FROM BALTIMORE TO WASHINGTON DC,
STUDENTS, COMMUNITY & LABOR UNITE FOR UNITE!

UP-TO-DATE LAUNDRY WORKERS WIN UNION RECOGNITION AND A FAIR CONTRACT

The 60-day strike of the workers of Up-to-Date Laundry ended on June 21 when the workers ratified a three year contract. The strike, which involved 170 of the plant's 240 workers, started on April 23 after 11 workers were allegedly fired for union activity. According to union organizers, the strike was to protest unfair labor practices and to demand union recognition. UNITE! (Union of Needletrades & Industrial Textile Employees) spokeswoman Katie Shaller outlined four goals: union recognition, a fair contract, union workers back to their jobs, and all fired workers back to work.

Since 1999, over 50 Up-to-Date workers had been fired. While 80% of Up-to-Date's workers have signed cards with UNITE!, U2D continued to refuse to recognize the union, according to Jo Ellen Chernow, one of the organizers. Company president Brad Minetree said he would abide by the results of an election supervised by the NLRB, according to the Sunpapers (5/17/01). However, the NLRB had investigated over 100 instances of unfair labor practices, and the workers, believing they had already shown their allegiance to the union and knowing how Up-to-Date responded to their earlier attempts at elections, struck for the recognition of their union. According to lead organizer Jim Grogan, 150 workers participated in the strike vote.

The three year contract includes the recognition of UNITE! as the workers' bargaining agent, an increase in base pay from a low of $5.50 per hour to $7.00 per hour by the end of the year, free health insurance, an employer-paid pension plan, and a health and safety committee based in the union. Charges of racial discrimination and sexual harassment, which the Maryland Commission on Human Relations investigated and issued a report, will be settled individually.

The strike by Up-to-Date workers is significant for several reasons. It showed that African-American and Latino workers could not be divided by management tactics, that strikes for union recognition can get results, that solidarity can be maintained for an extended period of time by low-wage workers, and that community support can play an important role organizing pressure on management. This article reviews some of the extensive community support for the Up-to-Date workers.

BEFORE THE STRIKE

Last December, the National Labor Relations Board found cause to investigate over 100 violations by Up-to-Date management. In addition, the Maryland Commission on Human Relations investigated charges of racial discrimination and sexual harassment at the laundry. African-American workers allegedly were hired at $5.15 per hour while other workers began at $6.00 per hour for the same work. Female and male workers reported acts of public sexual harassment by managers, including the company president. On July 3, 2000, the Commission issued its report on settlement terms and conditions in the Up-to-Date case.

Unsafe working conditions had also been reported. One woman worker, Guillermina Rivera, was hospitalized for two months with "lint lung", a condition specific to laundry workers but similar in symptoms to other lung ailments related to occupational hazards. Workers at Up-to-Date had no health insurance. There is more than a little irony here since Up-to-Date's largest customers are some of the area's best-known hospitals.

Community support for the Up-to-Date workers was ongoing and increased during the strike, according to UNITE! organizer Chernow. Last September, the Student Labor Action Committee (Johns Hopkins University) and the Coalition against Global Exploitation organized an action linking the Up-to-Date worker struggle to international sweatshop issues. The action was organized in solidarity with protests against IMF and World Bank policies in Prague, Czech Republic. This coalition, which included students from various campuses, community activists and clergy, gave the first airing of Up-to-Date's "dirty laundry" with slogans such as "Up-to-Date is out of date." The Reverend Sidney Daniels and Mike McGuire of Baltimore Action for Justice in the Americas spoke at the rally. Then a small delegation, led by SLAC activist Vikram Kambampati, fastened a statement to the building condemning the company's human rights violations and stating "If needed we will be back."

On December 4, the coalition backing Up-to-Date workers, this time catalyzed by Nicole Renzi and other social work students, had grown to include students from UMAB, JHU, UMBC, Towson University, as well as Baltimore Greens and SEIU organizers. The 80 activists assembled on Greene Street across from University Hospital and hung out "dirty laundry" slogans, protesting the University of Maryland Health System's contract with Up-to-Date. Then the protesters marched toward Lombard Street and the administrative offices of the University Hospital where they were directed by campus police to rally across the street from the Hospital.

During the winter, UNITE! gained new support by circulating a petition calling on Baltimore area hospitals to withdraw their contracts with Up-to-Date. A fact sheet of the labor and human rights violations accompanied the petition. UNITE! organizer Julio Marroquin and former Up-to-Date worker Melvin Newhouse, now also an organizer, spoke at local student, community, religious, and political meetings. Then, spring arrived and with it increased activism by UNITE!, Up-to-Date workers, and their supporters in the community.

By Spring, the first signs of success for the union supporters were evident. After leaving an anti-FTAA demonstration at the World Trade Center in solidarity with the April 21 protests in Quebec City, over 150 protesters marched from the Sheraton Hotel to University of Maryland Hospital and back to the Inner Harbor. Groups including the IWW, the All-Peoples Congress, the Baltimore Greens, various student groups, and CAGE converged with the UNITE! rally at the Sheraton. The Sheraton, 'home' of the Baltimore Orioles, withdrew its contract with Up-to-Date Laundry, if only temporarily. Protest literature linked the loss of 8,000 Maryland jobs due to NAFTA, precursor of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, to this local sweatshop issue. UNITE! itself lost tens of thousands of jobs nation-wide to NAFTA.

THE STRIKE BEGINS

On April 23, the workers of Up-to-Date Laundry struck. Student groups began informational leafleting of both Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland hospitals. The text of the literature raised the issue that, with Up-to-Date's use of strikebreaking labor from Labor Ready, possible shoddy laundering work might result, a real danger in a health care environment. Student representatives made attempts to set up meetings with university administrators about withdrawing their contracts with Up-to-Date for the duration of the strike. While efforts to persuade Johns Hopkins administrators made gains, University of Maryland administrators were initially intransigent.

April 30, SLAC activist David Snyder accompanied Johns Hopkins Hospital administrators on a surprise visit of Up-to-Date laundry, where the Hopkins personnel not only observed health and safety violations in the plant, but also stopped at the picket line and listened to the stories of workers about working under abusive conditions.

In the evening of May 2, more than 150 workers with student, community, political, and union activists demonstrated outside Up-to-Date Laundry. New campuses were represented, such as Morgan and Loyola, and new unions, such as AFSCME, the Teamsters and the Carpenters.

During this time, representatives of UNITE! met with NAACP president Kweisi Mfume to discuss the situation of the workers at Up-to-Date. While Mfume, a trustee of Johns Hopkins University, offered his active support, including speaking at a May 5th rally where the AFLCIO and the NAACP had a strong presence, student and community activists planned direct action to pressure the University of Maryland to meet and discuss the issue of its Up-to-Date contract and to consider making an unannounced inspection of the plant.

Before the student and community activists increased direct pressure, a team of UNITE! workers and organizers hit both Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland Hospitals with extensive informational leafleting. On May 6, according to organizer Mario Rodriguez, hundreds of leaflets were distributed at Johns Hopkins, then another 300 at University Hospital. 30 workers and organizers leafleted the lobby, then the linen department, then oncology, then the MRI area before University police were able to isolate some workers. Six were arrested, including Rodriguez.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT INTENSIFIES

On May 10, students from Towson University and Johns Hopkins and a University of Maryland alum locked down in front of University Hospital executive offices in the lobby of the building at Lombard and Greene Streets. Students from Hopkins and UMBC acted as a support team. While the three activists successfully locked down with bike u-locks around their necks sitting back to back and, with the support team, drew the attention of about 200 University employees with their chants, University Police responded by immediately arresting three of the support team. Those locked down remained so until Channel 45 entered the building and attempted to film the protest. University Police kicked the journalists out of the building and then searched the arrested support team for keys to unlock the locks. The six activists spent the rest of the day in Central Booking with trespassing and disorderly conduct charges. According to arrested Hopkins student Katy Gall, the action "didn't go exactly as planned. Only three of us intended to risk arrest. However, we did make our point to many hospital workers, some of whom asked us what the issues were."

May 12, another direct action in support of the strike occurred. That Saturday the Mid-Atlantic Anarchist Book Fair was held at Johns Hopkins University and the state-wide assembly of the Maryland Green Party was held at Towson University. At 6:00pm, participants of both events, along with members of SLAC, meet in front of Union Memorial Hospital to protest its contract with Up-to-Date Laundry. 75 to 100 anarchists converged with 25-30 Greens and members of SLAC. Two anarchists, Flint Jones and Chuck Henricks, entered the hospital to present demands that the Hospital consider withdrawing its U2D contract and to make an unannounced inspection at the plant. The action drew a dozen police cars and a paddy wagon. However, no arrests were made. Union Memorial Hospital was unhappy about the action and took secondary boycott action against the union UNITE! However, according to Jones, the union had nothing to do with it.

By May 14, the growing community support for the strikers received increased recognition when the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution, introduced by Norman Handy, in support of the striking Up-to-Date workers.

May 16, The Sun and local television stations covered a 500-person rally supporting the labor organizing effort. Speakers included Ernie Greco, president of the AFL-CIO Central Labor council and politicians such as Clarence Mitchell, IV. Bruce Raynor, new international president of UNITE! guaranteed the continued support of the union. The expressions of support continued as people waited for Kweisi Mfume, of the NAACP, and Rick Trumpka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, to return from their meeting with University of Maryland administrators. Students unrolled a 30 foot banner which faced Greene Street presenting motorists and pedestrians with images of Up-to-Date's 'dirty laundry.' Kweisi Mfume and Trumpka emerged from the Hospital and spoke in front of the 30 foot banner while facing the hundreds of UNITE! members in red T-shirts standing in the park along with a sampling of members from other unions such as AFSCME, the Steelworkers, the Teamsters. Mfume praised the workers for the work they do and for their continued dignity in the struggle for their rights. He said that it was clear that the workers deserve union representation, a decent wage, and health benefits. Mfume was "astonished that the University of Maryland Medical System doesn't seem to get the message." In some way of explanation, Hospital administrators pointed out to Mfume that they were a "private institution." (The University of Maryland Hospital was once a public institution. The workers were represented by AFSCME Local 1694 which in the early 1980s had a membership of over 1,000. The Hospital was privatized in the mid-1980s and, over time, Local 1694 lost hundreds of members.)

However, after this significant show of community and labor solidarity, the University of Maryland, gave Up-to-Date 60 day notice of contract termination. After May 24 protests at the Sheraton, the hotel agreed, on June 1, to give 60 day notice of termination of its contract "unless [Up-to-Date] can resolve these issues in an expeditious manner." The Johns Hopkins University, according to organizer Jim Grogan, gave 60 day notice the first week of May. And St. Joseph's Hospital, the target of May 31 protests, considered the same action. While these 60 day notices were important for the workers struggle, organizer Rob Murray pointed out that the tactic of the company was to try to wear down the solidarity of the workers.

"Shame on you! Shame on you!" the chants reverberated from striking workers of Up-to-Date Laundry and community supporters. It was Thursday, June 7 and the Union Memorial Hospital complex was encircled by 75-100 marching protesters, most wearing the red T-shirts of UNITE! The demonstration was part of a series informational rallies of union members and supporters who appear at hospitals which maintain contracts with Up-to-Date, an industrial laundry which services the major hospitals in the Baltimore-DC area that many regard as an unfair employer. The strike was in its seventh week and the solidarity was still strong.

June 11, UNITE! workers and their supporters engaged in an informational rally at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. It was noon as 200 workers and supporters, many students active in the AFL-CIO's Union Summer project, marched up Reservoir Road chanting "Georgetown Shame on You" and "No Justice, No Peace." They reached the entrance then crossed the street to listen to Guillermina Riverva tell her moving story about contracting 'lint lung' from working at Up-to-Date, having no health insurance, and experiencing the indifference of managers toward her condition [See below for the speech of Riverva]. Margaret Tucker spoke of how she was stuck by a needle in the laundry and lives with the trauma of requiring blood treatment every three months. Josh Williams, president of the DC Metropolitan Labor Council, said that "we are here because we know that the arm of injustice knows no boundary ... Georgetown, do the right thing voluntarily or we'll make you do it one way or the other." The Reverend Michael Sprach, United Methodist Church, offered a prayer that Georgetown pull out. When asked if Georgetown would follow the lead of Hopkins and University of Maryland, a spokeswoman responded that Georgetown monitors and evaluates the quality of performance of its vendors. "We use Up-to-Date now and will continue to use them. We use clean linens here. We will continue to monitor the quality." But the pressure of the 60 day notices from Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, and the Sheraton Hotel proved to be enough to bring Up-to-Date to the table.

The Up-to-Date workers were back at Union Memorial on June 14. 40 workers chanted "Union Memorial, Shame on You!" in Spanish while lined along the sidewalk facing the hospital. In addition, to the workers, UNITE! Organizers, and a few community members, six Baltimore City squad cars made an appearance. But the workers left to continue their "caravan of shame" on to Georgetown University again.

"Morale on the line is high," said Up-to-Date striker Darrell Anderson as he spoke at another community meeting prior to the end of the strike. The striking workers with their union UNITE! reached out to the community. The community responded in many ways: active presence at the many support actions (SLAC and other student groups, All-Peoples Congress, Baltimore Greens, IWW, CP Maryland, Teamster Local 355 almost always there, with AFL-CIO officials, NAACP, clergy, politicians, and other unions present at the larger events); financial support to the strike fund; lobbying action within existing structures (Mfume's interventions, City Council resolutions); and direct actions outside these structures (student lock-downs, unannounced march of anarchists).

The spirited protests of the strikers and community members who marched around Union Memorial Hospital on June 7, then at Georgetown on June 11, and many times before, proved too strong for Up-to-Date management who were unable to hold out against the combined solidarity of workers and community supporters who pressured customers during this 60 day strike. The decision of UNITE! members to strike for recognition and of its organizers to creatively seek support from a wide range of the community may provide a model for future union organizing in Baltimore. The spirit of 1877 may yet return. (The year the citizens' of Baltimore fought the National Guard in support of striking railroad workers.)

--Chuck D'Adamo
Baltimore IMC


[Speech of G. Riverva at Georgetown University Hospital, translated by organizer M. Rodriguez]:

"I am the one you see on the flyer. I worked one year one month at Up-to-Date Laundry. My job was to catch and pack linen for the hospitals. There was no kind of protection, no health and safety. When clothes come out of the machines, lots of lint come out of the machines and stick to your clothing and hair.

I started to feel sick. Lint began to come out of my nose. I told my supervisors, but they said 'This is your job and it has to be done'. I had to push heavy bins. Management said I had to do it. I began to cough blood. I was eventually operated on in the intensive care unit. Neither supervisors nor management asked for me, or cared for me.

I support the union because the union was the only one who offered help for me, or I would have had to go to the charities. If I don't go back to work, I will still support my brothers and sisters in the union and those who work at Up-to-Date. Georgetown Hospital administration needs to come to Up-to-Date to see the conditions and see that we need a union and health insurance. The union is very important so we can have a better future for ourselves and our families. Thank you very much everyone."