| Low-wage
Workers to Declare Inner Harbor a "Human Rights Zone"
October 20, 2008
LOW-WAGE
WORKERS TO DECLARE INNER HARBOR A "HUMAN RIGHTS ZONE"
Low-wage Workers
to Extend and Expand Camden Yards Living Wages Victory
For immediate
release
Contact: Ashley
Hufnagel
Office: 410-522-1053
Cell: 443-977-3531
Email: ashley@unitedworkers.org
On Saturday October
25, 2008 at 12 noon the United Workers will announce a major
campaign to secure wage, education and health care demands
for every low-wage worker at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The
announcement will be held on Inner Harbor grounds.
Beneath the shiny
exterior of the city's leading tourist attraction are worker
and other human rights violations, including poverty wages,
lack of health care and few chances to upgrade skills through
education and training opportunities. Low-wage workers from
Camden Yards will join low-wage workers at the Inner Harbor
to symbolically plant a "Human Rights Zone" flag
on the Inner Harbor and start the process for developing specific
demands to improve working conditions. Demands will eventually
be extended to every low-wage worker at Baltimore's leading
tourist retail and resturaunt attraction.
"After securing
the living wage at Camden Yards, we decided to extend and
expand the victory to include more low-wage workers in the
city," said Bennie Witherspoon, a leader in the United
Workers and cleaner at Camden Yards. "We learned through
talking with workers at the Inner Harbor that they were experiencing
many of the same human rights violations that we experienced
at the stadium."
The United Workers
is a human rights group founded by homeless day laborers in
Baltimore to secure economic rights for all low-wage workers,
including the right to freedom from poverty.
Media
Visuals:
- Large yellow
"Human Rights Zone" flag to be symbolically planted
on Inner Harbor
grounds
- Low-wage workers
from the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards
- Black and yellow
signs with human rights messages
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