On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build a Union

Labor organizer Pitkin debuts with an intimate and moving account of the campaign to unionize industrial laundries in Arizona and her friendship with Alma, a laundry worker who became a fellow organizer. In 2003, Pitkin led efforts to unionize a Sodexho (now Sodexo) laundry in Phoenix where workers labored under unsafe conditions and with insufficient protections. The facility contracted with several hospitals, and workers who sorted gowns, blankets, and other soiled linens often encountered infectious bodily fluids and medical waste. (In other countries, Pitkin notes, hospital linens are sanitized by machine before workers handle them.) Presenting an up-close view of the organizing process, Pitkin describes the “underwater” phase of strategizing with a few employees before launching a union card–signing “blitz,” details Alma’s firing after a work stoppage, and documents the legal wrangling that eventually resulted in a labor contract. Throughout, Pitkin draws an extended analogy linking the biological process of metamorphosis to how union organizing transforms communities and individuals (she and Alma call each other las polillas, or the moths) and highlights the role of women workers in the American labor movement. Enriched by Pitkin’s sharp character sketches and sincere grappling with issues of class, race, and privilege, this is a bracing look at the challenges facing American workers. (Mar.)