Baltimore Stadium Workers Win Living Wage

by James Parks, Sep 7, 2007

Baltimore stadium workers celebrate winning a living wage.

Calling it a “historic victory for low-wage workers,” day laborers who clean Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore celebrated the Maryland Stadium Authority’s vote yesterday to pay them the state’s new $11.30-an-hour “living wage,” starting next spring.

That’s a pay raise of more than 60 percent for the workers, who now make $7 an hour.

We reported that the mainly immigrant workers, who have been fighting for higher wages and better working conditions for three years, planned a hunger strike to dramatize their struggle. The hunger strike, which was to have started Monday, was called off yesterday.

The United Workers Association (UWA), a Baltimore worker center that represents the nearly 800 workers, says the subcontractors who employ them have reneged on promises to pay a living wage.

The state’s three-year contract with Michigan-based Knight Facilities Management Inc., which subcontracts with temp agencies in Baltimore to hire the cleaning crews, expires in January. The stadium authority’s board voted to mandate the living wage in the next contract.

UWA Organizer Carl Johnson said:

After three long and difficult years of struggle, we’re very excited about today’s living wage victory at Camden Yards. Our next priority will be making sure that the current cleaners get a fair opportunity to keep their jobs next season and to work at a living wage.

In May, Maryland passed the law requiring contractors to pay workers a living wage. The law—the first of its kind in the nation—requires service contractors doing business with the state to pay employees $11.30 an hour in urban areas and $8.50 an hour in rural areas. The state’s minimum wage is $6.15 an hour.

Although the state owns the stadium, the cleaning crews are not covered by the living wage law, which exempts part-time and temporary workers.

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and stadium authority chairman Frederick Puddester both publicly supported paying the living wage. Union members joined with community, civil rights and religious groups to rally support for the workers.

Fred Mason, president of the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO, says the day laborers’ victory is a win for all workers.

When one group of workers are exploited or mistreated, then all workers suffer. They say a high tide lifts all boats. Well, a low tide can sink all boats. Workers are workers, and everyone deserves to be paid a decent wage. It’s unconscionable that the people who clean up after us at the stadium don’t make enough to feed their families. That’s not right.

Workers say some 150 day laborers are hired to clean during and after Baltimore Orioles home games. The cleanup takes six to eight hours. The workers also say some subcontractors charge employees a transportation fee, amounting to $6 per round trip. They say they are not paid for the time they wait to be let into the stadium after the games.

Workers say they are told by the subcontractors to be at the stadium up to two hours before their cleaning shift begins. But not all workers who wait are picked for the job, they say.

Temporary workers also clean M&T Bank Stadium (next door to Oriole Park) after Baltimore Ravens home football games.

UWA also is addressing working conditions at the stadiums. The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is investigating allegations of unlawful labor practices against the cleaning subcontractors.

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