The 250 workers at Oceanside Institutional Industries are now fighting for their first contract.

Negotiations are under way for a contract between UNITE and 35 companies in the New York area, including Tartan Textile plants in Hempstead and Freeport, Long Island. The current contract at these companies expires at midnight on November 27.

At Oceanside, many workers are preparing to go out on strike together with the other plants if the employer doesn't sign a contract by that date. So far the bosses have refused to do so.

José Moisés Alvarado, a worker at the plant who is also a UNITE shop steward, said that with the regional contract negotiations, "What the union is trying to do is standardize wages, benefits, and fair treatment."

Before the strike, there was only a pro-company outfit. They struck for real union representation because of the low wages and poor working conditions. Alvarado reported that "the company starts workers at $5.15, and after nine years we only make $6.70 an hour. They only pay overtime for holidays like Thanksgiving Day to workers who have been working at the laundry for a long time." They are now fighting for $1 an hour raise.

One young worker, who has worked at the plant for four years, said he works 30 hours of overtime a week to make $300.

Workers currently receive no benefits, and are exposed to unsanitary conditions in the department where hospital sheets are washed. The majority of the workforce is Spanish-speaking, mostly from El Salvador. "Supervisors used to curse us in English, thinking we didn't understand," Alvarado said.

He said that recently two workers were arbitrarily fired. One of them was a member of the union organizing committee. "We fought back and got their jobs back."

Alvarado said that even if they win the raise they are demanding by the November 27 deadline, he felt they should walk out in support of the workers at the other laundries fighting for a contract. During their strike, workers from a nearby Tartan Textile plant joined their picket lines.  
 
 
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