Workers Move Demands to Top
of Profit Chain: Cordish & GGP
November 4, 2009
Two developers control the Inner Harbor: Cordish and GGP. Both profit by turning Baltimore's core business district into a poverty zone, and both are responsible for the working conditions taking place at their developments.
That's why the over 1,000 low-wage workers at the Inner Harbor are getting organized and demanding that the developers set and enforce basic economic human rights standards at their properties. Once these demands are met, the Inner Harbor will be well on its way to being a "Human Rights Zone" for workers, their families and the entire community of Baltimore.
Today the United Workers announced demands on Cordish and GGP that would require all tenants pay workers a living wage and respect other worker human rights. Today's announcement unites all low-wage workers at the Inner Harbor, across sectors and at over two dozen employers.
Today's announcement shifts demands to the top of the Inner Harbor profit chain. Workers recently decided to make this shift to the top following the refusal of Phillips Seafood to even meet with workers, despite an open invitation by workers to face-to-face talks as part of a six month dialogue period. Instead of meeting with workers directly to resolve worker demands, Phillips managers called a mandatory meeting and told workers that the restaurant would be shut down if employees got organized.
If just getting to the table required a major fight from each employer, then workers decided it made more sense to wage that fight with the developers - covering all workers all at once.
Workers waited until the end of the 6 month period before meeting internally and discussing the next step. In October, workers voted to shift demands to the developers, tackling the entire Inner Harbor at once and holding the developers directly to account.
Specifically, workers are demanding that each Inner Harbor developer, Cordish and GGP, enter into a binding 15-year economic human rights agreement to require that tenants meet basic human rights standards in order to do business at the Inner Harbor. Standards will include paying all workers at least the state living wage, respecting workers and treating workers with dignity. In addition, developers would pay into a fund to support health care and education programs for workers and their families. Each developer would include the state living wage and worker dignity provisions in all leases at the Inner Habor properties.
Workers Act Out the Inner Harbor's "Poverty Zone" Development Model
Following today’s announcement, workers and allies made GGP and Cordish’s poverty zone models visible through a theatrical illustration of the Inner Harbor profit chain. In the performance, actors representing Developers sat on ladders holding silver platters of public money, while a crab, a sports player and a cheesecake, representing the Harbor’s three Harbor employers, exploited their workers. At the end of the performance, workers united in solidarity across restaurants to demand a right to work with dignity, right to healthcare and right to education. By encircling the developers and enveloping them in song and chants, workers and community allies forced them to come down off their pedestals and work side by side with workers to create a human rights zone at the Inner Harbor.
Because control of the harbor rests in Cordish and GGP’s hands, they are responsible for the human rights violations that take place at their establishments. Low-wage workers demand that Cordish and GGP enter into a 15 year Economic Human Rights Agreement. This agreement would require restaurants and retailers to pay the state living wage and ensure human rights standards in order to keep their lease at the harbor. In addition, developers would contribute directly to a fund that would provide health-care and education opportunities for all low-wage workers in the Inner Harbor and their families
For too long, Cordish and GGP have controlled the Inner Harbor with little regard for the impact a development dependent on low-wage, seasonal work has on the lives of workers and the city of Baltimore. Cordish, a privately owned multi-billion dollar company, has used the Inner Harbor as their model tourist development to attract more tax breaks and subsidies from struggling cities across the U.S. hoping to replicate the Inner Harbor and its promise of revitalization. This “model” fails to reveal the poverty zone that has been created by our harbor. Addressing the crowd of allies and pedestrians before the theatrical announcement, Dominic Washington, an Inner Harbor worker, called on Cordish and GGP to “be on the side of justice and ensure that every low-wage worker at the Inner Harbor has their rights respected.” |
