Imelda Gutierrez folds heavy blankets and towels for a living, earning $7.95 an hour. When she was five months pregnant, she had to use the bathroom frequently and said her supervisors didn't allow it, suggesting she leave her job instead.
Gutierrez and four other workers from Superior Health Linens told their stories to county and city officials, including Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, Wednesday evening during a panel discussion convened by County Board Chairman Scott McDonell.
Superior Health Linens is a laundry service dedicated to the health care industry and has a contract with St. Mary's Hospital.
Dane County dropped its $50,000 contract with Superior to launder clothes worn by residents of Badger Prairie Health Care Center in Verona after it could not document that it paid workers the county's living wage, McDonell said. County officials were also concerned that the company did not notify them that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had cited it for worker safety violations in May 2006.
McDonell said even though the county no longer has a contract with Superior Health Linens, he decided to convene the forum to bring the workers' problems out into the open.
Carlos Torres, whose wife has health problems that prevent her from working, supports his wife and two children on less than $10 an hour. His take-home pay is $1,200 a month.
"Life is difficult," he told a group of about 50 people at the Concourse Hotel. "My salary is not enough to support my family. We have to go to food pantries to make it."
Workers detailed dirty working conditions and how they wear no special uniforms to sort and launder health care linens soiled with blood, excrement and urine.
Torres, who has worked for the company for almost eight years, told of how he got pricked by a needle while operating a dryer at work a year and a half ago. He doesn't have health insurance and his supervisors didn't send him to a doctor.
The Latino workers, who spoke through interpreters, said they would like to form a union but are intimidated by management.
Unite Here - a New York-based labor union representing 50,000 laundry workers nationwide - has been trying to help workers organize since March 2006.
The union seeks to improve what it calls dangerous and dirty working conditions that have exposed workers to infection by blood-borne illnesses.
"The workers deserve it and want it and we will win one," said David Unger, the lead local organizer for Unite Here.
"From everything that we've heard and what workers have said here tonight, things have to change. It's unacceptable that workers who do laundry for hospitals and sick people can't afford health insurance. It's one of the most basic injustices," he said.
But in a press release, the company said that Unite Here has "hustled and harassed" its employees for more than a year.
"The employees of Superior have told the union over and over they want nothing to do with the union. Instead of listening to the employees, the union has embarked on a campaign to harass our customers to the point of quitting the business relationship. The union claims their motive is to help our employees - how does lost business help our employees?"
The Madison company said it believes its employees have a right to unionize. "We also believe in the employee's freedom to say no. Superior's employees have said no!" the company said in the release.
Superior Health Linens, 2905 Syene Road, said in the release that its facilities are clean and safe, "a fact supported by OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and Superior customers who regularly tour the facility."
The company also said it offers competitive wages, health insurance and a 401(k) program with a company match.
Nevanka Cortes, who attended the forum, has worked for competitor Madison United Healthcare Linen for three years. She makes $11.58 an hour, has access to health insurance through her job and is represented through a union.
"It's very unjust their conditions. They do the same kind of work that we are doing, they launder for hospitals," Cortes said through an interpreter. "They are paid so low and with very few benefits. It's a shame that it is such a long struggle for them to get a union in there."
E-mail: skalk@madison.com