Public Employee Press

Sodexo's HHC linen workers voting on union

About 80 linen distribution workers in the city Health and Hospitals Corp. can vote in March for DC 37 to represent them. The National Labor Relations Board will mail ballots around March 9 and count them on March 20.

HHC once employed hundreds of Local 420 members to wash, fold, and distribute hospital linens and medical scrub suits. But in August 2011, after DC 37 waged a decade-long battle that kept Brooklyn Central Laundry alive, HHC shuttered BCL and contracted out its work and the task of distributing clean linens in HHC hospitals to the largely nonunion Sodexo Inc.

In September DC 37 launched an organizing campaign to represent the linen distribution workers, who get $15 an hour from Sodexo with limited benefits. Most work between 35 and 37 hours a week and some look to overtime on 12-hour shifts to make ends meet.

"Some younger workers don't fully understand what a union does and why it's needed," DC 37 Organizer Ramon Marrero said. "When we explained that they would not have to be intimidated by management and could negotiate as equals, they were eager to sign on."

There were few obstacles to DC 37's organizing plan. Sodexo had allowed the Civil Service Employees Association to begin organizing the linen workers, but since DC 37 represents almost all nonuniformed city workers and almost all HHC employees, CSEA withdrew and helped DC 37 by providing workers' names.

"It's always good to have representation," said Queens Hospital Linen Distributer Christian Hinton. "Some of the conditions at work I was not feeling, and I hope the union will take care of these problems. I signed on because DC 37 has a reputation for its good benefits and I prefer to be part of a union."

"We filed for the election with a super-majority of the eligible workers signing DC 37 cards," Organizing Director Mario Rodriguez said. "With DC 37 as their union, these Sodexo workers will join the thousands of HHC workers already in DC 37 in negotiations to win better pay and benefits and to protect their jobs."