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LOCAL News :: Activism : Labor
DC Laundry Workers Tired of Waiting
In June 2001, workers at Up-To Date Laundry won a 60 day strike in Baltimore. Now, laundry workers and their union UNITE are oganizing in Washington DC at Sterling Laundry. A report by Shane Gooding. Source: UNION CITY! News from the Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO
Waiting is nn longer an option for 130 laundry workers in Washington, DC, who want to form a union at Sterling Laundry. The workers, mostly African-American and Latino women, are organizing with UNITE [Union of Needletrades & Industrial Textile Employees] and have decided against direct involvement by the National Labor Relations Board in doing so.
Mario Rodriguez, the mid-Atlantic organizing director for UNITE, said the workers and their union decided against organizing under the standard NLRB process because of time constraints and questions about the NLRB's effectiveness in protecting employees.
"The NLRB has an election process which we feel is unfair to workers because there are no remedies if the a company breaks the law during organizing by doing things such as cutting wages, firing workers, and other types of harassment," Rodriguez said.
The recent organizing win by employees at Linens of the Week, also in the DC area, spurred the Sterling workers to organize, as did the knowledge that they made lower wages than the Linens of the Week workers, even though they did the same job.
The Sterling workers want better pay, affordable health insurance for themselves and their families, and an end to racial discrimination in the workplace. "Sterling's been promising to raise wages for five years now, but hasn't come through," Rodriguez said.
In the alternative organizing process Sterling workers and UNITE chose, Sterling is asked to remain neutral in the organizing process. Once a majority of workers (50 percent plus one) checks yes on their authorization cards, the newly formed union will ask Sterling for formal recognition. This is much quicken than the NLRB formal process, which can stretch out for months.
"We feel the NLRB strategy doesn't punish companies who harass employees," Rodriguez said. "This way is much quicker." Rodriguez said Sterling segregates workers at its plant, keeping Latinos separated and preventing them from communicating with each other about their work conditions.
If workers vote to form a union and Sterling ignores it, workers may strike as early as September.
For an account of the Baltimore strike, see "Community & Labor Unite for UNITE!"
baltimore.indymedia.org/feature/display/16/index.php
Mario Rodriguez, the mid-Atlantic organizing director for UNITE, said the workers and their union decided against organizing under the standard NLRB process because of time constraints and questions about the NLRB's effectiveness in protecting employees.
"The NLRB has an election process which we feel is unfair to workers because there are no remedies if the a company breaks the law during organizing by doing things such as cutting wages, firing workers, and other types of harassment," Rodriguez said.
The recent organizing win by employees at Linens of the Week, also in the DC area, spurred the Sterling workers to organize, as did the knowledge that they made lower wages than the Linens of the Week workers, even though they did the same job.
The Sterling workers want better pay, affordable health insurance for themselves and their families, and an end to racial discrimination in the workplace. "Sterling's been promising to raise wages for five years now, but hasn't come through," Rodriguez said.
In the alternative organizing process Sterling workers and UNITE chose, Sterling is asked to remain neutral in the organizing process. Once a majority of workers (50 percent plus one) checks yes on their authorization cards, the newly formed union will ask Sterling for formal recognition. This is much quicken than the NLRB formal process, which can stretch out for months.
"We feel the NLRB strategy doesn't punish companies who harass employees," Rodriguez said. "This way is much quicker." Rodriguez said Sterling segregates workers at its plant, keeping Latinos separated and preventing them from communicating with each other about their work conditions.
If workers vote to form a union and Sterling ignores it, workers may strike as early as September.
For an account of the Baltimore strike, see "Community & Labor Unite for UNITE!"
baltimore.indymedia.org/feature/display/16/index.php
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