On Wednesday, August 15th, the United Workers announced a hunger strike on Saturday September 3rd at Camden Yards calling for a binding living wage and improved conditions for stadium workers.

“We’re tired and fed up with three years of broken promises for the cleaners down at Camden Yards,” said United Worker Rose Menustik.

In spring of this year, the United Workers proposed a series of three face-to face discussions between them and the state agency that owns Camden Yards, Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA). Both sides met on August 7th to discuss the proposals but according to the United Workers, no progress was made.

“It only takes one decision from the Stadium Authority to provide living wages for these hard working individuals,” said Community Organizer Bessie Torres of Casa De Maryland, Inc., a community organizing political action group dedicated to the rights of immigrants and low income families.

The United Workers declared that if a binding living wages solution was not in place by September 1st, they would hunger strike, which appears at this time to be inevitable. According to the Baltimore Sun, the agency claims they will enact a plan in the fall. Inclusive in that plan is a wage increase MSA claims will be enacted by November 1st, but the United Workers is not confident they will meet it.

“Their interest is probably efficiency and also staying away from bad press,” said Nicole Zeichner, an ally of the United Workers, who said they are in negotiations with MSA to create a worker-owned and worker-managed cooperative.

The thrust of the binding living wage law for workers is to coincide with the law that was passed by the State of Maryland of $9.62 an hour. Currently, workers earn $7 hour, which is above the federal minimum wage of $5.85, and Maryland’s minimum of $6.25 an hour. Baltimore contractors, however, pay their employees $11.30 an hour.

“We need to continue on this path, because there are too many loopholes, too many examples, where it does not apply and where the workers and their families and their communities are being left behind. And the situation here at the Stadium Authority is the most glaring example of that,” said Baltimore Region Director Matthew Weinstein for Progressive Maryland, which assembled the coalition to place pressure on Maryland lawmakers to pass a living wage law, the first state in the country to pass such a requirement for state contractors.

“People of faith have a responsibility to work for a more just society,” said Rev. Roger Scott Powers of Light Street Presbyterian Church, which will provide housing and monitoring of all participants in the hunger strike. According to Powers, 37 million Americans currently live in poverty.

Each worker that uses White Marsh-based Next Day Staffing transportation has to pay $6.00 round trip. Others commute by public transportation and on foot, but when they arrive daily work is not guaranteed. Worker Maria Roman said she commutes on foot round trip from Fulton and North Avenues to Camden Yards, and sometimes is told with other workers to go home because they agency reached their worker quota for the day.

“All of us are trying to make sacrifices right now so that we’ll be able to support our families,” said United Worker Dominick Graham.

According to the workers, they are told to report at the back of the stadium two before their actual start time, which is unpaid, often times in the blazing heat, and then wait an additional two unpaid hours once inside before they can begin working. Roman said workers are supplied with old and broken equipment like dustpans with holes which she in turn brought tape from her home so that garbage would not fall through them.

Additionally, Roman said that the workers, who used to receive paychecks, now receive cards, and if they do not remove all of their wages from those cards in time, the temporary agency will take their money back.

Workers are given only a few minutes for lunch. Because they do not have a designated worker lunch area, they are forced to eat in places like the public restroom, where they have to endure the smell of vomit, feces, spilled beer and hot dogs.

“The supervisors have asked you to go into the little utility closet to eat. The utility closet is inside of the bathroom. So it’s really inhumane. It’s outrageous,” one United Worker said.

“It’s an issue of dignity and pride,” said United Worker organizer Ryan Harvey.

There is also infrastructure discrimination where workers are lined up according to gender and race. For instance, women, particularly Hispanics often clean the bathrooms while the men are offered stadium stand blower and sweeping jobs. Overall, according to the workers, management stresses to the workers that they are not to be seen by the public, and must do everything they can to ensure this.

The workers’ three-year battle of demands with MSA began in 2005 when Michigan-based Knight Facilities Management was contracted to operate Camden Yards, who in turn subcontracted temporary agencies like Next Day Staffing, one of the temporary agencies upon which the United Workers are levying their complaints. According to the Baltimore Sun, Next Day Staffing President Jeanette Gomez not only denies the allegations, but also believes their complaints do not rest with the agency.

On Saturday, August 18th there was a “Step Up for Living Wages” protest outside of the Ocean City Roland Powell Convention Center, which was timed to coincide with Governor Martin O’Malley’s address.

There will be a series of daily actions, including a 48-Hour Solidarity Vigil that will take place on Friday, September 7th. Then on the following day, there will be a Living Wages Concert for Human Rights, featuring several contemporary conscious artists including Hip Hop emcees Son of Nun and Sean-Toure, Washington Wizards basketball player and poet Etan Edwards, and Ryan Harvey of Riot Folk.

Formed in 2002, the United Workers is a human rights organization led by low-wage workers to organize Maryland’s poorest residents in the fight for human rights. In the spirit of Harriet Tubman’s historic underground railroad to emancipate Africans from slavery, the United Workers demand emancipation from poverty for all.

For more information on these events and to learn more about the issues and how you can lend your support, call the United Workers at 410-522-1053, or visit their website at www.unitedworkers.org.

Labor Day Update:
baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/15744/index.php