On New Year’s Day, the strikers warmly greeted a solidarity visit from workers employed by another Angelica laundry plant in Los Angeles. Strikers here have also sent delegations to other Angelica plants, including in San Diego and Pomona, where many workers learned about the strike for the first time.

Angelica has 32 plants nationally, many of them in California, providing linen service to hospitals and other health-care facilities. About two-thirds of the company’s plants are organized by UNITE HERE. Workers at several other Angelica plants carried out one-day walkouts in contract fights last May. Workers in some of the company’s other laundries are seeking to unionize.

Lou Pacheco, a member of the union’s Justice Committee, scoffed at the statement reported in the press by plant manager Roscoe Morrissette that Angelica had offered a good pension plan and a 5.4 percent wage increase. Pacheco said the bosses’ initial offer was for wage raises of 10-15 cents per hour each year, which workers consider an insult. A fact sheet issued by the union reported the company’s “final offer” was for hourly wage increases of 40 cents the first year and 25 cents the second and third years, with no pension. Starting wages are $7 per hour.

Only a handful of union members have crossed the picket line, strikers report. The company is maintaining some production with temporary workers. Dozens of strikers are staffing picket lines around the clock. They said some temp workers who showed up were convinced not to cross. “The boss says this is a good place for your future,” said Augustín Cervantes, who has worked just three months at the laundry. “I’m making $7 an hour. What kind of future is that?”  
 
 
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