United Workers Association Inc

The United Workers is decade-old human rights 501c3 organization led by the poor to end poverty. United Workers was founded in 2002 in an abandoned firehouse turned homeless shelter. Since our beginning we understood the need to build worker and community power by organizing against the political and economic structures that perpetuate poverty. From 2004 through 2008 we organized homeless temporary workers who cleaned Camden Yards stadium. We succeeded at raising wages from $4/hour in 2004 to the current living wage of $12.91/hour and developed a large grouping of low-wage worker leaders.

In Fall 2008 we launched the Fair Development Campaign to hold accountable developers, employers, city development agencies, and city leaders for a failed development model that subsidizes wealthy developers without human rights standards. We fought to ensure work with dignity, healthcare, education, and that communities are able to meet their needs. In 2011 we began organizing Human Rights Committees across Baltimore and Maryland. These committees have developed human rights campaigns and leadership in almost half of all Maryland counties.

As a result, we won several significant victories over the last year. ESPNZone workers finally won its class-action lawsuit against ESPNZone and Disney for violating federal WARN Act when their Inner Harbor restaurant shutdown without notice in 2010. Our larger Fair Development Campaign won a labor agreement with Caesar’s Casino for a fair process to organize. And Our youth-led Stop the Incinerator Campaign held an important community march against what would be the nation’s largest incinerator.