The United Workers is a human rights organization of low-wage workers in Maryland. We're fighting to secure economic human rights for all, including the right to freedom from poverty. We are in the midst of a three-year campaign to secure living wages at Camden Yards.

• United Workers Home Page
• 2007: Summer of Unity
• Our Human Rights Values

What: Concert for Human Rights
When: Saturday September 8, 2007 @ 2:00 PM
Where: 1410 Bush St., Baltimore MD
Why: Demand living wages at Camden Yards

Concert is Free and Outdoors.
Download the Concert flyer (PDF)

3 Years of Broken Promises:
We're Fed Up

In 2004 we launched a campaign to secure living wages for the cleaners at Camden Yards, the city's largest employer of day labor. Early in the campaign we were promised living wages by the owner of the Orioles. The promise was broken. Later we were promised that the contractor at the stadium would hire 20 workers through a Living Wages Co-Op, a good first step toward living wages for all the cleaners. The promise was broken. After three years of broken promises, we're fed up.

Our Demand:
Living Wages at Camden Yards

In 2004 workers at Camden Yards studied the problem of poverty wages and the temp agencies that used public dollars to profit from poverty wages. Workers decided to launch a campaign to demand living wages at the publicly owned stadium.

Camden Yards is the city's largest employer of sweatshop day labor. The publicity owned stadium outsources poverty through a complex system of temp agencies and other contractors. This system not only results in poverty wages and human rights violations, it is also a waste of public resources. The stadium could pay workers directly, paying living wages and saving money. Living wages at Camden Yards doesn't have to cost the stadium a penny more. So why is the Maryland Stadium Authority still using the current system?

When we started our campaign, workers at Camden Yards were paid less than $4.00 an hour. Women were routinely harassed. Labor laws often violated. Thanks to the pressure we've brought to the problem, wages have increased (still below the living wage) and an historic Code of Conduct was agreed to by the stadium's cleaning contractor. Conditions have improved, but there are still many examples of human rights violations and poverty wages are still paid to the cleaners.

2004:
Summer of Hope

We call 2004 the "Summer of Hope" because the owner of the Orioles promised to pay workers a living wage just as the campaign was being launched. Pictured above is our first protest, on Opening Day in 2004.

Our first protest was on opening day in 2004. In response to the protest, promises were made to start paying cleaners the Baltimore City Living wage rate. This promise was broken, starting a pattern that continues to this day. That's why we're demanding a binding living wages agreement to be in place and in writing by Sept. 1, 2007. After three years of broken promises and poverty wages, the cleaners at Camden Yards are fed up!

2005:
Summer of Honor

Union night protest in 2005, demanding that the promise for living wages be honored.

Broken Promise: Living Wages
The Orioles owner never did keep his promise to pay cleaners a living wage. That's why we call 2005 the "Summer of Honor," to demand that the promise be honored and to draw attention to the continued poverty wages at the stadium. We held a protest on Union Night, when unions are given special prices to attend the game. Fellow workers joined the protests in solidarity with the cleaners - before enjoying the game. In fact, after the protest, many of the cleaners were able to attend their first game as fans - since many of the union fans had donated tickets to the game that night!

2006:
Summer of Justice

Workers decided to take justice into "our own hands" by forming a co-op that would provide the first 20 living wage jobs by bidding on work directly with the stadium's cleaning contractor. We proposed the idea to the contractor, who said yes to the plan and even held a joint press conference (above photo) at their headquarters announcing the co-op.

When the promised start date for the Living Wages Co-Op came and went without the co-op being allowed to start working, cleaners held a protest at Camden Yards to demand that the stadium "Let Us Work!"

Broken Promise: Living Wages Co-Op
The idea for the Living Wages Co-Op was simple: We can do better than the current temp agencies. By cutting out the middle person, the cleaners could charge the same as do temp agencies and start paying living wages. We proposed to start a pilot project directly to the stadium's main contractor, who liked the idea and promised to sign the co-op on. But the co-op was blocked, and the 20 living wage jobs didn't happen. On the day the co-op was to start, we held a protest to demand that the stadium "Let Us Work!" Even though it would cost not a penny more, we were still being denied a fair deal by the publicly owned Camden Yards.

Concert Line up:

ETAN THOMAS - Washington Wizard center, author and poltical poet

LAS KRUDAS - feminism, justice & immigrant rights to an Afro-Cuban beat

PONYTAIL - experimental punk from Baltimore

SHODEKEH - Baltimore's human beat-box

SEAN-TOURE' - Baltimore political hip-hop

NUEVA COSECHA - 11 piece radical folk songs from El Salvador

SUN OF NUN - radical Baltimore hip-hop

RYAN HARVEY - riot-folk from Baltimore

SMOKE EYES & QUEEN LUNATIC - brother and sister soul/hip-hop duo

WAX & WANE - experimental folk from Baltimore

EXTRANJERO - DC youth hip-hop/reggaeton

HEAD-ROC - the mayor of DC hip-hop

WAHHT - 3 piece lgbtqq hip-hop, soul, poetry from Baltimore

CHOPTEETH - 14 piece Afro-beat/rumba from DC

plus dancers, speakers, tablers and more!