This Wednesday, November 13, former ESPN Zone workers held a press conference to finally declare victory over Disney, after a three-year legal battle over wages and severance packages. Just before the press conference, a judge approved a $230,000 settlement between the workers and the Disney subsidiary, ESPN Zone. “I feel jubilant,” said former ESPN Zone host Emanuel McCray. “It’s been a long battle, with so many hours and hard work.”
On June 16, 2010, the Inner Harbor ESPN Zone abruptly closed its doors, laying off roughly 140 workers without notice. Former workers were forced to move from their homes or take their kids out of day care. At least two former employees were stricken with cancer and now face growing health care debt, having lost health insurance when ESPN Zone closed. The workers organized and sued the Walt Disney Company in October 2010, alleging violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, a federal law requiring companies to provide 60 days’ notice before closing. The workers sought back pay owed under the Act. Over two years later, on January 3, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake announced that the former ESPN Zoneworkers were not adequately compensated when the Disney subsidiary closed its doors. The final hearing took place just before this week’s press conference. The workers are expected to receive compensation in the coming months.
The victory for the ESPN Zone workers is important, but it is only the beginning. Since 2008, the United Workers has documented ongoing human rights abuses at the Inner Harbor, including chronic wage theft, abusive working conditions, a widespread lack of health insurance and sick days, and a failure to respond adequately to workplace injuries. The United Workers calls for Fair Development, which puts community needs first, provides living wage jobs for Baltimore residents, and respects workers’ rights to unionize.The Fair Development Campaign Responds to Inner Harbor 2.0 Plan
In response to the city’s Inner Harbor 2.0 plans, which were unveiled this week, the United Workers and the Fair Development Campaign sent out the following press release.
Leaders of the Fair Development Campaign look forward to examining the city’s Inner Harbor 2.0 plan, which calls for the use of state money to update the Inner Harbor tourist zone, to ensure that public subsidies are tied to transparent and accountable benchmarks for worker rights.
Over the last year, the Fair Development Campaign—including the United Workers, a Baltimore-based human rights organization, and Unite Here Local 7—supported the successful effort for a “labor peace” agreement at the new Baltimore Casino and opposed theHarbor Point Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Project, because of the lack of worker protections, transparency, and accountability. The Fair Development Campaign will be scrutinizing the Inner Harbor 2.0 project and fight, if necessary, to make sure that public subsidies result in concrete benefits for workers in the Inner Harbor.
In 2010-11, the United Workers surveyed workers at Inner Harbor restaurants and retailers, and revealed a culture where workers were forced to work off-the-clock, accept unlawful tipping arrangements, work through injuries and illness, go without health care, endure sexual harassment, and apply for public assistance because of low wages and work hours. The United Workers documented the workplace conditions in a 40-page report entitled Hidden In Plain Sight: Workers At Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and the Struggle for Fair Development.
“The original promise of the Inner Harbor never trickled down to workers,” said Luis Larin, United Workers Organizer, who surveyed dozens of workers for the 2011 report. “Public subsidies were given out without any accountability. We hope this does not continue in Inner Harbor 2.0.”
