United Workers

By Jason Johnson

I’ve been a cook at Chipotle for three months.   I work 2 jobs and do construction work under-the-table.  So basically, I wear myself out.  I’m looking to work one job, 8-10 hours a day, where I don’t have to worry if I’m going to have it or not next week.   I’m trying to make a living wage.  I don’t want a lot of money.  I just want enough to live comfortably and shouldn’t have to burn myself out.

Last year a police car hit me and messed up my back and leg. At the time I was working at IHOP and Denny’s. Denny’s fired me when I was still unable to work after a couple weeks. IHOP fired me when I asked for two days off to take my GED. After that, I lost everything.  I had to come home to my parent’s house to get back on my feet.  Cause I refuse to starve.  I’ve got talent.  And that’s when I took the job down at the Inner Harbor.

I’ve been at the harbor for 3 months. I’m making peanuts, even though I work nearly 40 hours a week. I took a hell of a pay cut, but I need to survive.  You can see the difference and I have a child to support. And little girls are expensive. It’s not what I deserve.

It’s basically unfair.  The harbor is a big tourist attraction.  You work hard.  Some people are still making minimum wage.  Dishwasher or not, you should be making a living wage of $12.25 or better.  For the developers to be bringing in all this money, and we’re basically seeing nothing.  They’ve got the money to pay us good, but they don’t want to.  I don’t know why.  It ain’t like they’re struggling. The harbor is probably bringing in millions of dollars a week and you’re telling me you can’t split that with the workers to help everyone live comfortably?   And it ain’t like the work is easy.  I feel as though we are getting pimped.  I worked at a place that wasn’t a tourist attraction and I was getting paid more than I am now.

I’m not even making double digits.  My wage is peanuts and it’s not enough to live off of. Y’all can pay us better than this.  Y’all can treat us better than this.  It’s not hard.  The company’s got the cash.  The employees got the endurance.  So why can’t you pay us what we are worth?

When I came to the harbor, I thought I’ll be outta here in three to four months.  I’m in my 3^rd month now and I’m going to be here for a while still.  I’ve got some change saved up, but not enough to pay for everything—the water bills, the gas, electricity, security deposit and first month’s rent.

But if we all raise our voice together, they ain’t got no other choice but to listen.  Our voice will bring awareness and it will be heard and it’s gonna cause a chain reaction, and when that starts it can’t be stopped.

Last Thursday evening, the Labor Sub-committee of the City Council held a hearing on a living wage bill sponsored by Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke. The bill would have required major retailers grossing over 10 million dollars to pay all their employees the City Living Wage. The chamber was packed with low-wage workers, faith leaders, community organizers, union organizers, activists, and other living wage supporters sitting side by side with the city’s business elite, who came out to oppose the bill. After hours and hours of testimony from both sides, the bill died, failing to get one of the two votes needed to move past the Labor Sub-committee.

History was not made that day. But in 1994, Baltimore did make history as the first city to pass a living wage ordinance, which required city contractors to pay a living wage. Bishop Douglas Miles, faith leader with Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), who led the fight for this first living wage ordinance, spoke to Baltimore’s living wage legacy. A legacy which in fact arose from witnessing the poverty created by the Inner Harbor and the seeing the need for setting a basic living wage standard in the city. “At that time we lobbied for this legislation, we were told that such a move, as is being told today, would bankrupt the hospitality industry, drive conventions away from Baltimore, cause other businesses not to want to relocate to Baltimore… We were told that nothing could be done to help such workers gain a living wage without destroying Baltimore’s economy. We did not believe it then and we do not believe it today.”

One by one, supporters of the living wage bill stood up to testify.  Sally Dworak-Fisher, an attorney with the Public Justice Center, clearly laid out why living wages matter and how the cries of “unintended consequences” are unfounded. Nicole Jassie spoke on behalf of Legal Aid, who helped Councilwoman Clarke draft the proposed legislation. Matthew Weinstein with Progressive Maryland put Baltimore’s increasing level of poverty in historic and economic perspective and called on City Council to stand up to the “chicken littles” like they did in 1994. Leaders with the United Workers talked about what it means to be one of those low-wage workers being paid poverty wages and how living wages can allow one to live with dignity. Representatives with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), A Beautiful Struggle, Good Jobs First, Bmore Local, NAACP, AFSCME, the newly formed Baltimore CAN coalition, and many more stood before the council to call for living wages.

But the “chicken littles” came up too, crying that big box stores will not find Baltimore appealing if they can’t pay poverty wages, that some workers are just “not worth $10.59 an hour”. One opponent, Jeff Zellmer, legislative director of the Maryland Retailers Association, even drew gasps from the room when he called the bill a “Holocaust for the retail industry”.

When the decision came to make history once again and move towards Fair Development for Baltimore or allow developers and big box stores to continue violating worker’s human rights, poverty-zone development prevailed. But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” And so poverty-zone development might have prevailed today, but we continue building the unity needed to bend that arc towards Fair Development, towards dignity and respect for all low-wage workers, towards freedom from poverty and oppression, towards human rights for all.

Media Coverage of the Living Wage Hearing:

Baltimore Sun- “Bill requiring $10.59 ‘living wage’ dies in City Council commitee”

Baltimore Brew- “Jaw-dropping moments, before Baltimore City Council lets ‘living wage’ bill die”

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who sponsored the City Living Wage Bill that passed in 1994 making Baltimore the first city to enact such legislation, is shown making the opening remarks for this Living Wage Bill for Major Retail Employees.

Check out video of Bishop Miles with BUILD and United Workers leaders, Luis Larin and Leonard Gray speak to the human cost of poverty-zone development.

Watch testimony from other living wage supporters: Sally Dworak-Fisher with Public Justice Center, Nicole Jassie with Maryland Legal AID, and Matthew Weinstein with Progressive Maryland.

By Ron Kipling Williams

Workers at the ESPN Zone gathered in front of their former employer at a press conference on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 to express their outrage and to raise legal issues regarding their termination and treatment.

The Disney Corporation announced on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 they would be shutting down the following week – Tuesday, June 15, 2010 – its ESPN Zone locations in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, Washington, and Baltimore, keeping its Los Angeles and Anaheim locations open.

However, according to workers, they were not supposed to know about the shut down before Tuesday.

Click the link to read the full article posted on the Indypendent Reader

ESPN Zone failed to meet a worker-imposed deadline to meet face to face. On Wednesday, June 30, ESPN Zone workers and harbor workers called on ESPN Zone to meet face to face with workers to resolve human rights violations, including violation of the WARN Act. Workers set a seven day deadline for ESPN Zone to respond to their demand to meet face to face.

To recap, ESPN Zone did not give workers 60 days notice before closing the restaurant on June 15th. What ESPN Zone is offering workers for failing to give adequate notice falls way below what is required under the WARN Act, a severe blow to workers that depend on the busy summer season to offset a slow winter season. If the Disney-owned ESPN Zone was committed to worker dignity and respect, they would sit across the table with workers to ensure a fair closing process.

The ESPN Human Rights Committee will be meeting to discuss next steps in ensuring that workers human rights are respected and how this connects to the larger fight for Fair Development at the Inner Harbor. As Winston Gupton, ESPN worker, expressed at the press conference, “This is for anyone whose human rights are being violated, whether this is Houlihan’s, Cheesecake Factory, or Hard Rock. There are thousands of people who work down here at the harbor and being united will build the power and the leverage needed to move the developers to be on the side of justice.”

This Fourth of July weekend, Harborplace, the first Inner Harbor development, will celebrate it’s 30th Anniversary. Harborplace developer and owner, General Growth Properties (GGP), and many others are using this as an opportunity to call for revitalizing Harborplace. GGP will highlight their plans to expand their consumer base to downtown residents and office workers, by filling empty space with trendier restaurants and retailers.

But as GGP gives Baltimore the pitch for a facelift, harbor workers continue to call for a real revitalization of the Inner Harbor. Inner Harbor developers, GGP and Cordish, must move beyond mere cosmetic changes for quick private gain to Fair Development standards that respect human rights, maximize public benefits, and are sustainable

This weekend GGP will celebrate 30 years of Harborplace history, but how does it hold up to the light when viewed from it’s human rights history? Most workers at the Inner Harbor are paid less than a living wage, which is poverty wage. Many workers must work 60 + hour weeks, holding two or more jobs just to make ends meet. Workers report being clocked out while still on the job. Workers are often required to work sick and injured. They often suffer under authoritarian management that uses unfair scheduling and other penalties to control workers lives. Finally, workers lack healthcare and have incredible barriers to education.

For far too long, we have allowed poverty-zone development to take hold of the heart of our city. As we watch the harbor fireworks burst above our Baltimore skies, we will reflect on the struggle for freedom from poverty and look forward to the day when we can celebrate a harbor that respects the human rights of all low-wage workers.

In front of Baltimore’s shuttered ESPN Zone, former ESPN Zone workers, harbor workers, and allies gathered to call on ESPN Zone to meet face to face with workers to resolve human rights abuses, including violation of the WARN Act, failing to give workers 60 days notice prior to closing.

One of those allies who came to stand in solidarity with ESPN Zone workers was Rev. Roger Scott Powers, Pastor of Light St. Presbyterian Church. As Rev. Powers opened us in reflection and prayer, a guard for the Cordish property ran up and attempted to grab the mic from him. But he continued praying for justice and dignity as the guard continued to disrupt the press conference by standing directly in front of him and telling him repeatedly that he was not allowed to be there, “We pray too for the executives that made this decision to close this ESPN Zone without giving fair notice to their employees. Stir their consciousness oh God. Instill in them a sense of justice and fairness. Help them to see the error of their ways. Bring them to the table to meet with these workers face to face. Open their hearts and minds…”

Watch the video of the guard attempting to shut-down the prayer.

As we know all too well, poverty-zone development can only be made tolerable by making workers and their conditions invisible. With cameras and reporters present, the attempts on the part of those who control the Inner Harbor to silence the calls for justice was exposed in plain view. ESPN workers, Debra Harris, Winston Gupton, and Leonard Gray, who had been told not to talk to the media by ESPN Zone management, spoke on behalf of the Human Rights Committee that has formed to demand justice in this shut-down. Leonard Gray announced, “Until the day that developers are held accountable for poverty-zone development and ensure basic human rights for all harbor workers, we are calling on ESPN Zone to right their wrong by responding within 7 days and meeting face to face with us to resolve these abuses.”

Check out the video of workers’ testimony.

Also there to speak in solidarity with the ESPN Human Rights Committee was Peter Sabonis of the Legal Aid Bureau, legal counsel to the United Workers. Sabonis spoke to the WARN Act and how ESPN Zone has clearly violated this worker protection.

After the press conference, workers and allies took their message directly to harbor consumers. With stacks of fliers in hand, we told consumers about the human rights zone campaign and this most recent and blatant example of worker disrespect.

More coverage of today’s press conference at the ESPN Zone:

“Recently let go ESPN Zone workers are protesting the decision to close the Inner Harbor restaurant,” ABC 2, June 30, 2009

“Former ESPN Zone workers protest sudden layoffs,” Baltimore Sun, June 30, 2009

Video of Leonard Gray and Winston Gupton, former ESPN workers and members of the ESPN Human Rights Committee, talking about their experiences working at the ESPN Zone and the need for human rights standards for all low-wage workers at the Inner Harbor.

This video shows a Cordish guard attempting to intimidate Rev. Roger Scott Powers, Pastor of Light St. Presbyterian Church, from leading us in an opening prayer at a press conference calling for dignity in the ESPN Zone shut-down.