United Workers

The current economic crisis has made more apparent the growing numbers of people struggling to meet their basic needs—food, housing, healthcare, work with dignity and education. Corporations and government leaders claim that the solution is an economic development model that hands power and public resources over to private entities in the name of job creation.

In Baltimore, this development model takes the form of massive government hand-outs to companies like Wal-Mart and developers at tourist hot-spots like the Inner Harbor. While wealth is consolidated in the hands of a few at the top, workers at these Poverty-zones are denied living wages, healthcare and access to education. This is not unique to Baltimore.  Poverty-zone Development runs rampant throughout the country in both city-centers and rural areas, as controlling forces advocate a kind of development that disregards public needs with empty promises of economic growth and job creation. At the same time, local community struggles highlight the need for an alternative model of development that respects human rights, maximizes public benefits and is sustainable. And to that end, participants in those struggles are using innovative methods to organize, develop leadership, and build power.

The Fair Development Conference is a gathering meant to increase our understanding of these challenging times, connect our various fronts of struggle, share movement-building strategies and develop a collective vision for “Fair Development.” The United Workers and its community partners are calling on grassroots organizers, low-wage workers, academics, faith leaders, artists, activists, students and teachers from across the country to join us in exploring the possibilities for Fair Development in our communities.

One of the Inner Harbor developers, the Cordish Company, is in the news today. They had a closed door meeting with the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), to ask the city for a $3 million rent break to “improve” the Power Plant.  To read the article in the Baltimore Sun, go to http://www.baltimoresun.com.

Strange that this self-proclaimed “multi-billion dollar global conglomerate” needs a break, since according to their lease agreement, the Cordish Co. has only had to pay  $1000 a year to city for the first 10 years and after that $1,000 a year in rent plus 22 percent of net profits. That profit amounted to $9,800, which suggests that the entire facility generated about $40,000 in profit in 2009 according to the BDC and reported by the Baltimore Brew, http://www.baltimorebrew.com.

That’s it really!? Either there is some creative accounting or this continued public investment in the Inner Harbor and the service-sector economy has not produced the type of economic prosperity for the city that developers have promised. Most low-wage workers at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor pay close to $9,800, if not more in rent a year and they’re not even making $40,000 year.  I am sure they’d appreciate a break too.

The Cordish Co. claims they need this break to improve the image of the Power Plant to be more attractive. Instead of using public money for superficial and short-sighted “improvements,” how about using public money for the benefit of the public. That’s a novel idea. Perhaps public money should not be used to continue subsidizing poverty-zone developments like the Inner Harbor that simply benefit the developers and corporate vendors. Just maybe public money should be used to create living wage jobs and sustainable economic development for Baltimore.

But the real cost to Baltimore is not the billions in public money that have been invested in the Inner Harbor and the downtown redevelopment. The real cost is a human cost that often doesn’t have a number and is made invisible to the tourists and consumers that visit the harbor. This human cost comes in the form of poverty wages, rampant wage-theft, abusive and disrespectful treatment, lack of healthcare, and barriers to education that get offloaded onto workers and their communities.

It’s true the Inner Harbor is in trouble, but we need real solutions to the real problem. That’s why harbor workers are leading the fight for Fair Development by calling on the developers, the Cordish Co. and General Growth Properties (GGP), to enter into a Fair Development Agreement that would ensure work with dignity, healthcare, and education for all low-wage workers at the harbor. This step towards a new Fair Development model is the real improvement the harbor needs.

Walt Disney Company’s attempt to dismiss the case filed against it by ESPN Zone workers was rebuffed by U.S. District Court Judge, Catherine Blake, who ruled that the case should proceed to trial.

Last June Disney had a massive shut-down of ESPN Zones across the country. For ESPN Zone workers the Disney experience was not the wonderful place “where dreams come true”, but rather a bad dream they wished they could wake up from.

ESPN Zone workers in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor took the Walt Disney Company off-guard when they decided to fight back and demand respect and dignity for giving them less than a week’s notice. On October 25, 2010, they filed a class-action lawsuit against ESPN Zone and parent company, Disney.

Known for their magical storytelling, Disney immediately began crafting a tale as to why they bear no responsibility to ESPN Zone workers and their families. First, Disney claimed the workers were employed by a subsidiary, Zone Enterprises of Maryland, which alone bore full legal responsibility for the restaurant closure. Second, Disney argued that they (or Zone Enterprises) had complied with WARN Act provisions by placing the workers on “administrative leave” for a 60 day period after ESPN Zone closed its doors on June 17, 2010.  The Act requires 60 day prior notice to workers before a facility is closed.

We’re glad Judge Blake has decided that the case will continue, but what’s the moral to their story? That human rights don’t matter in Disney’s world? Perhaps, they’ve forgotten that the most important part of storytelling is the moral and that all good stories teach us a lesson about the value of life and love. That’s what Disney movies do best. We think it’s time Disney takes a lesson from within themselves.

Join the United Workers  and community for a fun filled day in the historic Patterson Park! There will be food, games and music for all to enjoy. Tickets are $7 which includes one free meal and games (children under 4 eat free). Individual food items can also be bought separately if you don’t have a ticket. All the proceeds go towards helping the United Workers in our movement to end poverty. So bring your family and friends and enjoy a wonderful summer Saturday with us!

To RSVP and buy a ticket in advance, email robin@unitedworkers.org or call 443-845-6455.

What: FAMILY FUN DAY!
When: Saturday, June 18th, 12 PM-6 PM
Where: Pavilion 2 at Patterson Park (Patterson Park Ave. side of park)

Bus lines: 10, 11, 13, 30

An interesting recent feature in Baltimore’s City Paper took a skeptical look at the legacy of the Inner Harbor and other development projects spearheaded by the late William Donald Schaeffer, one time Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore. Compelled to raise the voices of harbor workers in any discussion regarding the legacy of the Inner Harbor, United Workers ally, Jonathan Rochkind, wrote into the City Paper highlighting the human cost of this poverty-zone for the people who work there and the communities we live in. You can read the response below or visit the City Paper website, http://citypaper.com

In his review of William Donald Schaefer’s legacy (“Saint or Sinner?” Feature, May 11), Edward Ericson Jr. is rightly critical of the limited public benefit from billions invested in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and downtown tourist district. While sold to the public as spearheading an economic revitalization to compensate for lost manufacturing jobs, in fact most of the service jobs at the Inner Harbor are about as terrible as a job can get: extremely low-wage, seasonal, in degrading and humiliating working environments. A report released this month, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Workers at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and the Struggle for Fair Development” (Google it!) from the United Workers, a Baltimore human rights organization led by low-wage workers, reveals that many workers at the Inner Harbor are treated with routine disrespect by their employers and are paid rock-bottom wages not sufficient to support a family above the poverty line, without even being able to rely on steady year-round work.

This kind of poverty-zone development benefiting only private developers and not Baltimore’s workers is not what Baltimore residents over the past decades were told they’d be getting for their public investment. It’s past time we refuse to stand for it, and instead demand that jobs in our Inner Harbor be dignified and dependable ones that don’t leave workers requiring public assistance to eat and pay their rent. The United Workers are demanding that the Inner Harbor developers—General Growth Properties and the Cordish Companies, recipients of so much public development largesse—guarantee that Inner Harbor jobs come with a living wage and health and education benefits, and that Inner Harbor employers treat workers with respect and dignity. Ericson notes that Schaefer’s harbor tourist development inspired cities across the country to subsidize development of demeaning low-wage service jobs to replace lost dependable manufacturing jobs; it’s time for Baltimore to set a different example and demonstrate a fair development model instead.

To read the feature article, “Saint of Sinner,” that this is in response to, go to http://citypaper.com