The United Workers Association is a human rights organization led by low-wage workers in Maryland in the United States. The organization was founded in 2002 by a group of homeless men and women in Baltimore. In 2004 the United Workers Association launched a campaign to secure living wages at the Oriole Park at Camden Yards, targeting Baltimore Orioles team owner Peter Angelos by demanding that he pay cleaners a living wage.
In 2007 the United Workers Association won its demand for living wages at Camden Yards. On August 15, 2007, the organization announced that 11 workers and 4 allies would go on hunger strike starting September 3, 2007. Governor Martin O'Malley responded by announcing his support of living wages at the stadium, and on September 3, 2007, the hunger strike was postponed, pending an upcoming meeting of the Maryland Stadium Authority. On September 6, 2007, the Maryland Stadium Authority voted to pay cleaners the Maryland state living wage rate of $11.30 an hour, up from the current $7.00 an hour. Later that day the United Workers Association announced that the hunger strike was called off in response to the victory.
The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter teams in 1901, the franchise spent its first year as a major league club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to St. Louis, Missouri, to become the St. Louis Browns in 1902. After 52 years in St. Louis, the franchise was purchased in November 1953 by a syndicate of Baltimore business and civic interests led by attorney and civic activist Clarence Miles and Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. The team's current owner is American trial lawyer Peter Angelos.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, often referred to as just Oriole Park or Camden Yards, is a Major League Baseball (MLB) ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland. Home to the Baltimore Orioles, it is the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s. It was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial Stadium.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the sixth largest trade union in the United Kingdom. Most of its members work in UK government departments and other public bodies.
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum. Needs are defined to include food, housing, and other essential needs such as clothing. The goal of a living wage is to allow a worker to afford a basic but decent standard of living through employment without government subsidies. Due to the flexible nature of the term "needs", there is not one universally accepted measure of what a living wage is and as such it varies by location and household type. A related concept is that of a family wage – one sufficient to not only support oneself, but also to raise a family.
Justice for Janitors (JfJ) is a social movement organization that fights for the rights of janitors across the US and Canada. It was started on June 15, 1990 in response to the low wages and minimal health-care coverage that janitors received. Justice for Janitors includes more than 225,000 janitors in at least 29 cities in the United States and at least four cities in Canada. Members fight for better wages, better conditions, improved health-care, and full-time opportunities.
Light RailLink is a light rail system serving Baltimore, Maryland, United States, as well as its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Maryland Transit Administration. In downtown Baltimore, it uses city streets. Outside the central portions of the city, the line is built on private rights-of-way, mostly from the defunct Northern Central Railway, Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad and Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway.
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. This strike finally ended some 69 days later, after it was put down by unofficial militias, the National Guard, and federal troops. Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers in numerous other cities, in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, into Illinois and Missouri, also went out on strike. An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country. In Martinsburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and other cities, workers burned down and destroyed both physical facilities and the rolling stock of the railroads—engines and railroad cars. Local populations feared that workers were rising in revolution such as the Paris Commune of 1871.
The Camden Yards Sports Complex is located in the center of Baltimore, Maryland. The complex is composed of multiple buildings and stadiums including Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. The two stadiums are home to the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball and the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. The complex still houses the recently closed Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards. Along with the Sports Legends Museum, the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum is located approximately two blocks from the main entrance of Camden Yards at Eutaw Street. Geppi's Entertainment Museum is also located in Camden Station, atop the Sports Legends at Camden Yards. In addition to the sports facilities, it is also a location for community events such as the Dew Tour's Panasonic Open in June 2007 and 2008, the Baltimore Marathon, and the African American Festival which is held every year.
Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards was a non-profit sports museum in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, owned and operated by the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum. It opened on May 14, 2005, with the daughter of celebrated baseball player Babe Ruth in attendance. After ten years of operation the museum closed abruptly on October 12, 2015 after failing to reach an agreement with the Maryland Stadium Authority for the continued use of Camden Station. The 22,000-square-foot (2,044 m2) museum was adjacent to the main gate of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and had artifacts and interactive exhibits profiling Maryland’s sports history. Exhibits included such area teams as the Baltimore Orioles, Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Colts, Maryland Terrapins, Baltimore Elite Giants, Baltimore Black Sox, and the Baltimore Blast.
The Maryland Stadium Authority, MSA, was created by Chapter 283, Acts of 1986 Maryland General Assembly. Its initial mission was to return the National Football League (NFL) to Baltimore. Maryland sought a new football team after former Baltimore Colts owner, Robert Irsay, moved the Colts out of the city in the middle of a snowy night on March 29, 1984. The Authority is a public corporation of Maryland which is authorized to issue tax-exempt bonds for financing its operations. The proceeds from the sale of those bonds and any other revenues collected are deposited in the Maryland Stadium Authority Financing Fund.
Ridgely's Delight is an historic residential neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Its borders are formed by Russell and Greene Streets to the east, West Pratt Street to the north, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from the western to southern tips. It is adjacent to the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and M&T Bank Stadium. It is situated a short walk from MARC Train and the Light Rail's Camden Station, which has made it a popular residence of Washington, D.C. and suburban Baltimore commuters. It is within a 5-minute walk of both Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium and a 10-minute walk from Baltimore's historic Inner Harbor.
Camden Station, now also referred to as Camden Street Station, Camden Yards, and formally as the Transportation Center at Camden Yards, is a train station at the intersection of South Howard and West Camden Streets in Baltimore, Maryland, and is adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It is served by MARC commuter rail service and local Light Rail trains. Camden Street Station was originally built beginning in 1856, continuing until 1865, by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as its main passenger terminal and early offices/ headquarters in Baltimore and is one of the longest continuously-operated terminals in the United States. Its upstairs offices were the workplace of famous Civil War era B&O President John Work Garrett (1820–1884). The station and its environs were also the site of several infamous civil strife actions of the 19th century with the Baltimore riot of 1861, on April 18–19, also known as the Pratt Street Riots and later labor strife in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Tom Kertes is an American-born Canadian human rights activist.
Baltimore's Marching Ravens are the official marching band of the Baltimore Ravens American football team. They were founded as the Baltimore Colts' Marching Band on September 7, 1947, and have continuously operated ever since, supporting three separate football franchises. The band first supported the original Baltimore Colts from 1947 to 1950, but continued to operate even after the franchise disbanded in 1950. After a new Baltimore Colts franchise was installed in 1953, the band became associated with the newly founded team. The band endured a second relocation when the Colts moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night in 1984, leaving Baltimore without a team for eleven years. The band became attached to a third franchise when the Cleveland Browns relocated to Baltimore in 1996 and became the Ravens. They are one of two official marching bands in the NFL, the other being the Washington Football Team's Marching Band.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 29 U.S.C. § 203 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppressive child labor". It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage.
The University of Miami Justice for Janitors campaign was a nine-week strike lasting from February 28 to May 3, 2006. It featured striking custodial workers at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida challenging UNICCO. The work action focused on achieving a living wage, affordable health insurance, and better working conditions for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) member employees.
The Fight for $15 is an American political movement advocating for the minimum wage to be raised to $15 per hour. The federal minimum wage was last set at $7.25 per hour in 2009. The movement has involved strikes by child care, home healthcare, airport, gas station, convenience store, and fast food workers for increased wages and the right to form a labor union. The "Fight for $15" movement started in 2012, in response to workers' inability to cover their costs on such a low salary, as well as the stressful work conditions of many of the service jobs which pay the minimum wage.
The New York Shipbuilding strike was a strike that occurred in the Port of Camden, New Jersey, in the spring of 1934 by the New York Shipbuilding Company. Around 3,100 men took part in the 7-week action, centered at the company's Camden, New Jersey construction yard.
The Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 involved several days of work stoppage and violence in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1877. It formed a part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, during which widespread civil unrest spread nationwide following the global depression and economic downturns of the mid-1870s. Strikes broke out along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on July 16, the same day that 10% wage reductions were scheduled.
United Voices of the World (UVW) is an independent grassroots trade union, established in 2014, with a reported membership of over 3,000.