EPISODE 17
April 5, 2007
"JUST
WORDS"

Welcome to Just Words—the stories of working people in our community

Becca Stapf is a waitress at my favorite breakfast place. She works there 5 days a week. She is a friendly and outgoing person.

She’s also a mother, a grandmother, and is currently working towards her associate’s degree so she can go to nursing school.

How does she manage it all?

Robert is part of a group called the United Workers Association. They are in talks with the Maryland Stadium Authority to form a worker’s co-operative and are hoping to get a living wage and better working conditions.. Robert is hopeful that changes at Camden Yards will cause changes in all the companies that hire temporary workers.

You have to start somewhere. We need some regulation on the day labor places, period. We getting to a point now where day laborer is about taking over. Every job they is using cheap labor to do work that contractors would bill them a whole lot more money then they are. Someone has to take responsibility, someone has to be held accountable. You have to start somewhere. And if we can make the administration look at it in a whole… And we use this as an example, Camden yards is an example, these are the things. And from there, it is like a tree, it is going to branch, and effect every labor company, it will effect them. Sooner or later everyone is going to take notice of these people being exploited. And that is what we are hoping for. That’s what we are hoping for.

Next Tuesday at one o’clock on the marc Steiner show we’ll be talking with Maryland’s new secretary of Labor Licensing and Regulation. We’ll raise these issues with him-don’t miss it.

Just words is a production of the Center for Emerging Media, produced by Jessica Phillips, through a grant from OSI-Baltimore: investing in solutions to Baltimore’s toughest problems, with audacious thinking for lasting change, on the web at OSI-Baltimore.org.
Visit JUST WORDS on the web at centerforemergingmedia.org, or
email us, at justwords@wypr.org

I’m Marc Steiner, thanks for listening, to "Just Words".

Music: “Take me out to the Ballgame” by Ronnie Neuman