This morning, our News Department did a report on the efforts of the United Workers Association to organize day laborers who are employed by temp agencies to be cleaners at Camden Yards.
Those temp agencies are hired by a company called Knight Facilities Management that is based in Michigan. KFM was hired by the Maryland Stadium Authority to handle all staffing of cleaning crew at Camden Yards.
The United Workers Association argues that the Maryland Stadium Authority is using public money to create poverty level jobs while ensuring the profits of two private temp agencies. They also have directed many of their organizing efforts at trying to reform the temp agency system itself.
Just Words has been reporting on the human toll of this issue since December. We began with a three part series about a stadium cleaner named Jaquetta Lyles that you can listen to here, here, and here. Then, in March, for a special report on The Marc Steiner Show, we spoke with the owner of one of the temp agencies, a worker, and an organizer for a special report we aired when Tom Perez, the Secretary of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation came for an interview. You can listen to that report here.
This particular issue really is just a small part of the larger issue of temp agencies and whether they need to undergo extensive reform and government regulation. I hope you find these reports interesting.
-Jessica Phillips
