The 220 members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) in this industrial laundry north of Miami--a majority of whom are Haitian women--are angry about wages under $7 an hour and weekly take-home pay of $192. Some carry their last pay stub with them and show it to people who come by the picket line. The company offered only 25 cents an hour per year in wage increases.

Houston-based Tartan Textile, which employs more than 3,000 workers at 28 plants across the country, washes linens and surgical gowns for hospitals and nursing homes. Most of the plants are union-organized, about half belonging to UNITE. None of the contracts at those plants expire at the same time as the one here.  
 
Sympathy strikes in other states
At a July 11 rally of more than 100 strikers and supporters outside the Tartan Textile plant in Pompano Beach, several workers had just come back from other states. They had gone there to set up pickets by UNITE urging workers at plants owned by Tartan to go on sympathy strikes to aid their brothers and sisters here.

"The solidarity we got was unbelievable," said Randal Preddie, a truck driver and member of UNITE on strike here, in an interview with Militant reporters. UNITE members at Tartan Textile plants in Freeport and Hempstead, New York, kept those facilities "closed tight yesterday," he stated. Preddie and other workers who had traveled to these factories said sympathy job actions were also under way in Rome, Georgia; Paterson, New Jersey; and in Maine and Virginia.

Preddie said he and a dozen other workers were arrested by police while picketing the Hempstead plant on July 10. "But we were released on our own recognizance when we got to the police station," he said. "The police is on the company's side but they are nervous about the amount of support we have. I can't forget the militancy of the workers, especially the women workers who operate the laundry machines. They are better than the men. They were amazing. They would not be intimidated by the police and company security who were telling them to disperse from the picket line."

Carmelita Doristrin, with seven years at the Florida plant and a wage of $6.15 per hour, pointed out that conditions were even worse before the union was voted in six years ago. "Now we have vacations and holidays, and they don't treat us as bad on the job," she said. "We have medical insurance, although it's so bad the hospital won't accept it sometimes."

Gloria Portillo started at Tartan Textile just before workers voted in the union in 1994. She pointed out that without the union "there was only one break, while now there are three, and it was hard to even get permission to go get some water."

Some of the many signs in English, Spanish, and Creole that workers carry on the picket line read: "Working under 110 degrees, Sweating Like a Pig for $6.15 after 7 years. No More," "Trabajando como mulas, no te dejes insultar" (Working like mules, don't let them insult you), and "Veye yo" (Keep an eye on them).

Up to 25 strikers at a time mass by the plant gate from 5:00 a.m. until late in the evening. They gather to sing, dance, blare whistles, and rush together into the driveway to shout at any scabs who come by. Children of the strikers join the picket, sometimes taking the bullhorn to lead the chants.

Leroy Forde is one of many strikers who accuse the company of discrimination. With 15 years experience in maintenance before being hired 14 months ago at Tartan, he was given $8 per hour instead of the regular starting maintenance wage of $12. A native of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, Forde said the company has not kept its promise of bringing him up to full scale after a year. Forde is solid behind the union, he said, because "we need protection and to defend ourselves from the company, which is trying to take advantage of us. They want to keep us down."

To win support for the fight against Tartan, the union is organizing strikers to speak out on Haitian radio programs based in south Florida. Strikers report that the company had been slowly bringing in workers from other plants in preparation for a strike, and about 20 workers from the plant here in Pompano Beach have crossed the line. Each morning the company also brings in a bus of workers from temporary agencies to try to break the strike, but some of the replacements have begun to leave the plant in disgust at the working conditions.

Donald Lorfils, a 25-year-old student from Florida International University, came in on one of these buses. When he saw the picket signs in Creole, he decided to come out on his break and learn about what was going on. "I read the Creole signs because that's my first language," said Lorfils, adding that for workers to be out picketing "the company must be disrespecting people in their jobs. I saw the conditions inside and they're trying to work people like robots." Another worker, driving through this industrial area looking for a job, stopped at the picket to find out what was going on and decided to put on a union button and stay for a while.

Striker Carmelita Doristan is one of many day shift workers who stay on picket duty from early in the morning until well into the afternoon. She demands a $1 an hour raise, but said that fighting the bosses' abusive treatment is just as important. While she hand-feeds a machine 300 sheets an hour, said Doristan, "the bosses yell at us. They don't respect us. But they must be made to respect us because we are human beings."

Mike Italie is a garment worker in Miami.  
 
 
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