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   Vol.65/No.14            April 9, 2001 
 
 
Sewing shop strikers in Los Angeles win new support
(front page)
 
BY NAN BAILEY
VERNON, California--"Hollander escucha, estamos en la lucha!" (Hollander listen, we are fighting!) chanted UNITE members on the picket line here as their strike against Hollander Home Fashions entered its third week.

The 450 members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) struck the company's two plants here in the middle of Los Angeles March 8. Daily picket lines remain spirited and sizable, with 75 strikers at each plant, the limit imposed by a court-ordered injunction. The bosses continue to bus in replacement workers recruited by the temporary agency, Labor Ready, in an attempt to break the walkout.

Strikers are taking their fight across the country and winning support from workers at other Hollander plants. Eighty union members and strike supporters picketed the corporate headquarters of Hollander Home Fashions in Boca Raton, Florida, March 21 in support of the walkout. Workers at Hollander's plant in Tignall, Georgia, continue their strike in solidarity with the striking workers here. The Tignall workers are honoring a picket line set up March 13 by three workers from the Vernon plants.

Vernon striker Ruby, just back from meeting with union members at Hollander plants in Chicago and Dallas, reported to workers on the picket line about the positive response she received in those cities. Workers already knew about the strike, she said, before she arrived and expressed their support and solidarity.

Union contracts are up at the plants in Chicago and Dallas in coming months, Ruby said, adding an extra importance to the outcome in Los Angeles. In Chicago, she met with union members in the plant lunchroom, and workers at the two plants in Dallas met at a nearby hotel. Hollander also has plants in Pennsylvania and Canada.

While the company reported $165 million in sales in 1999, strikers learned this week that the company's sales figures grew to $205 million in 2000. Letters distributed by the company since the strike began urge workers to return to the job, outline the disadvantages of 401 (k) pension plans, and encourage them to save money for retirement. One of the letters, written in Spanish and signed by Hollander chairman Leo Hollander, says, "And what is the union doing? They are making problems for the manufacturers of America and forcing us to move to other countries." Another says, "UNITE, leave our people alone."

"I'm not going to gain much from this because I'm going to retire soon. But here I am," said 62-year-old Marta Bonilla, speaking of the strikers' demand for a pension plan. The unionists point out that salaried employees have a pension plan and that union members are entitled to one, too. Other workers close to retirement expressed the same attitude as Bonilla. "The retirement plan will perhaps not help me much, but it's for the younger workers," said Rigoberto Castellanos, who has worked at Hollander Home Fashions for 27 years.

"Just one mistake was made in the first Militant article on our strike," said UNITE member and striker Maria Solario. One worker was quoted in that article saying that the company provides no masks or safety protection from the dust and filth in the air as workers stuff pillows and comforters with feathers and other material. "They do provide us with masks, but they're not the right kind--that's our complaint," said Solario.

Another striker, who overheard her describing the unsafe working conditions and other injustices faced by workers on the job, added, "There is so much injustice. It sometimes seems like we're in the Third World. And we're supposed to be in the number one democracy in the world!"

"We're on strike for equality, primarily," striker Alberto Pantoja said, "And for a 401 (k) retirement plan. And to protest the reduction in pay that came when they changed the piece rate. Before, one person would weigh and the other would stuff as we ran the machine. Now one person has to do both jobs."  
 
How union was won
Pantoja has worked at Hollander Home Fashions since 1974. His job for the entire 27 years has been running a machine that stuffs cotton into pillows. He is one of a handful of workers still working at the plant who were part of the fight to establish a union at Hollander. Pantoja started working at the plant at age 19, not long after arriving in Los Angeles from his native Mexico.

"A truck driver friend who worked for Hollander talked to some of us about the union," Pantoja said. "He told us what a union would mean. He had learned about unions from other truck drivers. I liked the idea. All of us he spoke with agreed. The rest of us started spreading the word to other workers. We told them how being in a union would help us. We asked them if they agreed to bring in the union without letting the boss know because if the boss found out before the union sent a letter to begin negotiations we'd all be fired. Everyone I talked to agreed.

"The same truck driver friend gave us the name and address of a union--the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU)," he said. "We started to meet with them to discuss what we wanted. There were 50 or so workers who went to these meetings. Some of the things we wanted were a raise in pay and more vacation time. Before having a union, the vacation time given was one week no matter how long you'd worked here. We also wanted family health insurance, instead of for the individual only, and more holidays.

"Right before the vote was to take place at the plant on getting a union, the company called [ the INS] and 21 workers were arrested. The company was trying to stop them from being able to vote," Pantoja said. "But the union got them out on bail so they could come to vote in the plant. Immigration had come to the plant before and we found out from the union lawyers who learned it from immigration officials that the company had called them to come and make arrests whenever they needed to lower the number of workers. They did it this way rather than have a layoff or fire people.

"But after getting out on bail, all 21 were able to participate in the vote. The vote was 58-13 for the union. After the votes were counted it was announced in the plant by a union representative and we all applauded," he said. "It didn't take long to win a contract." Workers at Hollander became members of ILGWU Local 482 with that vote. The union later merged with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union to form UNITE.

The union is asking supporters to contact Hollander Home Fashions to voice support for the strike demands. Call 1-800-BEDROOM, write the corporate headquarters at 6560 W. Rogers Circle, Boca Raton, FL 33487, or fax (561) 997-8738.
 
 
Related article:
Workers at Royal laundry win union drive  
 
 
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