BOLI Commissioner's Message - MLK Day 2012

[Commissioner Brad Avakian]

BUREAU OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES (BOLI)
COMMISSIONER BRAD AVAKIAN

A Special MLK Day Message from the Labor Commissioner

Economic Justice
Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

In two major ways, economic justice will be the theme of 2012.  First,
at the Bureau we will continue our efforts to see that Oregon has the
best trained workforce on the globe and that every Oregonian who can
work has a living wage job. 

Second, women still earn 77% of their male counterparts and the
disparity is wider for minorities.  In partnership with the Oregon
Council on Civil Rights, the Bureau will be unveiling its plan this year
to finally achieve equal pay for equal work in Oregon.  

This need for justice has been unfulfilled for far too long. As Dr. King
recognized, the key to solving social ills begins with the job.  

“… the problems of housing and education… will themselves be affected if
poverty is first abolished…the dignity of the individual will flourish
when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands, when he has
the assurance that his income is stable and certain…

…we must create full employment or we must create incomes…people must be
made consumers by one method or the other… if our nation can spend
thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in
Vietnam…it can spend billions of dollars to put God’s children on their
own two feet right here on earth.”

              Martin Luther King, Jr.  “Where Do We Go From Here”, 1967

Remembering Dr. King and all that he hoped we would become.

Sincerely,
 
Brad Avakian
Oregon Labor Commissioner


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