Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 5, 1995 TAG: 9507060042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN GALVIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: Medium
Linda Byrd is the future of organized labor.
The 41-year-old grandmother cleans offices at the state's World Trade Center for minimum wage, no benefits.
Although she works at a public facility, she's employed by a private contractor, a byproduct of government's efforts to cut costs.
Her gap-toothed smile vanishes as she ticks off what she pays for rent at her subsidized apartment, groceries and other essentials.
At the end of the month, she has $7 in hand.
``Believe me it's not easy,'' she says. ``You gotta really squeeze.''
Labor leaders are seeking to organize low-paid service workers and women and minorities like Byrd in an attempt to regain some of the influence they have lost with the shift from an industrial to a service economy.
They are using as a model a successful campaign by labor and church leaders for a ``living wage'' ordinance requiring that anyone paid under a city contract earn enough to keep a family of four above the poverty line.
The campaign began after a church group, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, noticed an increase in people with jobs using its soup kitchens.
The group joined with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to form the Solidarity Sponsoring Committee, a group of low-wage workers, many of whom receive public assistance, to fight for better wages.
``It's an association that's being built amongst a community of workers that historically have slipped through the cracks,'' said Patti Edwards Devlin of AFSCME.
``Folks that are working for their poverty are now building a community and educating themselves, and taking action,'' Devlin said.
The committee is working with a Maryland governor's task force to institute a living wage provision in state contracts.
New York City may follow suit.
The bottom line is that if you work, you shouldn't be poor, Devlin said. Especially if you're paid with public funds.
Byrd would like to take her 6-year-old grandson to Baltimore's National Aquarium or a baseball game at Camden Yards.
But with wages of $4.25 an hour, she can't afford the city's attractions.
A visit to the aquarium would cost the two $19 - more than a night's work.
Byrd was surprised when an SSC organizer told her she was working in a state building.
``Believe me, I was really ticked off about that,'' she said.
That is the reaction labor leaders are looking for.
``A measure of what has happened to the American labor movement is due to a restructuring of the economy,'' said Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
``But there are many of us who believe there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of workers ready to be organized into unions.''
by CNB