From the start the union members took the moral high ground in their struggle for a wage increase, a company pension plan, and dignity on the job. By drawing a line in the sand and standing up for these basic rights, workers rejected the idea that because they happen to be immigrants, women, or Black that they deserve less from the boss. And they helped strengthen other struggles by reaching out to rallies of airline workers in Los Angeles and of strikers at the Up-To-Date laundry in Baltimore.

They were even able to bring news of their struggle to members of unions from many countries at an international trade union conference in Cuba in May. Martha Bonilla, a striker from Los Angeles who was jailed for picket line activity, explained the strike and issues the workers were confronting to more than 600 participants from 58 countries, helping to bring to light the resistance of working people in the United States to the assaults by the employers and their government.

Readers of the Militant and workers in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere followed the contract struggle at Hollander with great interest. The decision of union members in Tignall, Georgia, to honor picket lines of strikers from Los Angeles for the more than two months it lasted was a singular act of solidarity that was a real blow to the company's attempt to wear down and break the strike in California. That they go back to work stronger, more united, and with deeper connections to other working people and unions is a good sign for struggles ahead.
 
 
Related articles:
Laundry workers strike for a union in Baltimore
Hollander workers approve new contract
In Los Angeles, UNITE strikers are stronger at end of walkout  
 
 
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