Congressional Hearing Addresses New Jersey Laundry Worker Deaths

[Omaha Steve]

January 29, 2008

Copy & distribute to all staff

Vol.17, No. 1

Congressional Hearing Addresses New Jersey Laundry Worker Deaths

The House Workforce Protections Subcommittee held a field hearing in Linden, New Jersey on January 14th to address the issue of workplace safety. The hearing was scheduled at the request of Rep. Donald Payne in the wake of the death of two workers at North East Linen, an industrial laundry in Linden.

On December 1st, Victor Diaz and Carlos Diaz, suffocated to death while cleaning a 20,000-gallon tank containing dry-cleaning chemicals. Their bodies were found with no protective equipment other than plastic wrapped around their feet. It is unclear what attempts had been made by North East Linen to follow any of the strict measures required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect workers in confined spaces.

In his testimony before the committee Eric Frumin, Director of Occupational Safety and Health for UNITE HERE said: "Based on our years of experience in this industry, we believe that this was not just a so-called 'freak accident.' The hazard from confined spaces is so well-understood and predictable that it was no surprise that these conditions would kill these workers."

Other witnesses at the hearing included Rick Engler, director, New Jersey Work Environment Council; David Socolow, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Labor & Workplace Development; and Charles Wowkanech, president, New Jersey AFL-CIO.


Rally Addresses Aramark's Poor Performance in Detroit Schools

On January 18th, school workers, parents, and community leaders came together to demand that Aramark - the company that has been responsible for food service in Detroit's public schools since the 2001-2002 school year - explain five years of poor performance and missing revenues. Gathering in front of the Detroit Public Schools Administration Building, they called for DPS to publicly investigate Aramark's failure to make good on its assurances that it would bring in more than $25 million for the struggling school district over the course of its five-year contract.

Concerns about Aramark's financial performance compound problems that DPS parents have been raising regarding the company's quality of services. In November, parents appeared before the school board and delivered petitions from 1,700 Detroit parents to air concerns about the quality of food Aramark was providing to the city's school children and to complain about food shortages in school cafeterias. Gwendolyn McCray, a former president of Guyton Elementary Local School Community Organization who has had children and grandchildren in Detroit schools since 1971, complained about Aramark's service saying, "The food is horrible. People need to remember the golden rule, treat our children like they were yours."

"What's happening in Detroit is part of a pattern of behavior that involves ongoing and outrageous abuse of the public's trust," said Bruce Raynor, President of UNITE HERE, which represents Aramark workers across the country. "Aramark seems bent on bolstering profit at the expense of school children, hard-working taxpayers and its employees. We need to put an end to it by getting school districts, universities and hospitals - both here in Detroit and nationally - to get rid of Aramark and choose a more responsible food service provider."

Although they failed to meet the revenue targets year after year, Aramark was still paid millions of dollars for management fees, far more than the entire food service program made during the course of their contract. Aramark's contract with DPS was renewed in 2006.

Congress Plaza Hotel's Expansion Plans are Denied

On January 17th, after listening to testimony of neglect and mismanagement, the Chicago City Plan Commission denied approval for a major expansion at the Congress Plaza Hotel, the site of a four-and-a-half-year strike by more than 100 members of UNITE HERE Local 1.

Congress strikers, Alderman Bob Fioretti, planning experts, and community supporters testified against the proposed expansion. The hotel has a long history of building code violations and Local 1 has submitted more than 1,200 customer complaints collected by strikers on the picket lines since 2003.

Earlier in the day, approximately 50 members of Local 1 and their supporters marched into the Building Department's office, chanting "do your job" and demanding evidence of city inspections of the Congress Plaza Hotel property in 2007. Over the course of the 45-minute encounter, the city staff was unable to produce evidence of the inspections. Top officials in the Building Department agreed to meet with members of Local 1 to discuss plans to review the building site.

Submissions for The Sidney Hillman Foundation Journalism Awards Due January 31

The Sidney Hillman Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2008 Sidney Hillman Foundation Journalism Awards, honoring journalism that explores the issues of social and economic justice. The award categories for 2008 will include Books (non-fiction), Newspaper Reporting, Magazine Reporting, Broadcast Reporting (television and radio), Photojournalism, and Blogs.

The 2008 awards are given for work produced, published or exhibited in 2007. Editors, photo editors, producers, reporters and authors are urged to submit nominations immediately. Submissions must be postmarked by January 31, 2008.

There is no submission fee or form. A cover letter and three copies of the nominated material are the only requirements. For photojournalism entries, color or black and white photocopies are acceptable.

Winners will be announced at an award ceremony in May 2008. Each winner is awarded travel to New York City to receive a statuette and a $5,000 prize. The 2007 ceremony celebrated the activist work of Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte.

Submissions will be judged by a distinguished panel including Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker; Susan Meiselas, independent photojournalist; Harold Meyerson, columnist, Washington Post; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor, The Nation; and Rose Arce, an award-winning producer at CNN. Past award winners include author Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News correspondent Ed Bradley, NPR, Business Week, and Time magazine.

Since 1950, the Sidney Hillman Foundation has recognized journalists, writers and public figures whose work promotes social and economic justice. Sidney Hillman was the founding president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers of America, a predecessor union of UNITE HERE, which sponsors the awards and the foundation. Sidney Hillman, an architect of the New Deal, fought to build a vibrant union movement extending beyond the shop floor to all aspects of workers' lives.

All submissions should be mailed to Amanda Cooper, The Sidney Hillman Foundation, 275 Seventh Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10001; phone: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail] or visit the website at www.hillmanfoundation.org.



LABOR HISTORY

December 6, 1961. International Glove Workers Union of America merges into Amalgamated Clothing Workers