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D.C. laundry workers win union contract
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Militant/Lea Sherman
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WASHINGTON, D.C.—Chanting, “Sí se puede” (Yes, we can!) followed by “Sí se pudo” (Yes, we did it!) Sterling Laundry workers returned to work here April 12 after a seven-month struggle to win union recognition for UNITE and a contract. Wearing their union T-shirts, 38 workers returned to the job with 10 others to be recalled in 90 days to the industrial laundry.
The union reported that the company agreed to a “card check” process whereby UNITE won recognition when a majority of workers demonstrated their support by signing union cards. UNITE organizer Mario Rodríguez told workers the three-year contract includes raises of 25 cents and 35 cents per hour, company-paid health insurance, and a pension. Workers won additional holidays, including Martin Luther King’s birthday. The workers went on strike Sept. 8, 2003, against Sterling, which provides laundry and dry cleaning for hospitals, hotels, and federal agencies in Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and Maryland, and pays workers as little as $6 per hour. A month earlier a majority of the 110 workers in the plant had signed union authorization cards. —LEA SHERMAN
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