The strikers here have extended the contract fight by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) against Hollander. More than 450 members of UNITE have been on strike since March 8 at Hollander's plant in Vernon, California, located in downtown Los Angeles. Another 100 union members have been honoring a picket line set up by their California fellow unionists at Hollander's factory in Tignall, Georgia. Although the union is negotiating separate contracts at each plant, the central issues are the same: low wages, no pension, and poor working conditions.
Workers at the Frackville plant have been following the struggle by workers in California and Georgia closely and many see these two contract battles as one fight. "We're hoping that this plant going out will be the breaking point" in the struggle, explained sewing machine operator Dale Stumpf.
UNITE members from the Hollander plants in California and Georgia attended a rally at the plant entrance the week before. Also participating were UNITE members from City Shirt, a large garment factory in the same industrial park.
David Greenlief, an organizer for UNITE, told the Militant that the company had offered the Frackville workers a 25-cent raise in the first year of a contract and 20 cents for the following two years. The company has offered two options on the insurance plan, but won't explain the terms. Both appear to require workers to pay more. The company refuses to negotiate a pension plan.
"I've been there seven years and make $6.75 an hour," explained Stumpf. "I made more 30 years ago. Going on strike was the best thing we could do. This company gave us no choice."
Workers report their wages have been declining and conditions on the job are getting worse. Geraldine Dyszel, the chief shop steward, explained that workers who bag the pillows are paid by piece rate. Without changing the rate the company forced the workers to go from bagging pillows at one station to two, sometimes 20 feet apart, significantly lowering their wages. "We have a grievance in for paid travel time," she said.
The wages of sewing machine operators on piece rate were cut by several dollars an hour this January when the company rearranged production and modified machinery.
Dolores Peleschak, Kassie Harding, and Gina McGinnis work in the "Feather Room," known as the worst department in the plant. "The air vents aren't connected. The place is filled with dust. They give us masks but it's so hot your glasses steam up and you can't see," Peleschak explained. "Sometimes the pillow casing breaks, the machine blows feathers all over you and you can't breathe," Harding described.
McGinnis has developed an allergy to formaldehyde, a chemical used to treat the feathers. After an allergic reaction she was given a point for missing time at work. She reported that, under the company's attendance policy, workers receive a point for any absence. After accumulating four points within a year the worker is suspended. With seven points they are fired.
"These are slave wages here," Peleschak explained. "And the company says that on these wages we should be able to save for retirement."
Workers reported that vans of temporary workers were brought through the picket line the first morning of the strike. While the company has had temporary workers in the plant before, a number have been hired in the recent period to replace the permanent employees during the strike.
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BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
BOCA RATON, Florida--Nearly 200 people rallied April 25 at the Hollander Home Fashions headquarters here in solidarity with workers on strike at the company's plant in Vernon, California. The Florida Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) organized the action. The majority of those attending were retirees who came on UNITE-organized buses.
A couple of dozen factory workers from the Tartan Textile and National Linen industrial laundries, in Pompano Beach and Fort Lauderdale respectively, and other area factories also took part. These included a sizable delegation, mostly of Haitian workers, from Bag Specialists, a leather bag manufacturing facility in Miami. A smaller group attended from the cutting plant Fishman Tobin. These four factories are organized by UNITE.
Arcine Raspberry, Florida director of UNITE, introduced two strikers from Los Angeles, who were the featured speakers at the rally. "I thank this community for your support," said Maria Aceves, who has worked for 15 years at the plant. "You know the importance of retirement benefits and you are standing with us against the injustices at Hollander. It is outrageous that production employees with more than 20 years service will retire with nothing. Every three years, when the contract came up in the past, we pled with the company for our demands that were never met. This time we said enough is enough and went on strike."
Aceves explained the tremendous boost the Vernon strikers got when UNITE members honored their pickets at Tignall, Georgia. Aceves is among the half dozen workers from Los Angeles who have set up that picket line, and has just come to Florida from there. "We hope the workers at Hollander in Pennsylvania will join us and walk out also," said Martina Vasquez, the second striker from California, in an interview.
"The solidarity here," she said, "and all the support we've gotten in California, from the union, from the AFL-CIO, financial donations and moral support from the community, and even from some politicians make us strong to hold out as long as it takes. Very few people have crossed our picket lines."
"This is payback time from the support we got around the country last summer," said Randal Preddie, a truck driver at the Tartan Textile industrial laundry. Preddie was one of the shop floor leaders of a strike by UNITE against that company last year. Through that action workers won a modest pay raise and "more dignity and respect on the job," as this unionist put it. Preddie and other Tartan Textile workers traveled to other company plants last year, organizing solidarity walkouts in New York and elsewhere. These were part of the success of the walkout at Pompano Beach.
Other workers present expressed similar sentiments. Unions represented at the rally included the United Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees International Union.
Speakers at the rally included Carlos Carrillo of the AFL-CIO; Antonio Perdomo, UNITE local president at Fishman Tobin; Dan Liftman, assistant to state congressman Alcee Hastings; Rabbi Sam Silver; Bruce Jay of the South Florida Interfaith Committee for Workers Rights; and representatives of two area chapters of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Argiris Malapanis is a meat packer in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.