Jobs with Justice and Teamsters 117 joined Miss Gay Seattle on Valentine’s Day, 2008 to confront Tom Douglas, owner of Palace Kitchen in Belltown, on his support of Tomlinson Linen, a company that has recently taken away good family wages and affordable health care from its workers.
Teamsters have represented the laundry industry in Seattle since the 1930's. All of the Linen companies in Western Washington are represented by the Teamsters. As a result of years of bargaining and density in the industry Teamsters 117 bargains the linen contracts based on an industry standard. These are separately negotiated agreements that follow a pattern. The pattern equalizes labor and benefit costs and forces linen industries to compete for accounts based on customer service or services. Over the years linen drivers have been able to support their families and most retire after years of service in the industry with a respectable pension and retiree healthcare.
Teamsters 117 represents 222 members in the industry. In addition to the route drivers that are represented by the Teamsters, the inside laundry workers are also unionized across the country. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and UNITE HERE share jurisdiction of the laundry industry. Here in Washington UFCW 21 represents the workers.
The driver workforce is primarily men and this is mostly because of the nature of the work. Laundry drivers lift large bags of dirty and clean linens and also provide heavy rubber mats for their customers. The work is very physically demanding and requires repeated heavy lifting. The inside workers were historically women and that is still true today. Many are immigrants. Although the inside workers are paid less than the drivers, they still receive healthcare and pension benefits. These workers also have paid vacations and overtime after 8 hours in a day. The industry has become a safe place to work hard and earn a decent wage over the last 70 years.
Gary and Tim Tomlinson would like to change this. They see the Union as an obstacle to their efforts to make money. This is the second time the Tomlinson brothers have dabbled in the laundry business. The first time they purchased New Richmond Laundry in Seattle and tried a similar attack on the workers before they sold the company to Service Linen. This time they have purchased another company, Peerless Laundry, a community institution for decades, and tried to turn a profit by eliminating Union pensions and healthcare. Cutting their labor costs will enable them to undercut the rest of the linen industry. The Tomlinson's have also changed the industry practice by attempting to steal customers from other companies and forcing customers to sign contracts for service. Although this may seem like a common practice for most industries, this has never been the climate in the laundry industry. Tomlinson has also extended long lines of credit to restaurant owners to lure them to the company.
The attack on worker pay, healthcare, and pensions will ultimately trickle down to the bargaining table at our other laundries. Without strong contracts other linen companies will be forced to cut pay and benefits to compete. This is another race to the bottom for our members that will not only affect the Teamsters but will also impact the inside laundry workers.
