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The Parking Attendants Rights Committee (PARC) of HERE Local 27, Parking and Service Workers Union, AFL-CIO is continuing its fight for justice for local parking attendants in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. With nearly one thousand members, representing 45% of metro DC's parking industry, Local 27, which is affiliated with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE), is well on its way to organizing the entire industry to achieve 100% union density. As part of our Campaign 2000, we expect to represent 60% of the industry by the end of the year!

Right now, we are in a critical period of union contract negotiations with the parking industry and welcome community support as contract deadlines approach. As our members take action to show their strength, solidarity and commitment to winning affordable health insurance, education benefits and fair wages, we are also supporting our brothers and sisters who are currently fighting for the right to organize at other companies, like Interparking, where workers have been organizing for over a year to win a fair and democratic process for unionizing.

If you regularly park in lots and garages in the metro area, you have probably noticed that the majority of parking attendants in Washington, D.C. are immigrants from Ethiopia, Latin America and West Africa. In their struggle to get a foothold on the economic ladder and provide better opportunities for their families, immigrants are often subjected to working conditions at odds with the ideals of humane treatment. In spite of their frequently high education backgrounds they find that the types of jobs available to them are limited in an area that has one of the highest standards of living in the country.

In 1992, many parking workers were forced to urinate in bottles brought from home because the parking company contracting with the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority did not provide any bathroom facilities or breaks. Workers contacted HERE about organizing a union. PARC was created for the campaign against unjust working conditions at metro stations. The successful organizing campaign of PARC resulted in the contractor who forced humiliating working conditions on workers to be kicked out and Penn Parking to come in. Soon after, Penn recognized that parking attendants have the right to organize a union.

In 1994, with this victory, and 3% of the industry organized, Roxie Herbekian submitted a proposal to the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union to organize the parking industry citywide. HERE Local 27 was created to provide a voice on the job for parking workers who still have their civil rights violated, are treated with a lack of respect, are poorly paid and seldom receive health or pension benefits without unionization.

Since 1994, Local 27 has successfully organized workers in nearly half of the industry in the metro area! A major victory of the organizing campaign occurred when the nearly 700 workers of Central Parking Corporation, which includes Kinney and Diplomat parking facilities, unionized in 1997.

Central Parking is aggressively expanding their operations around the globe! Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Central Parking Corporation operates one-third of the parking lots and garages in Washington, D.C. It is the largest publicly held parking and transportation-management company in the world operating over 4,700 parking facilities with over 1.6 million parking spaces. Central Parking operations span 40 states and the District of Columbia, Spain, Poland, Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, Puerto Rico, Chile, Malaysia, and the Czech Republic.

After averting a strike, Central Parking workers won a first union contract. One of the major points of contention in negotiations with Central in 1998 was its self-financed health plan. Members of Local 27 who work for other union companies get their health insurance through the union. Central Parking insisted during negotiations that their workers stay with their plan. This has created many problems for members.

The family health insurance premium of $152 per month is prohibitively expensive for workers making $6.50 an hour. One would think that a company that earned revenues in 1999 of $736.5 million could use a bit more of their resources to help their dedicated employees maintain good health! Or better yet, perhaps the chairman and chief executive, Monroe J. Carell Jr., could dig into his own pockets, considering in 1999 he was worth more than $550 million!

On September 30, 2000 the two-year contract with Central Parking Corporation will expire. Again, of significant concern to our members, in addition to fair wage increases, is the costly health insurance, and education benefits. Local 27 is committed to ensuring that our members achieve a decent standard of living from a company which is clearly in a financial position to offer much better benefits.

As part of our Campaign 2000, we at HERE Local 27 are committed to fighting for getting the wages and benefits that parking workers justly deserve. Part of this strategy is what we are calling the "countdown to gridlock." We have created a website at www.countdowntogridlock.com, which will provide action alerts, information updates, and links to traffic sites. Why? Because if we need to strike, we will! We are not interested in hurting our customers and other supporters of Local 27. We just know that the struggle for justice requires taking action and we want to ensure that the community fully understands why we are doing this! Given that our membership is close to half of the industry, a strike would have an immediate impact on commuters in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. To win fair contracts, sometimes the only power available is that of withholding labor to show solidarity and strength and to demand justice!

So log on to our website at www.countdowntogridlock.com to get specific information on local actions you can participate in to support parking attendants in D.C. at Central Parking and other companies in their fight for justice! To get on the Local 27 support list, call (202) 393-7939. Join the fight!

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