United Workers

Below is audio for most of the Fair Development Conference Workshops. To read descriptions about the different workshops click here. To download any of the audio files in MP3 format click here.

Fair Development Conference: Block 1

Fair Development Conference: Block 2

Fair Development Conference: Block 3

Fair Development Conference: Block 4

Throughout the Fair Development Conference, participants, panelists and United Workers’ members were asked what Fair Development means to them. A few of those interviews can be seen below, building, expanding and collectively envisioning how Fair Development both stands in opposition to poverty zone development like that of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and extends to struggles across the country for land, healthcare, housing, love and dignity; or in short, people’s basic human rights.

The many pieces of fabric that made up the quilt of a collective vision of Fair Development were constructed throughout the day in the many workshops, conversations, meals shared and stories swapped. The intricacies of Fair Development became more defined as people elaborated on the three concepts of maximizing public benefits, respect for human rights and sustainability.

The Fair Development Photo Booth was one of the many places host to dozens of participants to express their vision for Fair Development. It quickly turned into a space for breaking down barriers of age and language where all could communicate a desire for a hopeful future. Check the photos out here:

While some expressed their sentiments on cardboard, still others conducted a series of short interviews. Check them out!

Finally, be sure to take a peruse through the many photos that captured the over twenty-five different workshops:

Over 150 people gathered at St. Johns Church (2640) for the first night of the Fair Development Conference. The night began with people slowly trickling in, but soon filled the church space by the time the keynote speakers hit the stage. A musical trio opened up the conference with serenading sounds of justice and peace. Soon to follow was the main event of six, that’s right six keynote speakers, weaving a collective quilt illuminating not only the plight of the poor, but the fight of the poor in fighting for Fair Development and building a movement capable of ending poverty in the face of the growing economic crisis and deprivation for the many. Although stories ranged from the struggle here at Camden Yards and the Inner Harbor to the struggle for land in Brazil, privatization of public resources in Detroit and beyond, strip-mining in Guatemala, and the growing gap between the expanding poor and rich, they told a collective story of workers coming together to globalize the struggle for human rights, hope and dignity.

See photos from the first day here:

In preparation for participants to arrive to St. Johns Church to hear the Keynote speakers, the United Workers takes a moment to come together in a Unity Circle to express love, gratitude and leadership for each other and all those that will join them today.

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

The United Workers along with twenty eight organizations from the US gathered at Union Theological Seminary in New York City to participate in the Poverty Initiative’s 7th Poverty Scholars Strategic Dialogue. From West Virginia to South Africa, the Poverty Scholars Strategic Dialogues have become a space for organizations across the country and even the world to come together to learn, share, and inspire each other towards “Reigniting the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign.”

For four days, we met in sessions to study and discuss the impact of the economic crisis on our communities and our organizing, the lessons learned from past movements, and how we can develop a unified strategy towards building a social movement to end poverty. We shared lessons from our local work and heard from the NEPA Organizing Center, Media Mobilizing Project, and the Vermont Worker’s Center. On the third day, S’bu Zikode, President of the Shackdwellers’ Movement in South Africa, spoke to us about their leadership development processes that have led to a growing movement of poor people in South Africa demanding their human right to housing and freedom from poverty. Chris Nizza and Dara Kell from Sleeping Giant screened a sneak peek of “Dear Mandela,” a soon to be released documentary about the Shackdwellers Movement.

But the Poverty Scholars Dialogue was not all talk, we demonstrated our unity and celebrated our victories. On Saturday, we picketed at Mario Batali’s exclusive restaurant Del Posto where workers are organizing with ROC-NY for work with dignity. We sang freedom songs, passed out fliers, and chanted in the multiple languages spoken in New York restaurants. After the picket, we went to the Domestic Workers United Gala to celebrate their 10 year anniversary and their recent historic victory of a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York state. Domestic workers and their allies exemplified the change that can be made when people act on their values and demand justice, just as we had done earlier at Del Posto. For years, DWU organized, protested, and met with legislators to make the all too often invisible exploitation of domestic workers visible. This commitment paid off and the Gala was a moment for all of us to celebrate this shared victory in the fight for human rights for everyone everywhere.

We ended the the four day Strategic Dialogue with a conversation about the upcoming Leadership School and how it can serve to further build a broad based movement. We cried about the hard road ahead, we reminded ourselves of our victories, we spoke of the important family bonds we’ve created, and recommitted ourselves to being leaders in a movement to end poverty.

To learn more about the Poverty Initiative and the Poverty Scholars Program, visit http://www.povertyinitiative.org/

By Pam Lovings

I was a retail sales associate at Hard Rock Café for 12 ½ years. Recently, I was forced out due to retaliation that took many forms from upper management. These are just some of the problems I had to endured before my termination.

I was given only 2 or 3 days a week. And if they did give me 5 days, they would cut me every day by 1pm. I was suddenly stripped of my duties in administrative work and receiving of merchandise. I asked my department head about it. He replied, “I have to guarantee the Russian students 35 hours for the next 3 months.” In the past, when we had Russian students working there, everyone was treated equally. They evaluated us based on sales performance. But how do you expect someone to put their best foot forward when the scales are unbalanced? The end result was that I couldn’t keep up with my bills, including my son’s orthodontist payments. I’m on the verge of eviction. And this restaurant is supposed to be family-oriented.

Then there was a lack of respect. For example, a manager used to call me “Girl,” rather than my name. One day, one of the managers started flicking coasters at me out of nowhere. Then later, that same person aggressively approached me asking various questions. He entered my personal space and was so close to me that I could feel the sprinkling of his saliva on my left ear. When I complained about his behavior to the general manager, nothing was done, so I complained to Human Resources. They remained neutral, as if protecting the company. The manager started harassing me. We were walking past the expo area, and he said, “Dead woman walking,” in front of a bunch of other servers.

The managers also injected their personal feelings and emotions in with their slurs towards me, which is one way to try to break me down emotionally, to make me want to quit. But instead, I tried to turn those negatives into a positive by focusing on how to stay afloat.

I was unable to function. Emotionally I was scarred. Mentally, too, because it was uncalled-for stress that was put upon me. It could have been prevented had there been more support within management. But everybody is for themselves. They put on one face to show that this is a “caring restaurant.” It’s all washed up. It’s just writings on the wall. They’re not standing by their mottos or their values.

I think the whole big issue is greed. It’s not about people anymore. It’s just about the mean green. Saving money by not paying people what they’re worth. If you’re paying people well and treating them right, you build a strong clientele. You get back what you put out. I don’t know how they expect people to grow if they’re trying to suck them dry.

Why can’t we get respect from management? Everybody has a right to be respected, to have dignity, and to voice their opinion in the event that they’re mistreated. The people who control the Harbor should take notice of the inhumane acts occurring on their watch. They need a wake-up call.

By Janice Watson

I was an employee at ESPN for 7 ½ years. Come take a walk with me. Let me show you just how ESPN was really operated.

A lot of people say, what you don’t know won’t hurt you. That’s a lie. Because Disney is the type of company that will take what you don’t know and use it against you. For example, you had to maintain 30-32 hours a week to keep your health insurance, but it’s impossible to do that if business is slow and your hours drop. So in the fall, when kids go back to school and business starts dropping off, the hours would slow down. So you lose your insurance.

For instance, one of my co-workers had to resort to social service for medical insurance because Disney had dropped her insurance. Another ESPN worker was on disability. But in the summertime, his hours being plentiful, he would work more. So the disability people would cut his benefits. But when September-October rolled around, he had to quit and go back on disability to keep his dialysis. Disney wouldn’t let him keep his insurance because he was only making 16-20 hrs a week.

The managers abused their power. If you weren’t a part of their clique, you were on the “hit list”. Such as one of the Sous Chefs, who would sneak around to wait outside the restroom to see how long we took. As a woman, this made me feel belittled; my privacy had been invaded. If we took too long, he would ridicule us and ask us why. As we started to explain, he would cut us off and tell us to get back to work. He was rude like that.

While I was working on a project, he interrupted me to tell me that a “cast member” saw me in the walk-in refrigerator eating ribs. This led to a suspension. I was suspended on speculation. I defended myself by saying this was not true and unacceptable. He had no proof. While I was suspended, this same Sous Chef began to lie by telling everyone he had caught me eating cold ribs. (Mind you, I have ulcers so I don’t eat anything cold) He propositioned another cast member to go along with the story so I could be terminated. When that employee refused, he was terminated. The executive chef and regional chef are just as guilty because they allowed these situations to take place without investigating. Disney and Cordish are just as guilty as the chefs are because they allowed these things to take place. The only thing they cared about was the Almighty Dollar.

On June 12, 2009 I arrived at work at 4:45 to start my PM shift. As I entered the kitchen, I saw it was a madhouse. Mind you, this is on a Saturday. As I’m making my rounds, I noticed that the AM shift had not prepped anything for us to use, especially the chips. They were being used as fast as they were cooking them; we were that busy. As I was in the walk-in refrigerator trying to do three jobs at one time, the Executive Chef came in and began about the chips. He told me that if he didn’t have them in 5-10 minutes, my co-worker and I would be terminated. They were always threatening to fire you if you didn’t do what they wanted the way they wanted it, and always took their frustrations out on you. No one should have to work under these deplorable conditions.

After all of this, hanging in there and taking all of this gripe, my reward was for ESPN to cease operations with no notice.

The whole harbor needs to be changed. It needs to be constructed with morals and principles. It needs dignity, so that people will want to go to work.

P.S. Do you think they were just after me? Or is this the way all the restaurants are run down at the harbor?

When Sherlock Holmes heard that Disney’s ESPN Zone shut-down without giving workers any notice, he decided to look into the case with the help of his trusty partner, Watson. ‘Is it possible that Disney could treat workers with such a lack of respect and get away with it?,’ Sherlock wondered. Like any good detective, he gathered clues and heard from witnesses, the ESPN Zone workers who were dumped by Disney on June 15th.

“We are here today to demand justice from Disney…The way that we found out that the ESPN Zone was closing was totally disrespectful. It was like a “slap in the face”. We felt like disposable cups thrown out when we were no longer needed,” Leonard Gray, a former ESPN cook, explained.

After looking at the facts and listening to workers and allies, Sherlock concluded that Disney failed to abide by the most basic sense of decency when they put over 150 workers out with only a week’s notice. But his investigation of the ESPN Zone case revealed a much more frightening reality.

Holmes discovered that the trail of worker human rights abuses did not stop with the ESPN Zone, but extends throughout the harbor. Hearing from workers from the Cheesecake Factory, Phillips, and Hooters, he uncovered what lies beneath the surface: poverty wages, stolen tips, sexual harrassment, lack of healthcare, and barriers to education. ‘Different vendors, but the same story? The Inner Harbor is a Poverty-zone! But who is in control?,’ thought Sherlock.

As Holmes connected workers’ stories, he could see a common thread. As he followed his magnifying glass up the profit chain, the pieces fell into place. At the top of the profit chain sit the developers, GGP and Cordish, who control the Inner Harbor. ‘That’s it! When developers do not mandate human rights standards workers are denied the basic dignity they deserve,’ exclaimed Sherlock.

“No @%*# Sherlock,” said the workers. “We’ve known this all along and that’s why we are uniting to fight for Fair Development at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.”

Together, workers from Cheesecake Factory, Hard Rock, Phillips and Hooters, faith leaders, students, and allies took the lead and marched from the Inner Harbor to the Federal Courthouse singing, “Oh Lord, I got, to. They took away our dignity, who will stand and fight with me?! You can’t remove us from your sight until you give us human rights!”

Last Wednesday night, a delegation of United Workers leaders, harbor workers and allies set off for Chicago, marking the beginning of our series of Poverty-zone Reality Tours. Through these tours, we are hitting General Growth Properties (GGP) and Cordish targets throughout the country, exposing the human rights abuses at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and connecting the Campaign for Fair Development with grassroots, faith-based, student, labor and human rights organizations across the country.

We gathered together Wednesday to prepare all our materials and supplies, eat dinner and discuss the tour. Loading up the minivan, we were excited to get on the road and start this long journey from Baltimore to Chicago. While we traveled through the night, we passed the time by deciding, as the first tour delegation, to name this series of tours: the Poverty-zone Reality Tours.

We arrived in Chicago early in the morning as the sun was rising behind us. Our first stop was our host, the White Rose Catholic Worker House, an intentional Christian community committed to hospitality, resistance to injustice, and a sustainable way of life. We settled in to our temporary home and prepared for the task ahead of us, a delegation to GGP headquarters and a workshop and presentation at the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) Conference. Even in our exhaustion, we knew we were here on a mission. We pushed sleep aside to practice our parts in the presentation and delegation.

After all this preparation it was back to the van. We headed down to the infamous Cabrini Green Housing Project to meet with Henry Warfield, a Cabrini resident and organizer with the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign. Henry gave us a reality tour and explained the history of the first public housing tower in the country to be demolished. We learned the destruction of Cabrini Green paved the way for the dismantling of public housing throughout the country. Henry shared lessons learned from the organizing struggle to defend their human right to housing. He spoke of their successes and challenges along the way. We compared struggles and shared stories. It was a sobering example of how human rights, public benefits, and sustainability can be sacrificed for the private gain of developers and civic boosters.

Not far from the empty lots and boarded up homes of Cabrini Green, we headed to GGP headquarters located in Chicago’s downtown business district. Our delegation was joined by representatives from ARISE Chicago, an organization that builds partnerships between faith communities and workers fighting for justice.

Last year on Human Rights Day, while we were in Immokalee, Florida for our Fair Food Solidarity Tour, we sent Cordish and GGP a letter outlining workers demands for a Right to Work with Dignity, a Right to Healthcare, and a Right to Education and the responsibility that harbor developers have to ensuring basic human rights standards at their development, click here to read letter. In the nine months since we sent GGP and Cordish the letter, neither has responded to workers’ call for them to come to the table and resolve the human rights abuses taking place. GGP recently celebrated 30 years of Harbor development, calling for a revitalization of the harbor,that continues to perpetuate poverty-zone development and ignore the human costs. So, we thought we would pay GGP a visit just to make sure that they received the letter. We asked to speak with GGP Chairman, John Bucksbaum. He was “not available”. Perhaps CEO, Adam Metz? “Not available”. What about another top executive? Nope. We had come all the way from Baltimore, was there anyone who might be able to come downto receive a packet of information with the letter? NO. So we left our packet of information with the receptionist, hoping it might make it’s way up the chain of command, but knowing that if not, GGP would soon be hearing more from us.

The next day, we took part in the last day of the CCDA Conference, a gathering of thousands of faith leaders and grassroots organizations working with poor communities to redevelop through Christian-based principles, by attending workshops, presenting on the Campaign for Fair Development, and connecting with other grassroots groups. We engaged conference participants by doing interviews in which people spoke about what Fair Development means to them. We had the pleasure of meeting CCDA founder, John Perkins and Board member and long-time CCDA leader, Mary Nelson, who also took part in a video interview.

As the conference came to a close, we said good-bye to Chicago and headed back to Baltimore. On the way home, we reflected on what we learned from the people we met, the struggles we heard about, and the actions we engaged in. We had only scratched the surface, Chicago is a city with a rich organizing tradition that still thrives today. We look forward to returning to continue building relationships with other grassroots, faith-based, student, and labor organizations in the fight for Fair Development.

Next stop on the Poverty-zone Reality Tour!— New York, October 9 and 10.

To learn how you can participate in upcoming Poverty-zone Reality Tours, email info@unitedworkers.org

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.

What a week to kick-off the summer solidarity actions! Emanuel McCray, an ESPN Zone worker, spoke in front of the now closed ESPN Zone about the experience of learning through the news that he would be out of a job in less than a week as curious tourist and consumers walked passed. Allies came out to show their solidarity and reach out to consumers to educate them about the human rights abuses at the harbor and this most recent example of worker disregard. Many consumers were shocked to hear that Disney-owned ESPN Zone would treat their workers with such lack of respect. Connecting workers with consumers is critical to putting the pressure on Inner Harbor developers, GGP and Cordish, to ensure basic human rights standards for workers. This is just the beginning, so if you missed this action, be sure to sign-on to our e-alerts to learn about upcoming solidarity actions!

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers Modern Slavery Museum made the trek all the way to D.C. in conjunction with a ceremony in which CIW’s own Laura Germino was recognized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her exemplary efforts in the fight against modern-day slavery in the United States. With the CIW in our neck of the woods, we took a day to visit our friends and congratulate them on their incredibly achievements in the ongoing struggle for human dignity.

United Workers Theater Justice Conference Opening Address by Willie Baptist of the Poverty Initiative on Reigniting Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign and the role of Leadership in the Movement to End Poverty.

Willie Baptist is a former homeless man and father who participated in and lived through the Watts uprisings, the Black Student Movement of the Los Angeles riots in 1965. With 40 years of experience as an organizer, Baptist currently serves as scholar-in-residence and coordinator of the Poverty Scholars Program at the Poverty Initiative.

The Justice Theater Conference brought together social and economic justice organizers with theater, art, storytellers, and puppet makers to share skills, culture, struggles and a shared vision for a world free from poverty. The amazing collaboration was an insight into what’s to come this spring–OUR HARBOR DAY, MAY 1, 2010–a huge theatrical participation play at the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

This workshop was facilitated by Bashi Rose and Mitchell Ferguson with NOMMO Theater. An excerpt from the Workshop Break Out handout describes this workshop experience as a culmination of improvisation, free writing, excerpts of original NOMMO plays, and group discussions to be used as blueprints for guerrilla theater actions.