Workers lead campaign for justice
By
Bob Traynham
Stevan Kirschbaum
Boston
Published Apr 14, 2005 10:07 PM
The
maintenance workers at Bromley Heath, Boston’s largest public housing
development, are taking their campaign for contract justice and fairness for the
residents to the streets of Boston in a mass day of solidarity scheduled for
Saturday, April 16.
Bromley Heath maintenance workers.
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The workers, members of SEIU Firemen and Oilers, Local
3, are seeking fair increases in wages and benefits for their families and
improvements in the contract in order to end management’s unjust and
discriminatory practices that endanger the workers’ health and
safety.
They are also demanding fairness for the over 1,500 tenants who,
like other public housing residents throughout the country, face deteriorating,
dismal conditions as a result of massive federal housing cuts and decades of
city neglect.
Organized by the recently formed Bromley Heath Workers Rank
and File Committee and co-sponsored by their union, the solidarity day is
designed to put a spotlight on their issues, build solidarity for their contract
struggle and lay the basis for a city-wide campaign against public housing
cuts.
The activity has been endorsed by a broad array of community, labor
and political activists, including Boston City Councilors Chuck Turner and Felix
Arroyo, the Greater Boston Labor Council, Boston School Bus Union, International
Action Center, New England Human Rights for Haiti, Women’s Fight Back
Network and the Bolivarian Circle. The day of solidarity will start with a rally
at 11:00 a.m. at Heath and Bickford streets, followed by a march through the
community led by a mobile sound and stage truck. It will end with a
union-sponsored barbecue for the community in a park at Bromley
Heath.
Workers fight for contract justice
After over two
years of negotiations, the Tenant Management Corporation (TMC) continues to
refuse to agree to the workers’ demands for a new contract. Bromley Heath
(BH) is one of Boston’s largest housing developments and one of its
poorest as a result of decades of racist neglect. All the tenants are people of
color.
Only 30 workers, also Black and Latino, maintain the buildings and
grounds and repair and refurbish the apartments and common areas. They are
highly skilled professionals—painters, carpenters, laborers and
custodians—who are paid outrageously below industry standards and much
less than what their counterparts in the building trades unions get.
This
is racism, pure and simple.
They serve the community under the worst
conditions: understaffed, overworked and lacking adequate resources. TMC
illegally and unjustly directs them to perform hazardous duties—such as
cleaning up human waste, blood products and medical syringes—without
proper training or protective gear. They work under a management regime that is
characterized by unjust discipline, unfair promotions, arbitrary actions
regarding vacation and sick time, denial of seniority and other union rights,
and obstruction of the grievance procedure.
The workers say that TMC runs
a “temporary worker” hiring scam, firing and rehiring when the
probationary period expires, to circumvent the recognition section of the
contract. This violates the rights of the workers and the union.
Support for community control
A unique feature of this
struggle is the issue of the TMC. Bromley Heath is the only tenant-managed
housing development in Boston and one of the few throughout the country. The
community won this vital concession in 1967 as a result of years of hard-fought
battles.
The Bromley Heath workers stand 100 percent in support of this
important gain for community control. In fact, when the TMC was the target of a
racist attack recently and was removed by the Boston Housing Authority, the
Bromley Heath workers added their support to the community’s successful
campaign for its restoration.
It is therefore ironic and regrettable that
the TMC is now playing a part in the unjust treatment of the workers. In fact,
since the organizing began for the day of solidarity, management has embarked on
an ugly cam paign of retaliation against the workers and their leaders. There
has been a wave of unjust discipline, written warnings, threatened suspensions
and terminations.
“Temporary” workers pictured on a leaflet
and poster say they have been threatened. Harassment by management, they say,
has escalated, particularly from two of the white supervisors, one of whom is a
former prison guard.
Justice for workers and residents
The
struggle of the workers for economic justice, dignity and respect is one with
the community’s struggle for justice. The workers have deep roots in the
community. Some have grown up in the development and have family, friends and
loved ones living there now. Members of the Rank and File Committee have strong
bonds with the residents.
They constantly struggle against
management’s order to “just finish the job quick” in order to
guarantee that quality repairs are done. They host workshops to train tenants in
home repair and aid other tenants’ rights and community endeavors. The
workers’ contract demands will concretely improve conditions for the
residents.
The Rank and File Committee has made the struggle for economic
justice for BH tenants and public housing generally a key element of their
campaign. They are calling for a fightback against Bush’s federal cuts in
housing.
Boston’s public housing has been a victim of cutbacks from
Washington administrations, Democratic and Republican alike. Now, things are
slated to get even worse. “If the changes sought by the administration
take effect, they will result in one of the biggest cuts since Wash ing ton
first began subsidizing housing: as much as $480 million, or 14 percent, of the
$3.4 billion federal budget for day-to-day operations, including labor,
maintenance, insurance and utilities, at the nation’s 3,100 housing
authorities.” (“U.S. Plans New, Deep Cuts in Housing Aid,” New
York Times, April 8)
At a time when Bush and the war-makers are spending
billions on criminal wars of conquest, public housing must be included as a
domestic casualty of war. What the Pentagon spends in one week on the wars
against Iraq and Afghanistan would provide more than the funds necessary to
bring every public housing unit in Boston up to code.
Rank and File
Committee is key
The BH Rank and File Committee was formed only one
month ago. In that short time they have revitalized their union and waged an
impressive campaign for justice for the workers and tenants at BH.
They
have issued leaflets and held near-daily forums in the maintenance lunchroom.
They have expanded their steering committee to include all the constituencies
within the local.
Local 3 staff members now meet daily with the committee
and are filing grievances and unfair labor practice charges that address the
workers’ concerns. Local 3 has now formally added the committee’s
leaders to the negotiating committee. The union played a key role when a
delegation of seven leaders of the Rank and File Committee attended an April 5
meeting of the Greater Boston Labor Council that resulted in a unanimous
resolution of support for their struggle and the day of solidarity. It sent out
a mailing the next day to all affiliates, urging members to attend.
The
committee has met many difficult and complex challenges while building the
struggle for public housing rights and contract justice from the TMC while
defending community control against racist forces in the city. Their
mobilization for the demon stration is progressing at a fever
pitch.
Workers are going door to door, leafleting supermarkets and subway
stations and postering everywhere. A Latina teacher at a neighborhood school
told one worker that she was so moved by the campaign that she is organizing
everyone she knows to attend the day of solidarity. BH committee leaders have
given weekly updates at International Action Center mobilizer meetings, where
solidarity support is being organized.
The day of solidarity is just the
first step in the workers’ campaign for justice. They are determined to
fight until victory is won. Messages of support and solidarity can be sent to
Bromley Heath Workers Rank and File Committee, P.O. Box 413, Jamaica Plain, MA
02130.
Traynham and Kirschbaum are steward and chief
steward, respectively, with USWA 8751, Boston school bus drivers’
union.
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