Trabajadores Unidos

This week the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)  kicked off their Trader Joe’s Northeast Tour in Baltimore. Together, the CIW, United Workers, and community allies hit up our local Trader Joe’s, which happens to be located in one of GGP’s many malls, the Towson Town Center. It was an interesting physical intersection of the Campaign for Fair Food and the fight for Fair Development.

To see more from the photo report from this action and to follow the tour, go to http://www.ciw-online.org

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

Looks like Benton Harbor developers are taking a page out of the Inner Harbor’s poverty-zone manual. Musician, independent journalist, and United Workers ally, Ryan Harvey just recently wrote an article for thruthout.org about Benton Harbor, Michigan, a community that is in a battle against recent legislation that strips communities of democratic decision-making powers. As a part of a recent wave of controversial legislation sweeping the nation’s states, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder passed the Emergency Financial Management bill, giving “Emergency Financial Managers” (EFMs) the ability to suspend entire elected bodies of municipalities they deem to be failing. Benton Harbor has been deemed one of those municipalities. By denying community participation, this legislation facilitates a massive shift of public resources towards the private gain of corporations and developers without ensuring public benefits to all of Benton Harbor residents.

Here’s where the plot thickens. Many Benton Harbor residents see this new law as a way to push through an unfavorable “Harbor Shores” development plan that would turn the communities once public beach into a luxury gulf resort. Despite promises of jobs and economic revitalization, many residents are worried that the jobs created will be poverty wage jobs with little benefits that will exacerbate not alleviate the problem of increasing poverty in Benton Harbor. Harvey makes the connection between the struggle in Benton Harbor to the fight for Fair Development at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, including an interesting GGP connection. To read the full article, go to http://www.truth-out.org

The company in charge of developing Harbor Shores, Evergreen Development, was formed in 2005 in anticipation of the project. Evergreen’s Chief Financial Officer Jeffery Gilbertson is the former senior director of Financial Operations, International at General Growth Properties (GGP), one of the largest mall owners in the United States.

While Gilbertson was joining up with Evergreen in 2008, his former employer, after amassing $27 billion in debt, was filing what has been called the largest real estate bankruptcy in US history.(20)

Meanwhile, workers at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor were announcing a major campaign against GGP, which parallels the fight in Benton Harbor in many ways. A new report released this week shines light on these issues and perhaps puts the Harbor Shores project in Benton Harbor under a new light.

“The Inner Harbor,” the report reads, “has become a glaring example of poverty zone development, with low-quality jobs and abusive wages and conditions. As in other poverty zone developments, the private developers – General Growth Properties and Cordish Companies – and their investors insisted on secure profits through access to public subsidies and advantageous leases with the vendors who run the businesses in the development.”

That might sound all too familiar to the residents of Benton Harbor.

We’ve got a little more than a week to go before the release of the report “Hidden in Plain Sight” on Wednesday, May 4th. In anticipation of the release, we’ll be making our way up to New York this Thursday for a Fair Development Forum to share stories of what it is like to work at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and how harbor workers are leading the fight for fair development.

But more than anything, we’re excited to hear from an amazing line-up of panelist who have a lot to say about poverty, development, and human rights: Peter Marcuse, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning at Columbia University in New York City; Domestic Workers United, who just recently won a historic victory with the Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights; Chandra Bhatnagar, a Staff Attorney with the Human Rights Program at the ACLU; Lorena Watler with Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), a Brooklyn-based grassroots organization that has been organizing for responsible, community-led economic development; and Vanessa Cardinale from the Poverty Initiative and Trinity Lutheran Church.

We know that New York is hot-bed of ideas with academics, grassroots labor organizers, human rights activists, faith leaders, students, community leaders, artists and activists. We have so much to learn from each other by exchanging ideas, successes, and challenges faced by those fighting for fair development and an end to poverty and exploitation. So we hope you’ll join us in adding your voice to this important Fair Development Forum!

The United Workers and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) are just weeks from releasing “Hidden in Plain Sight,” a report that takes a behind the scenes look at the human cost of Poverty-Zone Development at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. In conjunction with the release of the report, United Workers is holding a series of forums to connect the fight for Fair Development at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to other struggles at the intersection of poverty, development, and human rights.

The Poverty Initiative will be hosting a Fair Development Forum in New York, where harbor workers and leaders will share stories of systemic human rights abuses, present some of the findings from the report and describe a model for organizing service-sector workers in branded spaces and malls. After comments from experts in the field of human rights advocacy, faith, and grassroots organizing, we will facilitate a discussion about how Poverty-Zone Development impacts communities across the country, what communities are doing to organize and put forward an alternative vision that respects human rights, maximizes public benefits, and is sustainable.

Join us for an exciting evening with food, presentations, and engaging dialogue!

What: Fair Developement Forum NYC
When: Thursday, April 28th 6PM-9PM
Where: Union Theological Seminary- Room AD30, 3041 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

Join students, faith leaders, artists, media makers, community organizers and United Workers leaders in our next Strategic Dialogue! Last December, the United Workers kicked off a series of Strategic Dialogues to involve allies in high level conversations about the Campaign for Fair Development, to build a broader analysis around the problems that affect us, and discuss how all of us can be effective leaders in the movement to secure economic human rights for all.

At this next Strategic Dialogue, we’ll examine the exciting uprisings and protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and Wisconsin, draw the connections to our struggles, and discuss what these examples can teach us about what it is going to take to build a movement to end poverty. We’ll also break-out into groups to begin laying the groundwork for working committees around Media & Culture, Faith, and Leadership Development. These committees are an opportunity for allies to work closely with the United Workers in the fight for Fair Development. All are invited and encouraged to participate in this initial conversation regardless of their participation in the committee. So come be a part of yet another critical and engaging dialogue about how together we can make human rights history!

What: Strategic Dialogue #3
When: Saturday, April 16th, 10:30 AM-2:30 PM
Where: 2640 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21218
*Lite breakfast and lunch provided

To RSVP, call 410-230-1998 or email ashley@unitedworkers.org

On Wednesday March 2nd, a delegation from United Workers started our journey to Tampa, Florida, in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), to demand that Publix and other groceries store chains, “Do the Right Thing.” These words are easy even for a child to understand, but Publix, Giant and Trader Joe’s have decided to ignore the workers and their demand for justice. We know what it is like for corporations to hide from accountability. At Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the developers Cordish and GGP have also decided to ignore the workers, and so like the CIW, we are asking them to “Do the Right Thing” and put an end to Poverty Zone Development. We see the fight for Fair Food and the fight for Fair Development as connected. Doing the right thing means respecting all workers from the fields to the restaurants, together we are demanding a world in which corporations respect human rights as a step towards ending poverty for everyone everywhere.

Our media team will be updating the website with pictures, video and radio pieces from the “Do the Right Thing” actions in Tampa this weekend. To learn more about this weekend’s actions involving four simultaneous sit-ins and a puppet pageant, go to the Coalition of Immakolee Workers website http://www.ciw-online.org/

United Workers Delegation ready to hit the road to Tampa

After 18 hours driving

After 18 hours we still in good mode and with energy

On September 15, 2008, the day the U.S. fell into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, filmmakers Sílvia Leindecker & Michael Fox set off on a trip to hear people across the U.S reflect on this crisis. Two years later with Wall Street back to pre-crash levels, the filmmakers set out once again to document this ever deepening crisis.

“Crossing the American Crisis” documents the stories of workers, truck drivers, farmers, homeless, ex-felons, natural disaster survivors, indigenous, immigrants, and residents from coast to coast—covering nearly 40 states across the nation. Together their stories reveal a broad human rights crisis- in housing, education, work with dignity, health care, etc. But in the midst of this crisis, Leindecker and Fox talk to people who are fighting back and organizing for a more just and equitable world. United Workers leaders Luis Larin, Michael Coleman, and Veronica Dorsey are featured, as well as the Vermont Worker’s Center; the Poverty Initiative; LA’s Bus Rider’s Union; Oakland’s Green Jobs Now; and other grassroots groups and social justice leaders from across the country.

To learn more about this powerful documentary and the tour schedule, go to http://www.crossingthecrises.com/

The United Workers and Generations for Peace and Democracy cordially invite you to our 6th Annual Human Rights Dinner. The Human Rights Dinner is a time for highlighting our accomplishments, celebrating leadership and fundraising for the New Organizers Sustainers Fund. Members graduating from our leadership development programs, Poverty Scholars and New Organizers, will receive certificates acknowledging their scholarship and leadership. This year will be a special year as Veronica Dorsey becomes the very first graduate of New Organizers Program, a three-year university level paid training program. Lastly, this is the event, where we announce who this year’s two Human Rights Champions will be. So, it is not to be missed!

Join us in sustaining the work of the United Workers and in enjoying an amazing gourmet dinner prepared by Generations for Peace and Democracy, presentations from United Workers leaders, good conversation and entertainment.

Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 5 PM

Presbytery of Baltimore—5400 Loch Raven Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21239

Tickets $20

Space is limited, so get your tickets fast!

There are several ways to RSVP:

Call 410-230-1998 or email info@unitedworkers.org to reserve your spot/s and pay at the door

OR

Buy your tickets online, http://humanrightsdinner.eventbrite.com

In response to the first anniversary of Citizens United vs F.E.C. US Supreme Court Decision, The Backbone Campaign and Coffee Party USA organized a Movement for the People Rally and and two-day summit rally on January 21 and 22.

Activists, grassroots organizers, academics, and policy experts from across the country came to share their struggles for corporate accountability and strategies for building power. C-SPAN covered the first day of the For the People Summit. That evening a panel of organizers and activists told the story of how they’re fighting back, from the Indigenous Environmental Network’s efforts to highlight the devastation caused by the Alberta Tar Sands to City Life/Vida Urbana’s innovative organizing in Boston around the foreclosure crisis.

In this video, Veronica Dorsey with the United Workers talks about how organizing around transformative human rights values led to our first human rights victory at Camden Yards and how it is key to building a community of leaders that will secure a Fair Development Agreement at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Movement.

As always, we enjoyed another opportunity to see our friends with the Backbone Campaign, forge new relationships, and learn about all the exciting organizing going on across the country. Through these spaces for reflection and sharing, we see how the Campaign for Fair Development connects to so many of these local struggles for human rights standards, public benefits, and sustainability in the face of growing corporate power. To see more videos, photos and coverage from the For the People Summit, visit http://www.backbonecampaign.org

Last Thursday, February 3rd, Gimmie Shelter presented the United Worker with a gift. It was a gift of labor, love and solidarity. Gimmie Shelter threw a “Conscious Party,” an incredible benefit show for the United Workers at 2640. Over twenty artists, poets, and musicians performed in order to raise money for our New Organizers Program, a university level paid training program for members to study, reflect, and develop community organizing skills. As a part of the New Organizers Sustainers Fund, allies have been hosting house parties and organizing events to both sustain this program and move the United Workers towards greater freedom from foundations. The Conscious Party was a creative twist on this model of community-driven fundraising, fusing art & culture with fundraising.

With our deepest appreciation, we thank Ron Williams, Marcus Colasurdo, Alan Barysh, and everyone with Gimmie Shelter for organizing this amazing event and for their commitment to grassroots movement building. We’d also like to thank the incredible artists that performed: 901 Arts Drum Line, the Barrage Band Orchestra, Mark Sanders, Christina Van Norman, Sam Schmidt, Virginia Crawford, Marcus Colasurdo, In the Clear, Maximum Rain, Michael Monroe, Woody Lissauer, Alan Barysh, RAM, Dick Ochs, Katie Lautar, and Tom Swiss. We were touched by this expression of solidarity and look forward to continuing to work together towards a world in which all of our human potential can be realized and celebrated. Thanks.

Check out these videos from the “Conscious Party” shot by independent videographer, Maurice Morales. To watch more of Morales’s videos of many of the performances and speeches, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/maurice11

Gimmie Shelter founder, Marcus Colasurdo, speaks to the power of art and movement building and why Gimmie Shelter organized a benefit for the United Workers.

Whether marching alongside us through the harbor on Our Harbor Day or raising the roof at 2640, the Barage Band is always down for a good struggle.

Gimmie Shelter, a grassroots cultural organization working to address the needs of poor communities, is throwing a Conscious Party to benefit the United Workers. As part of their mission, Gimmie Shelter seeks to sustain grassroots organizing for economic and social justice. But money is not the only thing we’ll be raising at this fundraiser, we’ll be raising the roof, raising our spirits, and most importantly our consciousness. Don’t miss this incredibly line-up of entertainment. Join us for a night of music and movement building!

What: Conscious Party: Gimmie Shelter Fundraiser for the United Workers
When: Thursday, February 3rd, 7 PM-10 PM
Where: 2640 St. Paul St.
Ticket: $5

Featured Entertainment Includes!!!!

The 901 Arts Drum Line, Mark Sanders, Woody Lissauer, Christina Van Norman, In the Clear, Marcus Colasurdo, Alan Barysh, Katie Lautar, Michael Monroe, Suzanne X, Sam Schmidt, Virginia Crawford, Maximum Rain, RAM (Radical Artist Movement) and the Barrage Band Orchestra!!!

For more information, contact Marcus Colarsurdo with Gimmie Shelter at 443-627-8774, or the United Workers at info@unitedworkers.org or 410-230-1998.

Take a peak at these beautiful photos from the “How the Harbor Stole Christmas” play and rally by one of our allies, Amy Dewan. They really capture the energy and tone of Thursday’s action.

This past Monday, the United Workers joined Prometheus Radio and other backers of low-power FM community radio stations in a rally outside the National Association of Broadcasters to call for the passage of the Local Community Radio Act. Despite the act being approved by the House of Representatives, secrets holds have been placed on the bill in the Senate. Prometheus suspects Gordon Smith, the head of the National Association of Broadcasters, of having a hand in the hold-up. United Workers Leadership Organizer, Veronica Dorsey, spoke at the Rally on Monday in support of community radio and calling on the passage of the Local Community Radio Act.

To watch the segment from Democracy Now! featuring Veronica Dorsey, fast forward to 09:18, or just watch all the headlines.

http://www.ciw-online.org/

On Tuesday, November 15th, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) made a major breakthrough in the Campaign for Fair Food. At a press conference in Immokalee, the CIW and Florida Tomato Growers Exchange signed an agreement to extend the CIW’s Fair Food principles – including a strict code of conduct, a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process – to over 90% of the Florida tomato industry.

For years the Florida Tomato Grower’s Exchange had until now prevented the CIW’s penny more per pound agreements from actually reaching farmworkers. Victory after victory, Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonalds, Whole Foods, Aramark and still the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange staunchly refused to work with the CIW. But as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King often said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” So it was only a matter of time, before the Growers Exchange bent under the mounting weight of the Campaign for Fair Food and sat at the table with farmworkers to ensure basic human rights standards.

As longtime allies, the United Workers celebrates this victory as our own. Just as an injury to one is an injury to all, a victory for one is a victory for all in this struggle for human dignity. We congratulate the CIW on this hard fought victory and look forward to continuing to stand with them in this ongoing movement for justice in the fields of Florida. “Make no mistake, there is still much to be done,”said Lucas Benitez of the CIW. “This is the beginning, not the end, of a very long journey. But with this agreement, the pieces are now in place for us to get to work on making the Florida tomato industry a model of social accountability for the 21st century.”

To read more about this landmark victory, go to http://www.ciw-online.org/

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/

This Saturday, November 6, el Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), a Minneapolis based worker-led organization, will be revealing the first target in their recently launched Retail Cleaning Campaign. Through this human rights campaign, low-wage retail cleaners who work at such places as Target, Supervalu, and Lunds & Byerly’s are demanding fair wages, fair working conditions and a voice on the job.

When we hear stories of poverty wages, lack of healthcare, intrusion into family time, and disrespect told by Minneapolis retail cleaners, we are reminded of our own stories of human rights abuses at the Inner Harbor. When Inner Harbor workers launched the Campaign for Fair Development and decided to move our demands to the developers that control the Inner Harbor, we looked to CIW’s successful strategy of focusing on the top of the profit chain. Now, retail cleaners with CTUL are also employing this same lesson by going after these corporate big-box stores that profit off the exploitation of workers, while trying to wash their hands of any responsibility through an extended labor supply chain. From farmworkers in the fields of Florida, to restaurant and retail workers in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, to retail cleaners in Minneapolis, some of the least protected workers are developing a worker-driven corporate accountability model to address the human rights abuses they experience.

Looking across this country, we see more and more people whose basic needs to housing, healthcare, work with dignity, and education being denied. We are inspired to see people strategizing, organizing, and acting on their values. So with the deepest solidarity, we are excited to join CTUL as they embark on their first human rights campaign. We look forward to day when our victories will converge to create a more just world.

To learn more about this exciting campaign, go to http://ctul.net/