The strikers are inviting all their supporters, friends, and other workers from surrounding laundries to a May 18 victory celebration.

About one-third of the workers walked off the job on December 5 after the owner Gabriel Blau refused to negotiate a contract with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). He claimed that he couldn’t afford to meet the workers’ demands.

The workers organized pickets every single day of the strike. The laundry operated at only half-capacity during most of the strike, running four hours a day. Many who stayed on the job were fired or laid off. Juana González, a striker and presser for two years making minimum wage, pointed out, "Our fight is for those who worked inside too. They were intimidated by the company to not join us. Now they are with us." Two of the company’s main clients, the Helmsley and Continental hotels, canceled their business with Flex-O-Tex.

In late April the company was sold and the new owners changed the name to Rainbow Laundry. Blau stayed on as an associate. The new owners accepted the workers’ demands but insisted that all the strikers, some of whom have worked at the laundry for many years, must come back as new hires. Workers and supporters held a rally in front of Rainbow on May 1 to protest this attack on their seniority rights. Later that same day the company gave up and arranged for a meeting to sign a contract.

"During our rally on May Day, they even came out to ask us to get back to work that same day! They made a lot of promises to us but we said no. We told them: sign the contract and then we work," stated Maritza Córdoba, a leader of the strike.

According to Córdoba, a presser for 10 years who makes $7.32 an hour, the new contract includes general agreements on substantial wage increases, medical insurance, paid vacations, and sick days. Many workers making minimum wage will automatically receive a 50-cents-an-hour raise to bring them into line with the hourly starting wage of other unionized laundries of $6. Under the new contract, overtime hours will be paid at time and a half. Before the strike any overtime work was at regular pay. The union’s contract demands have been for a 75 percent wage increase in the first year, 45 percent the second year, and 40 percent the third year as part of a three-year agreement.

These raises are currently under negotiation, along with establishing a regular work schedule of two shifts with no mandatory overtime.

"This is an important victory for us but we still have a fight going on inside," said Córdoba. "Besides raises and benefits, we want better working conditions. There is still no drinking fountain, no clean bathrooms, no lunch room, and not even a place where you can heat up your lunch! This must change!"

Right now workers heat their meal on top of the machines they operate. This ongoing fight is "all part of winning respect and dignity," noted Perez. "They also need a mechanic to fix leaks off the machines so we don’t work on puddles of water."

A worker in the washing department who didn’t walk out commented in an interview outside the plant that "there is now an improvement because through the strike they have won respect and confidence in themselves. The new owner treats us a little better." He had decided not to walk out after the boss threatened to fire him.

During the strike, the workers won support from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a housing advocacy group, the Bronx Environmental Action Coalition, the San Geronimo and St. Luke’s Roman Catholic churches in the Bronx, and other community organizations.

All but one of the strikers are women from Latin American countries. Most are from the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

Through the course of their five-month fight, the Flex-O-Tex strikers reached out for support. They sent a delegation of half a dozen workers to participate in a festive march and rally of 1,000 striking nurses on Long Island in February. The nurses were later victorious, winning a favorable contract. UNITE-organized workers at Princeton Laundry, located across the street, participated in several of their rallies as well. This victory at Rainbow Laundry is part of other successful organizing drives by UNITE of industrial laundries in the last year and a half in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area.

Expressing the confident mood of many of the workers, Córdoba noted, "In this union fight the company makes promises and talks pretty but talk is for the politicians. We want results. We aren’t begging on our knees either. We’re talking huelga (strike) if they still don’t meet our demands."

Bill Estrada is meat packer and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 342 in New York.  
 
 
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