1979 Birmingham employees strike

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The 1979 Birmingham employees strike was a labor action led by the Fraternal Order of Police Birmingham Lodge No. 1. The work stoppage lasted for a week in early May. It was prompted, officially, by the city's decision to switch its employee health insurance plans from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, which had recently moved its headquarters to Riverchase, to Liberty National, based in the city.

Birmingham City Council member Richard Arrington, Jr believed the strike was actually rooted in a conflict between the FOP Lodge and Mayor David Vann, who had issued an order that all city employees must reside in the city limits, had put pressure on the FOP to integrate, and had begun looking at adding safeguards to officers use of firearms. Arrington and Vann's interest in police matter was prompted, in part, by long-standing complaints of police brutality.

Birmingham police sergeant and FOP negotiator John Cousins took issue with Arrington's remarks. He said that he personally had tried to recruit black officers to the lodge, and said that the councilman is "the only person who keeps bringing up racism in this city."

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