With the serpentine hiss of the press, a thick cloud of steam is sent into the air of the laundry room as I iron another sheet. This is my livelihood, and I feel that I am a very skilled worker who deserves far better treatment and more respect on the job than what I am getting.
I work very hard everyday from 7am sharp until whenever my boss decides to allow me to go home for the evening. I always make sure to put great care and concern into every detail of every task that I am assigned.
My name is Mariana Alberti. I began working at Sterling Laundry in 1992, but was illegally terminated for trying to form a union. When the supervisors changed I was able to get my job back, and I've now been an employee of Sterling Laundry for more than six months. Sterling's workers are currently on strike due to the harsh retaliation we faced while trying to form a union, which we wished to create to ensure affordable health benefits, higher wages and better treatment on the job.
In light of the recent Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, I want to tell my story so that others will have a better understanding of what immigrant workers must go through when trying to form a union in N.W. Washington DC, and across this country. We, for instance, are facing an enormous reprisal from the company. For just one example, two co-workers of mine who spoke to the Washington Post on Labor Day about forming a union had their hours cut immediately in response.
My struggle began in 1990 when I emigrated to The United States from El Salvador. I wasn't able to afford to bring my eldest son, Jose Miguel. Though I worked hard, it was four achingly long years before I had managed to save enough money to send for him. I paid a "coyote" 4,500 dollars to retrieve him, but he lost the money, leaving Jose Miguel to suffer the cost and remain in El Salvador. Consequently, I gathered my courage and went over the border to get him myself. I felt I had no choice but to rescue my son, because there was nothing for him in that ill-fated community but extreme poverty and sorrow.
With renewed hope in our hearts, Jose Miguel and I began what turned out to be a calamitous return trip to America. We very nearly drowned. The man who was helping us to cross did not know the river well, and the water fought us. We were marionettes, completely at the mercy of the ruthless current. I remember clinging desperately to the rocks. The rocks are what saved my son and me from sinking.
Despite our perils, Jose Miguel and I managed to make it over the border safely and were able to come together with the rest of our family. Jose Miguel has two brothers. My 16-year-old son, Jaime, is extremely intelligent and an excellent student. I feel as if his great potential is being wasted though, because, surviving on only my low wage, we cannot afford the university, even though we are desperately seeking a scholarship. It breaks my heart wide open to hear him beg me to send him to school. "I want to work in the White House some day," he tells me. While these are big dreams, as a mother I have great faith that he will be able to accomplish something great if he is given the proper education.
My youngest son, Marlon, is just three and a half. After I began working for Sterling, the four of us moved together into a one-bedroom apartment. The neighborhood is atrocious, but the rent is still extremely high. There have been winters when I couldn't turn on the heat because I was not able to afford it. We suffer the same in the summer; I forego the air-conditioning and open all of the windows instead. I consider myself lucky if we have enough money left over after paying rent to buy milk and bread. This should not be the case for someone who works full-time.
In 1992, when I first began working for Sterling Laundry, working conditions were appalling. Since then, floor supervisors have changed but the situation has not improved. Back then, I was required to bring a slip to be signed by a supervisor in order to be allowed to use the bathroom.
One of the drivers that I used to work with, under the old floor supervisors, was very vocal in his decision to try to from a union. He quickly gained support. He was attending informative meetings and asking us to sign cards to have our voices be heard. We complied instantly, excited about the prospect of better working conditions and higher, livable wages. When the company discovered this, they were outraged. They systematically and illegally fired us one by one, beginning with the driver. I know of at least four other workers, myself among them, who were terminated because of their pro-union ideals. The remaining employees became so intimidated that the campaign fizzled, and the dream of forming a union at Sterling Laundry died.
Though I've only been working under Sterling Laundry's new supervisors for a short time, by the end of the first day I could already tell how painstaking the job would be. It is hard work, but I take pride in it and endure the low wages and dangerous conditions for the sake of my sons. I hold out hope that, someday soon, my situation will improve. A union is the only way, and I am willing to fight unrelentingly and take serious risks in order to make the vision of a union become a reality.
Since the beginning, I've been in support of forming a union to repair the state that the company is in. The way the employees of Sterling Laundry are treated is an outrage. It is not an uncommon occurrence to discover that a paycheck is missing hours. Recently, a co-worker of mine who had worked forty hours received a pay stub accounting for only thirty-six. It is unjust, but most workers will simply accept these things instead of fighting for their rights. One woman was courageous enough to complain, and in response the company did nothing but increase her work load as punishment. The same thing happened to an employee of Sterling who became pregnant; she was given harder work so that she'd be forced to resign. People are psychologically fired.
I have co-workers who have been employed at Sterling for over sixteen years, yet they've never received a raise or earned more than minimum wage. I make $6.15 an hour. The highest paid workers I've spoken with tell me they earn only $7.50. In addition, many of us are forced to go without company health insurance because it is too expensive.
Wages are already too low to survive on, but I recall one time when a worker who was late - just one or two minutes - for the start of the 7am shift, had a full thirty minutes deducted from his pay. In addition, many of us are forced to work every single Sunday, even though several of us are religious and would love more than anything to be able to attend a church service with our families.
The heat in the building is severe, often reaching a scorching 105 degrees. It is because of these temperatures - the same sweltering heat that dangerously dehydrates us - that I am forbidden to have liquids in the room and I have been denied breaks to quench my thirst.
Not only have I been unable to go for water in these dangerous conditions, but I have also been denied trips to the bathroom as well. There have been several occasions when I have made sure to finish all of my assigned tasks before requesting a brief bathroom break, but my boss often refuses, requiring me to stay and fold towels instead.
For all of these reasons, I want to form a union at Sterling Laundry. The truth is, without banding together, we are powerless to stop the abuse that is taking place on the job. Realizing this, we recently made an attempt to form a union with UNITE. Our efforts were immediately squashed beneath the heel of the company. They held compulsory anti-worker meetings where we were forced to listen to the owner say that he could not afford to give any of us a raise, ever. He also said that if we did not agree with that, plenty of other people would be happy to take our jobs.
My colleagues and I were patient, but eventually these unfair tactics wore on us. We grew so despondent and angry that we decided to intensify the severity of our actions; to raise the stakes so that the company would appreciate how much they needed its workers, and so that the management would become aware of how abusive to us they really had been. We decided that a strike was in order. The strike is an unfair labor practice strike - we are protesting Sterling's violations of the National Labor Relations act, which were so hostile that this was our only option.
Sterling began to augment the relentlessness of their strategies, as well. In response to employees' ever-increasing desire to form a union, the company began to cut the hours of two co-workers of mine who were union supporters; not only as a consequence to those workers, but as a method of intimidation, an example to the rest of us. In addition, employees were being brought into the office, one by one, to be coerced and threatened in forced meetings. We quickly became fed up with these tactics and, one week prior to September 8th, when a worker was called to go into the office alone, we marched in defiantly, as a whole, to announce our strike. The very next day, a group of temporary, substitute workers were brought in to fill our positions in an attempt to show us how easily we can be replaced. They are making every effort to pressurize us into returning to work, because they know that the employees of Sterling are hard-working, diligent people; without them, the company would buckle.
It was my firm believe that, in coming to this country, I would be protected under United States law and would be working under safe, humane conditions for wages that I would be able to support myself and my family on. I was sorely disappointed to discover that, at Sterling Laundry, this is not the case. This is why we are so desperately seeking to form a union; to repair these deplorable circumstances and earn enough money to be able to live decently. We are very optimistic that our efforts will not go unrewarded, but we simply cannot do it alone. In our strike, we are looking for the support of the community to help open the eyes of the owner of Sterling Laundry, so that he is able to realize that we do good, hard work for his company and deserve a safe, sanitary working environment, and that with such low pay we simply cannot afford to live.
If you are as outraged at this company's behavior as its workers are, we urge you to join us on the picket lines, let your voices be heard! If you live outside the Washington-area consider joining tens of thousands of workers across the country and participate in a December 10th event on International Human Rights Day in support of workers' freedom to form union.
###
