Angelica Workers Prepare for Strike

Angelica Workers Prepare for Strike
By Mike Rhodes
April 28, 2005

If you want to know what a sweatshop looks like in Fresno, you have to be prepared to get off the beaten path. The Angelica Textile Services plant is in West Fresno, across the railroad tracks and out of sight to all but the most determined visitors to this community. Angelica workers and their allies held a Workers Memorial Day rally on the street outside of the plant as they continue to negotiate with the company over wage, safety, and benefit issues. The workers, who are represented by UNITE HERE, were at the rally to talk about the injuries they have suffered and the dangers they face every day on the job. Angelica, a multi-million dollar company with 14 plants in California, faces over $435,000 in possible fines from federal and state health and safety agencies.

The workers say that if the company continues to jeopardize their health and safety and break labor laws, they will strike on May 5 along with workers at six other plants across the nation, as well as 8 plants that have agreed to honor strikers’ picket lines in an unprecedented show of support. Earlier this month, workers at the Fresno plant and two others in the state voted to authorize a strike, and several other plants pledged to honor strikers’ picket lines, in an action that could leave up to 250 healthcare facilities in California without clean linens.

Angelica Textile Services released a statement today which said in part "regarding the May 5 strike threat, our executive team is meeting regularly to finalize contingency plans and ensure that service to our customers is not interrupted. We are confident that they will not be affected by this situation and that they will continue to receive regularly scheduled, high-quality linen service." A representative from Angelica who would only identify himself as Stephen refused to answer any questions about working conditions, referring reporters to the companies attorney. The company refused to allow reporters to enter the plant to see for themselves what working conditions were like. The razor wire surrounding the facility is a warning that they don’t want any unexpected visitors.

The union says that many of Angelica’s approximately 2,000 laundry workers toil in filthy, unsanitary conditions where repetitive strain injuries are common, amputations occur, and linen quality is questionable. Workers clean linens that are often soaked with blood and feces and contain used hypodermic needles and surgical instruments which may carry HIV. Despite exposure to Hepatitis B, Angelica doesn’t always provide vaccinations and has been cited with 65 Cal/OSHA violations.

The workers and their union are trying to inform the community about the reasons behind the possible May 5 strike. Unfortunately, the corporate media in Fresno are not doing a very good job of covering this story. The only media to show up at the press conference and rally today were the Community Alliance newspaper, Indymedia, SunMt, and KFTV Univision Channel 21. The Fresno Bee, who did not send a reporter or photographer to this event, has also refused to print a full page ad. The workers wanted to use the ad to inform the community about the reasons why the workers had authorized a strike. The Fresno Bee’s advertising sales representative, Susan Rogers said her boss had directed her not to run the ad because of its "political nature." When asked who made that decision she said "it goes pretty far up." Not only will they give no coverage of today’s rally and workers memorial day celebration as a news story, they won’t even give the union the opportunity to pay for space so they can present their side of the story to the community.

The text of the ad which the workers wanted to print in The Fresno Bee reads:

Amador Quintero Jr.
lives in Fresno.
But he works in hell.

Amador Quintero Jr. knows the human cost of working at Angelica Textile Services. For the Quintero family, on-the-job injuries at a company that pushes workers to achieve unrealistic production quotas span the generations.

Amador’s mother and father began working at an Angelica Textile Services plant in Los Angeles 18 years ago—their children were left behind in Mexico. By the time Amador, the eldest of four, came to join them in the U.S., his mother had already sustained a serious on-the-job injury. After two years on workers compensation, Angelica fired her. She fought the multi-million dollar company in court and won. After the Quinteros moved to Fresno and Amador began his own

family, he followed his parents to Angelica. Two years ago, he developed a repetitive strain injury in his wrists from unloading and moving carts stacked three-feet high with soiled linen weighing up to 600 pounds.

He was placed on light duty—which means he worked four hours a day and received only half his paycheck. Like many other workers at Angelica plants across the country, Amador decided to live with the pain in order to get back to his regular pay. Now, back at work moving carts, he feels like his hands are going to break if he lifts more than 60 pounds. At home, this means the pain is too much to bear when he picks up his two-year-old daughter.

The full page ad will run in the May issue of the Community Alliance newspaper.

For more information visit www.thedirtylaundry.org or call Amanda Cooper at (212) 332-9376.