers Union leader Mike Quill (r). “Quill said at a press conference, tearing up the injunction: ‘I don't care if I rot in jail. I will not call off the strike,’” writes Unger. “Quill was very sick.  In jail, he had a heart attack. They let him out of jail so he would not die in his cell.  The strike was almost immediately settled. Three days after his victory over the city, Quill died.” - photo courtesy Corbis